Dryden High School Literacy Test OSSLT Prep Guide

Dryden High School Literacy Test (OSSLT) Prep Guide Long Writing: News Report

Introduction This guide is intended to be a resource for students, teachers and parents. It has several sections covering what to expect, how these questions are marked, examples of good and bad answers with explanations as t 0 why. Throughout the guide there are suggestions, tips and hints. You can jump from section to section or go through the guide in order. We recommend visiting this guide more than once.

Table of Contents Overview Sample Question The 5 W’s How to Write a News Report Format RISC IT How it’s Marked Topic Development Writing Conventions Sample Answers Topic Dev. 10 -60 Writing Con. 10 - 40 OSSLT -speak Other Guides

OSSLT-speak Decoding the OSSLT: The OSSLT has its own special terminology. It’s important to know what their terms mean. Selection: A “selection” is the thing they have you read…it might be part of a book, a story from a magazine, something from a website, but basically it’s the thing you need to base your answers on. Prompt: The “prompt” is basically the question. For a News Report the “prompt” (headline and picture) will be the topic they want you to write about. Response: Your “response” is your answer; what you write about the “selection” in answer to the “prompt. ” Scoring: “Scoring” is the word they use for marking or grading. Your score on each question is called a Code. So if you get 30 they call it a Code 30. Conventions: Spelling, grammar, sentence structure and punctuation.

Writing: News Report Overview A News Report is one of the two major (Long) writing tasks you will see on the OSSLT. It is marked out of 100; 60 for “Topic Development” and 40 for “Writing Conventions. ” This makes it one of the two most important questions in the OSSLT. Do well on the Long Writing tasks (News Report and Series of Paragraphs—Opinion) and you’re well on your way to passing the test. Bomb them, or worse blow them off, and your chances of passing aren’t good. An example of a News Report question and what good and bad answers look like follows. There a couple of basic things to keep in mind: 1: Follow the proper format. 2: Don’t leave space blank.

Task: Write a news report on the next page based on the headline and picture below. • You will have to make up the facts and information to answer some or all of the following questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? • You must relate your newspaper report to both the headline and the picture. Purpose and Audience: The Photo puts the to report on an event for the readers of a newspaper story in context. lined space provided for your written work indicates the approximate length of the It writing The. Length: question The will expected. gives you clues about always. Newspaper be the same Reports are as what you read always based on here, answering but the photo the and headline will Questions: Who, change. What, Where, When, Why and How? This is what a News Report question will look like. They give you a photo and a headline. Car wash a Who the story should The Headline tells be about andthe perhaps you what story Why and How. should about. success In this be case the answer has to be a story about a Car wash is a and the Thewhich Headline success. Photo are equally important.

Task: Write a news report on the next page based on the headline and picture below. • You will have to make up the facts and information to answer some or all of the following questions: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Thethe key is to find (create) • You must relate your newspaper report to both headline and the picture. a logical link between the Purpose and Audience: to report on an event for the readers of a newspaper headline and the photograph Length: � The lined space provided for your written work indicates thecalls approximate length of the writing A news story has to contain whatthat everyone theas“ 5 an W’s”…which could be used event expected. Elements of a News Report really means: for a report that would appear in a newspaper. You get one (1) The trick is to follow the format � Who is the story about? lined page (about 25 lines) to Car wash a success common to a real news report. write your answer. Use the “ 5 w’s. � What happened? � Where did it happen? � Why did it happen and/or Why does it matter? � When did it happen? � And How did it happen?

Who What When Where Why How This is an example of a good News Report Answer: You can see Who, What, When, Where, Why and How all right at the beginning of the report.

How to Write a News Report A news report must be written in the Third Person. That means you can’t use “I, me, mine, our, we” etc. in it. It’s not: “My school won a computing contest last week” It has to be: “A Grade 11 class at Dryden High School won the Northwestern Ontario Data Classic contest last week. ” If you want to include an opinion, you have to quote someone in the story. So, it’s not: We were really proud because we put a lot of work into it. It’s: Students in the class were “very proud”, said student Mary Smith. She continued, “We put a lot if work into this, so we’re really glad we won”.

RISC IT – the more you do, the more the reward. R elate your story to the picture and the headline. I indent paragraphs (lots of them). S pelling and grammar matter. Check them! C ontains 2 quotations (at least) to support the story. I T nteresting - it won’t be if you’re not trying to make it so. ell nothing but the facts; leave out your opinion.

Writing a News Report A news report must also be written in the past tense. This gets a little tricky because the Headline will always be in the present tense. ie: School Wins Contest. You still have to write the story in the past tense…about how the school won the contest. Remember you always have to write about something that has already happened, not something that is going to happen. Here’s a tip News Report questions are often “school” related. If the headline refers to a school event, trip, contest, or issue save yourself time and energy by using DHS as the school. Use your friends’ names and teachers you know to be in the news story and quote them to provide detail and “colour” in the report. For example, quote “Mrs. Kathy Mc. Connachie” as the principal.

Writing: News Report: Scoring: The News Report is “scored” – marked out of 100. 60 for Topic Development News Topic Development is basically what you write. Is it a proper Report? Does it relate clearly to the headline and the photograph? Did you put in enough specific detail? Did you quote people to provide support? 40 for Writing Conventions Writing conventions are basically how you write, ie: spelling, sentence structure, punctuation and grammar. Topic Development Writing Conventions

Writing: News Report: Scoring: Topic Development There are three (3) ways to get a zero (0) Blank The page is blank with nothing written or drawn in the space provided. (If you don’t write anything there’s nothing to mark. )

Writing: News Report: Scoring There are three (3) ways to get a zero (0) Blank The page is blank with nothing written or drawn in the space provided. (If you don’t write anything there’s nothing to mark. ) Illegible The response is illegible or irrelevant to the prompt. (Your answer is too hard to follow or isn’t a News Report)

Writing: News Report: Scoring There are three (3) ways to get a zero (0) Blank The page is blank with nothing written or drawn in the space provided. (If you don’t write anything there’s nothing to mark. ) Illegible The response is illegible or irrelevant to the prompt. (Your answer is too hard to follow or isn’t a News Report) Off topic The response is off topic. (Whatever you wrote didn’t relate to the headline or the picture) What follow are some examples of News Report answers. We’ll start with the ones that weren’t so good.

The response is story is about related to the a car wash - or headline andgot one car that photo but- but is not washed it’sa news report. It is not a News a narrative. Report. It’s just a story. So it’s a Code 10, a Fail. 10 40 20 50 30 60

Basically what s/he has done is throw Who, What, Where, Why, When and How down like a shopping list without trying to really make sense of each idea. 10 40 20 50 30 60 S/he got the first part: The response is a News Report related to the headline and photo, but the focus is unclear. There aren’t enough supporting details and there is very little organization. Here’s a Code 20, which is also a fail

But there aren’t enough supporting details and the few s/he has are kind of Here’s a (enough sketchy. Code 30, money, which going is getting to almost closer every to what neighbourhood, we want. successful car wash foundraiser). The report has a clear focus on an event (car wash foundraiser). What’s good is there is some evidence of organization: the two main ideas– enough money and 1. 5 million dollars – are linked. 10 40 20 50 30 60

This is a Code 40 which is definitely a pass. This is the minimum you should be shooting for. What’s good is: There is a clear 10 connection 40 to the headline and photo 50 with a clear and consistent 20 focus on an event (carwash). 30 60 There’s enough supporting detail. Some of it is specific (St. John’s elementary school, June 29 th 2009, 2000$, 45 kids), which is good. Some ideas are a little vague (local charity--What local charity? )

News Notice they reports are use supposed to paragraphs have lots of to organize short their ideas paragraphs 10 40 20 50 30 60 The quotation here is good. It would be perfect if they gave the Principal a name.

This is a Code Even better: 50 there A veryare solid job Quotations with only a from two different couple of things people to support missing. the story. The organization is logical with lots of paragraphs. The final paragraph mentions the school’s trip to Ottawa again and provides a neat conclusion. 10 40 20 50 30 60 This news report is clearly related to the headline and photo with a clear and consistent focus on an event (carwash WHAT …trip to Ottawa WHY). There are enough specific supporting details (Saturday, May 1 5 WHEN, Highview Public School WHO, Ottawa, 8 am to 4 pm, student name). 2

This is a Code 60 It’s the best score you can get. Extra! They threw in a sub-head Real Newspaper stories (a second smaller headline usually have both of these that gives more detail) elements. It’s never a bad and a cutline idea to include them. (a caption that explains 10 40 the photo). what’s in 20 50 30 60 This report is clearly related to the headline and photo with a clear and consistent focus on an event. It’s got WHO, WHAT , WHERE, WHY and WHEN right up front. Then lots of detail on HOW backed up with quotations from different people involved.

1 This is good for a lot of reasons. It has lots of specific details (e. g. , names of the city, students, a parent; Haiti, Canadian Red Cross, drivers couldn’t resist a good car cleaning, not only helped people in their community, but people hundreds of kilometres away). AND Quotations from two perspectives. The Organization easy to follow. 10 opening 40 The lead connects effectively to the closing sentence. 20 50 30 60 2

Scoring Guide for Long Writing Conventions Code 10 10 30 20 40 This is the second way answers are marked (scored): Writing Conventions Descriptor There is insufficient evidence to assess the use of conventions. OR Errors in conventions interfere with communication. OR You get a Code 10 – a Fail – if: “There is insufficient evidence to assess Chill. Basically they’re “Errors in conventions interfere with the use of conventions. ” talking about spelling, communication. ” grammar, sentence Which means: and things like structure Which means: you didn’t that. write enough. There are so many mistakes they can’t figure out what you’re trying to say.

lack of punctuation at the end of Errors in conventions sentences, incorrect useinterfere of capital with communication (e. g. , letters The children They washing; spelling: vearis, braek, lik, there, omitted words: To be cleen and cleen, besid, success). grach, saide, movie’s, dird, smils, mitearials, vires; Here’s an It’s notexample just a fail, It’s a fail becauseof a it’s an epic fail! Code there are just too 10 many mistakes 10 30 20 40

Scoring Guide for Long Writing Conventions Section IV News Report Question 1 Code Descriptor Code 10 There is insufficient evidence to assess the use of conventions. OR Errors in conventions interfere with communication. Code 20 Errors in conventions distract from communication. “Errors in conventions distract Basically, you’re making from communication. ” means: A Code 20 isn’t a pass either, although them workmark too hard to try to it’s better than a 10 as every counts understand your News Story. You’ve made so many mistakes in the end. 10 20 (spelling, grammar) that it’s hard 30 to follow what you’re trying to say. 40

It’s a Code 20 because there are so many mistakes you This is atoo Code 20 to have to work hard stay with the story. ? The hits keep is on first just problem coming: a lack of punctuation There are words at the end of missing: youno guys sentencesalland helped guys; this capital you letters. That for a good cause; makes it read like A lotbig of spelling one sentence, mistakes: coffe, hard ther, which is really lookin, wher, fun to follow). raiser; And missing capitals: metro, april). ? ? ? V ? ? 10 30 20 40

Scoring Guide for Long Writing Conventions Section IV News Report Question 1 Code 10 30 20 40 Descriptor Code 10 There is insufficient evidence to assess the use of conventions. OR Errors in conventions interfere with communication. Code 20 Errors in conventions distract from communication. Code 30 Errors in conventions do not distract from communication. Code is the minimum you want to get. a pass. You’re 30 allowed to make some mistakes and. It’s still pass as long as those mistaks mistakesdon’tget getininthe theway wayofof following your story.

So, there a few spelling mistakes : reasearch, planing Some capitals missing: road, local, rexdale; There are some punctuation mistakes: missing commas in the date and the quotations. 10 30 20 40 A Code 30 is different This is a Code 30 from a Code 20 in that while there are mistakes, This is the minimum level they don’t get in the way of you want. understanding the story

Scoring Guide for Long Writing Conventions Section IV News Report Question 1 You get a Code 40 when Code Descriptor your story follows the News Report format Code 10 any significant There is insufficient evidence to assess the use of conventions. without ORyou mistakes and shows Errors in conventions interfere with communication. understand the format. Basically, that You own it. Code 20 Errors in conventions distract from communication. Code 30 Errors in conventions do not distract from communication. Words. I am your Master. Code 40 10 30 20 40 Control of conventions is evident in written work.

What makes this a Code 40 is the obvious control the writer has over spelling, grammar and punctuation So the fact they spelled comittee, and it’s wrong and didn’t put the commas inside the quotations marks doesn’t cost them any marks. 10 30 20 40 This is a Code 40 This is the best score you can get.

DHS OSSLT Guides Overview of the OSSLT How the OSSLT is marked and why this matters Reading Questions: Open Response Reading Questions: Multiple Choice Long Writing: Series of Paragraphs Writing Questions: Open Response Short Writing How to prepare for the OSSLT