 In February 2006, faced with the arrival of "constructed response" as a new addition to our state tests, we brought together a small group of innovative teachers representing all grade levels
We asked these teachers to spend the spring learning how to teach their students how to construct answers to reading passages that would do well if assessed by the state test's CR rubric.
The goal of these teachers' work was to gather enough wisdom to begin a website where any teacher could come to not only access for free the classroom resources we created but also nuggets of wisdom from teachers who'd successfully taught constructed response to their students.
 During this project, we learned about ourselves and about our students as writers. This page is where we have posted and will continue to post constructed response materials for any teacher to access and use.
We thank the following teachers from that original cadre: Denise Boswell, Kim Cuevas, Jim Frost, Corbett Harrison, Trish Lucas, Sandy Madura, Kristi Pettengill, Kim Polson, Liz Schroeder, Sherri Urban, and Bonnie Vogler.
Topic 1: Crafting Constructed Response Questions
One of the things that quickly became apparent when our Constructed Response Cadre started working on drafting constructed response questions was how difficult it is to craft a really good question. We all agreed that drafting questions that require students to really think and make connections was important. After all, if the students are going to take the time to write a response, and you are going to take the time to read and grade that response, make them think!
Below, find several resources we've assembled to help teachers craft better Constructed Response questions:
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "Students who understand the question being asked will shine in their responses. We must teach the vocabulary needed to accomplish the goal. Vocabulary examples: Describe three ways...; Predict how...; Solve and explain...; Identify and explain..."
--Sue Savage, Anderson ES
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Topic 2: Teaching Students to Construct Answers
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "The most helpful thing to me when teaching Constructed Response was starting with a piece of text very familiar to the students. We did CRs on the Nevada symbols, which we had already learned about. Students were more focused on answering the question than not understanding the new content."
--Sherri Urban, Winnemucca ES
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There are many ways to help students learn to craft quality constructed responses. It's important to remember that the key is that students MUST demonstrate comprehension of the text through their responses. That means that their responses do not have to be grammatically sound, nor especially well written. They simply need to answer all parts of the question correctly.
There are, however, tools that we can provide for our students that will help them organize their thinking to better answer a constructed response question. Having tools that students can use often makes them more comfortable when faced with a constructed response item on a test. Below find the tools we offer here at WritingFix:
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "Periodically incorporate Constructed Response passages related to student interest (skateboarding, Pokemon, etc.) versus standards. It keeps them guessing and builds buy-in."
--Jen Garrett, Mendive MS |
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "1. Start at the beginning of the year and just do it. Build CR into your schedule as a routine;
"2. Model it first at least a couple of times, demonstrating different ways to answer the questions. For example, model a paragraph one time and bullets the next time;
"3. Let students use highlighters while reading CR passages so they can highlight important information."
--Marleen Rocha, Palmer ES
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Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "Begin learning about Constructed Response by writing one whole group. Read it together, go over the rubric and question together, then score it together after it's written.
"A few days later, give the same topic and ask students to complete the constructed response on their own. Have students score their own and then score another response, giving explanations to their scores according to the rubric."
--Donna Chaney, Palmer ES
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A song about Constructed Response:
 First grade teacher, Vicki Henson, shared this song she wrote to teach her primary students the parts of a Constructed Response. It can be sung to the tune "Where is Thumbkim?" or "Are You Sleeping?"
As students start singing, they hold up a fist, slowly releasing it by raising the fingers indicated during the song's two verses.
What's the point? (raise pointer finger)
What's the point?
What do you need to know?
What do you need to know?
Now tell the answer. (raise "middle man")
Now tell the answer.
Isn't that great?
Isn't that great?
Give your detail. (raise ring finger)
Give another detail. (raise pinkie)
Punch it out! (raise thumb)
Punch it out! (make a fist again)
Now you're finished.
Now you're finished.
Isn't that great?
Isn't that great?
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Topic 3: Revising Constructed Responses
Students learn best about the elements of quality writing when they have an opportunity to revise their rough drafts. To help students learn what makes a better constructed response, the CR Cadre designed the following revision tools and checklists. We suggest, when first using these, you put the students rough drafts away for a day or two before asking them to re-think their initial responses.
- Post-it Checklist, version 1 - This is a sheet of six revision checklists that--if desired--can be printed onto actual Post-It notes and used by students to evaluate their own responses and determine where they might be improved. Click here for instruction to print them on Post-It notes.
- Post-it Checklist, version 2 - This is a sheet of six revision checklists that--if desired--can be printed onto actual Post-It notes and used by students to evaluate their own responses and determine where they might be improved. Click here for instruction to print them on Post-It notes.
- Trait-based Post-it Checklist, for all students - This is a sheet of six revision checklists that--if desired--can be printed onto actual Post-It notes and used by students to evaluate their own responses and determine where they might be improved. Click here for instruction to print them on Post-It notes.
- Trait-based Post-it Checklist, for advanced students - This is a sheet of six revision checklists that--if desired--can be printed onto actual Post-It notes and used by students to evaluate their own responses and determine where they might be improved. Click here for instruction to print them on Post-It notes.
Topic 4: Assessing Constructed Responses
The best tool for assessing constructed responses is a rubric. In the CRT test booklet, our state gives each student a general rubric for responding to constructed response questions. Then, each question is assessed using a rubric designed especially for that question and passage. We encourage teachers to pattern their rubrics after the CR rubric from the state CRT. It's a sound instrument, and it helps students become more familiar with the tool that they can use on the CRT test. We like to create the rubric with students, but sometimes it's more appropriate to create the rubric before students begin to write. The key is to make sure that the rubric is in kid-friendly language that students can understand and use to assess their own work.
We also encourage you to show lots of student samples of Constructed Responses so they can see what a one would look like, a 2, and so forth.
- Rubric Template - a simple form you can use with students to create a rubric.
Six assessment suggestions from our CR Cadre:
- The rubric must match the CR question. The 3 expectations should be very close to the actual question.
- Try to see what the students see - take off the teacher hat and put on the student hat.
- Be as specific as possible. If the answer has to contain specific information, list it.
- Use the same verbs and terms from the question in the rubric.
- Watch words like "at least" or "all." These need to be supported in the text and state in the rubric.
- If the question has more than one part, the rubric needs to specifically address all parts of the question
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Our annual Constructed Response Summit is a collaborative project sponsored by the Northern Nevada Writing Project, Nevada's Northwest Regional Professional Development Program, and Washoe County's PP&A Department.
In September, teams of teacher leaders from Northern Nevada schools attend a full-day Saturday workshop. We ask these teacher teams to commit themselves to using constructed response as a classroom tool often in their classrooms, and to then share their findings with fellow staff members.
Teachers interested in earning a credit can opt to attend the two follow-up sessions--one in November, the other in April. At these follow-ups, participants bring adaptations of CR materials they've created to share whole group.
Here's the philosophy of our summit: Constructed Response is not rocket science; it's a basic comprehension tool that is beneficial to students who do it regularly. Learning CR doesn't require outside, expensive presenters to come in and train a staff. What CR requires is the diligence of a teacher who believes teaching it well and regularly is a good idea. If students learn how responding to text in this manner is a life-skill as well as test-taking skill, then our summit has achieved its intended purpose.
Below, you will find summaries of the five workshops we offer at upcoming CR Summits, as well as quotations shared with us by participants at past CR Summits.
 Summit Workshop 1: Using Ardith Davis Cole’s Right-Answer Writing to Teach CR Northern Nevada Literacy Trainers Kim Cuevas and Desiree Gray facilitate a session that demonstrates how to use the RAP framework found in Right-Answer Writing: An All-in-One Resource to Help Students Craft Better Responses. This is multi-media resource from Ardith Davis Cole that contains an easy-to-learn framework, and each attending team receives a copy of this resource to share back at their school sites.
Are you puzzled by how to teach your students to write effective constructed responses? This session will simplify your planning process and inspire you to use constructed responses as an instructional tool.
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "The weirdest thing about teaching the RAP framework for constructed response was the quick buy-in from my seventh graders. They were very eager to learn the protocol and apply it. I really thought the strict structure would turn them off, but I think in light of all the creative writing they do that can seem structureless and daunting, they enjoyed using a format that allowed their writing to look just as good as anyone else's.
"They were also very interested in learning to get the 'right answer,' even if it meant I kept forcing them back into the text over and over until they could support their answers."
--Jennifer Rice, Billinghurst MS
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 Summit Workshops 2 & 3: Using Ardith Davis Cole's Better Answers and a CR Demonstration Lesson
Northern Nevada Literacy Trainer Georgia Coulombe facilitates two sessions at our CR Summit.
One focuses on Ardith Davis Cole's Better Answers: Written Performance That Looks Good and Sounds Smart, a book that is given to each participating team at the CR Summit.
Georgia's other session is a demonstration lesson where participants assume the role of students first learning a CR format. Attendees have the opportunity to improve their understanding of the constructed response process through this demonstration that can be adapted for all 2-6th grade students. Tips on how to incorporate Houghton Mifflin strategies, improve vocabulary instruction, model comprehension strategies, and engage students will be the focus of Georgia's lesson.
 Summit Workshop 4: Constructed Response Scoring Protocols
Washoe County's Public Policy, Accountability and Assessment (PPA & A) staff members Abby Kirst and Laney Porter facilitate a guided math and reading constructed response scoring session, using the WCSD collaborative scoring protocol. This session includes teacher writing of 1, 2, and 3-point exemplars, calibration, double-scoring of student samples to a rubric, and how to deal with scoring problems.
A quote used in Abby and Laney's session:
| “The time and energy teachers spend scoring constructed response assessments collaboratively pays huge dividends in improved student learning down the road (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2006).” |
 Summit Workshop 5: ACE-ing Math, English and Science Constructed Responses
Instructional Coach Debra Bareño and Regional Trainer Holly Young facilitate a session on teaching a framework for constructed response that they designed for math, but that will also work with the other disciplines.
Are you pulling your hair out trying to fit teaching constructed response into an already too tight schedule? At the end of their session, not only will you have a clear and easy way to teach it, but you'll also leave with materials that you can use immediately in your classroom.
Click below to access Debra and Holly's materials from this session:
Overheard from a past CR Summit participant:
"A worthwhile thing I did was to have students write one constructed response for a question of their choice from the math homework--"Daily Math"--which consists of five number story problems. They did this every week and discussed them on Thursdays."
--Marcie Hahn, Winnemucca ES
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 Summit Session 6: Exit Tickets, Revision Checklists, and other on-line CR Resources
Regional Trainer Corbett Harrison facilitates a session at the CR Summit that showcases on-line resources designed to help a PLC or other collaborating group of teachers make new discoveries about Constructed Responses.
First, Corbett focuses on Exit Tickets. Past CR Summit participants who already use class exit tickets find that their students have little difficulty with CR. For this reason, this session begins with a discussion of adopting a school wide "Exit Ticket Policy."
Next, this session talks about the power of revising constructed responses as a means of teaching students about quality elements of writing that should be in their written responses.
Finally, this session will explore the variety of on-line resources on this page that can be shared with a staff that is interested in finding out more about CR.
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "Use Exit Tickets to teach CR:
- Pose a question at the beginning of a lesson;
- Students will listen better to the lesson;
- Students must write a CR that answers the question to exit.
- Post baseline scores on a class chart (no names!) that shows how their first Exit Ticket CR went.
- Set a class goal with each new Exit Ticket question."
--Johnna Ramos, Lemmon Valley ES
 Click here (or on the thumbnail picture) to view/print Johnna's interactive writing she had her third graders do when they were learning about how to write a constructed response.
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Quotes: More Bits of Wisdom Shared by CR Summit Graduates:
Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "Just like teaching a kid to ride a bike, only hold the seat and run behind the bike the first few times. Introduce Constructed Response frames to scaffold student learning, but 'let go' as soon as possible so the student can learn to take off on their own. Just like training wheels slow down a bike, a scaffold can hold back freedom to write well."
--Susan Williams, Hunsberger ES
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Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit Participant:
 "Resistant at first, I now see how even primary students--given adequate instruction, a precise format and time to practice--can do Constructed Response. Using CR has improved my students' writing and their comprehension skills as well.
"I believe that by introducing CR in the primary grades, and practicing this new skill in several areas of the curriculum throughout their school experience, students will become proficient and will increase their success rate on proficiency exams."
--Audrey Tolotti, Dunn ES
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Overheard from a 2007 CR Summit participant:
 "The hardest thing is having conversations with fellow staff. Some see the validity; others don't until they have to score it for the formatives. These conversations need to take place way before the formatives, which will allow for several things:
- time for the concept to "soak in" for teachers;
- time to discuss ways to teach CR to students
- time to evaluate student work & teaching
- being well-versed so that when CRs come, everyone knows what to do."
--Katy Scherr, Caughlin Ranch ES
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In 2006, NNWP Teacher Consultant Kristi Pettengill (at right) coordinated a project for collaborating teachers who were interested in introducing Constructed Response to their classrooms. A cadre of teachers came together to find and share techniques, and their efforts began this page of free-to-use resources at WritingFix. 
Our original 2006 Constructed Response Cadre felt it very important to post practice passages with student samples for teachers to use as they taught Constructed Response. When we encountered copyright issues, we decided to commission Sheila Stone Dill, a Northern Nevada writer and retired education specialist, to pen the nineteen leveled practice passages found on the remainder of this page. They are provided for you to use freely with your students. You may print multiple copies of the passages with no restrictions. 
