[PDF] 2021 Grade 8 English Language Arts Released Questions

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New York State administered the English Language Arts Tests in April 2021 and is now making the questions from Session 1 of these tests available for review and use. Only Session 1 was required in 2021.

New York State Testing Program

Grade 8

English Language Arts Test

Released Questions

2021
THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 In 2013, New York State (NYS) began administering tests designed to assess student performance in accordance with the instructional shifts and rigor demanded by the new New York State P-12 Learning Standards in English Language Arts (ELA). To help in this transition to new assessments, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) has been releasing a number of test questions from the tests that were administered to students across the State in the spring. This year, NYSED is again releasing 2021 NYS Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics test materials for review, discussion, and use. In February 2021, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic still forcing restrictions on all educational and learning activities statewide, NYSED submitted two federal waiver requests related to state assessment and accountability requirements. The waiver requests addressed the unique circumstances caused by the pandemic that have resulted in many students receiving some or all of their instruction remotely. Later that month, the United States Department of Education (USDE) informed states that it would not grant a blanket waiver for state assessments. However, the USDE agreed to uncouple state assessments from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability requirements so that test

results will be used solely as a measure of student learning. Additionally, it was decided that NYSED

would administer only Session 1 of the Grades 3-8 ELA and Mathematics Tests for the Spring 2021 administration and that the tests would include previously administered questions. The decision to use previously administered test questions in this extraordinary year was based on guidance from nationally recognized experts in the assessment field and was recommended in a publication from the Council of Chief State School Officers to state education departments. Reusing test questions provided the benefit of having established scale scores and stable item parameters.

Using previously administered test questions

also ensured that it will be possible to develop new test forms for 2022 and beyond. Although it was not the driver of the decision, the reuse of previously administered test questions provided an opportunity for cost savings during these unique circumstances where the instructional models used by schools varied throughout the State. For 2021, the entire Session 1 booklet is being released as this is all that students were required to take. Additionally, NYSED is providing information about the released passages; the associated text complexity for each passage; a map that details what learning standards each released question measures; and the correct response to each question. These released materials will help students, families, educators, and the public better understand the tests and NYSED"s expectations for students.

Understanding ELA Questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions are designed to assess the New York State P-12 Learning Standards in

English

Language Arts. These questions ask students to analyze different aspects of a given text, including central idea, style elements, character and plot development, and vocabulary. Almost all questions, including vocabulary questions, will be answered correctly only if the student comprehends and makes use of the whole passage. For multiple-choice questions, students select the correct response from four answer choices.

Multiple-

choice questions assess reading standards in a variety of ways. Some ask students to analyze aspects of text or vocabulary. Many questions require students to combine skills. For example, questions may ask students to identify a segment of text that best supports the central idea. To answer these questions correctly, a student must first comprehend the central idea and then show understanding of how that idea is supported.

Questions tend to require more than rote

recall or identification.

New York State P-12 Learning Standards Alignment

The alignment to the New York State P-12 Learning Standards for English Language Arts is intended to identify the analytic skills necessary to successfully answer each question. The released questions do not represent the full spectrum of how the standards should be taught and assessed in the classroom. It should not be assumed that a particular standard will be measured by an identical question in future assessments. Specific criteria for writing test questions, as well as additional assessment information, are available at http://www.engageny.org/common-core- assessments.

2021 Grade 8 ELA Test Text Complexity Metrics

For Released Questions

Selecting high-quality, grade-appropriate passages requires both objective text complexity metrics and expert judgment. For the Grades 3-8 assessments based on the New York State P-12 Learning Standards for English Language Arts, both quantitative and qualitative rubrics are used to determine the complexity of the texts and their appropriate placement within a grade-level ELA exam. Quantitative measures of text complexity are used to measure aspects of text complexity that are difficult for a human reader to evaluate when examining a text. These aspects include word frequency, word length, sentence length, and text cohesion. These aspects are efficiently measured by computer programs. W hile quantitative text complexity metrics are a helpful start, they are not definitive. Qualitative measures are a crucial complement to quantitative measures. Using qualitative measures of text complexity involves making an informed decision about the difficulty of a text in terms of one or more factors discernible to a human reader applying trained judgment to the task. To qualitatively determine the complexity of a text, educators use a rubric composed of five factors; four of these factors are required and one factor is optional. The required criteria are: meaning, text structure, language features, and knowledge demands. The optional factor, graphics, is used only if a graphic appears in the text. To make the final determination as to whether a text is at grade-level and thus appropriate to be included on a Grades 3-8 assessment, New York State uses a two-step review process, which is an industry best-practice. First, all prospective passages undergo quantitative text complexity analysis using three text complexity measures. If at least two of the three measures suggest that the passage is grade-appropriate, the passage then moves to the second step , which is the qualitative review usin g the text-complexity rubrics. Only passages that are determined appropriate by at least two of three quantitative measures of complexity and are determined appropriate by the qualitative measure of complexity are deem ed appropriate for use on the exam. For more information about text selection, complexity, and the review process please

refer to: https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-passage-selection-resources-for-grade-3-8-assessments

instruction-guidance- and -a-list-of-resources complexity-grades-9-12

Text Complexity Metrics for

2021

Grade 8 Passages

Passage Title

Word Count

Lexile

Flesch

-Kincaid

Reading Maturity Mti

Degrees of

Reading P

ower*

Qualitative

Review

Fly for Your Life 977 960L 6.0 57 Appropriate

Excerpt from River of Dreams 647 1000L 7.4 58 Appropriate Excerpt from A la Carte 826 1160L 8.4 58 Appropriate

Excerpt from Wheels of Change: How

Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With

a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) 1029 1170L 10.4 65

Appropriate

So Much Happiness 214

N/A, poem N/A, poem N/A, poem

Appropriate

Excerpt from Gadgets: Built To Not Last 327 1200L 9.9 65 Appropriate Don't Fix Your Fridge, Just Buy a New One 394 1110L 9.5 65 Appropriate

* Depending on when the passage was selected, either the Reading Maturity Metric or Degrees of Reading Power was

used as the third quantitative metric. New York State 2021 Quantitative Text Complexity Chart for Assessment and Curriculum To determine if a text"s quantitative complexity is at the appropriate grade level, New

York State uses the table below. In cases

where a text is excerpted from a large work, only the complexity of the excerpt that students see on the test is measured, not the large work, so it is possible that the complexity of a book might be above or below grade level, but the text used on the assessment is at grade level. Because the measurement of text complexity is inexact, quantitative measures of complexity are defined by grade band rather than by individual grade level and then paired with the qualitative review by an educator.

Band ATOS

Degrees of

Reading

Power Flesch-Kincaid

The Lexile

Framework

Reading

Maturity SourceRater

2 nd -3 rd

2.75 - 5.14 42 - 54 1.98 - 5.34 420 - 820 3.53 - 6.13 0.05 - 2.48

4 th -5 th

4.97 - 7.03 52 - 60 4.51 - 7.73 740 - 1010 5.42 - 7.92 0.84 - 5.75

6 th -8 th

7.00 - 9.98 57 - 67 6.51 - 10.34 925 - 1185 7.04 - 9.57 4.11 - 10.66

9 th -10 th

9.67 - 12.01 62 - 72 8.32 - 12.12 1050 - 1335 8.41 - 10.81 9.02 - 13.93

11 th -12 th

11.20 - 14.10 67 - 74 10.34 - 14.20 1185 - 1385 9.57 - 12.00 12.30 - 14.50

Source: Student Achievement Partners

Excerpt from “Fly for Your Life" by John Frizell, , 2010. Copyright © 2010 by Cricket Media. Used with permission of Carus

Publishing Company via Copyright Clearance Center.

Excerpt(s) from RIVER OF DREAMS: THE STORY OF THE HUDSON RIVER by Hudson Talbott, copyright © 2009 by Hudson Talbott.

Used by permission of G.P. Putnam"s Sons Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin

Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Excerpt(s) from A LA CARTE by Tanita S. Davis, 2008 by Tanita S. Davis. Used with permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random

House Children"s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from

by Sue Macy. Copyright ©

2011 by Sue Macy. Used with permission of the National Geographic Society via Copyright Clearance Center.

Developed and published under contract with the New York State Education Department by Questar Assessment Inc., 5550 Upper 147th

S treet West, Minneapolis, MN 55124. Copyright © 2021 by the New York State Education Department.

Session 1

Session 1

Here are some suggestions to help you do your best:

Be sure to read all the directions carefully.

Most questions will make sense only when you

. You may read the passage more than once to answer a question. When a question include s a quotation from a passage, be sure to keep in mind what you learned from reading th e whole passage. You may need to review the quotation and the passage in order to answer the question correctly. Read each question carefully and think about the answer before making yo ur choice.

Page 1

Session 1

Alan is on a volcano on Titan, a moon of Saturn. As the story opens, Alan is stranded on its summit in his space crawler. Luckily, he has brought along his mechanical wings.

Excerpt from Fly for Your Life

by John Frizell Alan knew there was no way back to the base and no way the crew there could help him remotely—the other crawler was down for maintenance. He could go down this side of the stream for 23 kilometers, to a

ځat area where the ځ

spread out and be shallow enough to cross; then go back 23 kilometers to the far side of the bridge. One problem: he would de nitely run out of air before he got there.1 lan thought of the folded ight wings he had attached to his suit. Could he across the river and then walk to the base? Some quick calculations showed it wouldn"t work. He had enough air, but the battery that powered the heater of the suit he wore to stay alive on Titan was only good for an hour, not the four-hour walk it would take to reach the base. Spacewalks were usually done trailing a power cable plugged in to the s uit. the supplemental power, he would freeze solid in 10 minutes once the battery was exhausted.2

Alan knew

and low gravity the suit made sack of cement. No one could stay aloѕ for more than 10 minutes. It would be at least a half-hour ight to the base.3 He needed more than wings alone to get back alive. the side of the crawler was a squat, black cylinder containing compressed nitrogen at

200 bar, compressed Titanian atmosphere in fact, used for cleaning gunk oٿ

crawler"s treads. Alan struggled with the bolts, working carefully in the searing cold w ith tools as brittle as glass. When he had the cylinder oٿ the sky, he put his wings on, and then took them oٿ do it without thinking about it. . . . 4

Page 2

GO ON

Session 1

He pulled the power cable out of his suit"s hip socket and, before he could change his mind, gave a sharp tug on a line that he had attached to the valve of the pressure cylinder. and then shot into the sky. A length of climbing rope he had attached to it went taut and snatched him into the air, where he was bu pouring down on him. It was like being caught under a breaking wave, pounded again a nd again by the surf. He was directly under the cylinder, using his weight and drag to beneath, blurred by the motion, made it impossible to gauge height or direction.5 Time slowed; his shuddering world narrowed to the readout of the Titan Positioning System (TPS)—the icy moon"s equivalent of GPS. Gradually, the pounding lessened as t he rate of climb shown on the readout passed its peak and began falling. Alan waited.

Just before it hit zero, he cut the rope.

dwindling to a black dot and then disappearing into the empty sky above. Now he was coasting upward, propelled by the momentum imparted to him by the nitrogen rocket. He was high in the air, but already he was slowing under the drag of the thick a tmosphere. He had to get the wings on before the downward fall began. Once he started to move with some speed, he would begin to spin and never get them on. rst wing stuck and he had to take his arm out of the loops and try again. . . .6 He was gathering speed on his way down before he got the second one on. He spread his wings and rolled into a comfortable position, soaring over the moon"s dimly lit s urface. easy curve and settled on a course for home. All he had to do was hold the wings rigid and enjoy the ride. He took an occasional

As Alan glided toward the base, he

surface and distance-to-target displays. As they unwound, an unpleasant feeling, like a t race of the frigid atmosphere outside, crept into his stomach. His elevation was dropping dangerously, with over three kilometers le to go on distance-to-target. He could see details on the surface more clearly now, because he was Alan forced himself to stay calm. Panic would mean disaster. He started wings faster, faster, faster. . . . He could feel himself li

ѕing with every beat of the

massive appendages. Faster, faster, faster. . . . His descent rate began to slow, but the muscles in his arms burned with pain. . . .9

Time stretched out endlessly.

10

Page 3

Session 1

GO ON him. He could barely feel his arms, but something made them stop gratefully fell out of the sky, wrapped in a ball of pain, with barely the strength to his wings one last time for a soѕ landing. . . .11 boomed into his helmet. It sounded like the whole station was in the control room waiting to see if he had made it.12 Alan! ALAN! Say something! Can you move? Are you receiving this?" He recognized the voice of the base leader. . . .13

As the crew li

ѕed him carefully onto a stretcher, he looked up at Titan"s hazy sky. I ew for my life today, 14

Page 4

GO ON

Session 1

Paragraphs 1 through 4 reveal that Alan is

Adiscouraged aѕer several of his ideas fail

Boverwhelmed and dismayed by his environment

Cadventurous and enjoying the current challenge

Dfocused even in a life and death situation

In paragraph 4, what is the e

It aٿ

It creates suspense by showing that the tools were missing some pieces. It adds to the setting by suggesting that the tools were re ecting light oٿ snow. It increases danger by emphasizing that the tools were breakable in the cold.

Why does Alan use the compressed nitrogen?

air. 2 3

Page 5

Session 1

GO ON

What quotation best reveals Alan"s character?

A

“As Alan glided toward the base, he

height-above-surface and distance-to-target displays." (paragraph 8) B “He could see details on the surface more clearly now, because he was so low." (paragraph 8) C “Alan forced himself to stay calm. Panic would mean disaster." (paragraph 9) D “His descent rate began to slow, but the muscles in his arms burned with pain." (paragraph 9) In paragraph 9, “appendages" refers to something that calms a person is attached slows things down is lightweight formal lighthearted humorous suspenseful 5 6quotesdbs_dbs11.pdfusesText_17

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