This assessment is the first assessment given to students coming back from summer vacation.

In
the past, I did not do a pre-assessment to gauge students skills and abilities. However, after taking this
course, learning about rubrics, and aiming my focus this year on creating clear assessments to drive my
instruction, I created this assessment.
After giving this assessments to students, I realize that students needed more familiarity with the
rubric before I give it next year. Students were unclear what some of the rubric language meant. In the
future, I will spend time with students annotating the rubric to be sure of understanding. Overall, I was
pleased with the assessment and students enjoyed being able to complete it using Google Docs. Next year,
I may make it into a Google Form in order to assess students more easily.

Name:
Block:
Summer Reading Novel Read: _________________________
Summer Reading Assessment
Task One: Write a thoughtful and brief summary of the novel in the box below. You may use your summer
reading graphic organizer to help you!

Criteria
1. Summary (Standard 3)
Setting
Main characters
Conflict
Resolution

Wrote summary that is

clear, concise, &
accurate & included all
story elements

Wrote summary that is

not clear or not accurate
or is missing some
story elements

Wrote summary that

is unclear,
inaccurate, or
missing most story
elements

Task Two: Answer one of the following questions in a clear and concise manner. Prove that you read and
understood the book by providing evidence from the story to support your response.
1. Identify one character trait of the main character. Support your trait with three examples and analyze how
they illustrate the trait you chose. Use specific, relevant information from the text to support your answer.

Example:
In the novel Jasons Gold, Jason is determined because

2. Analyze how your main character changes throughout the novel. Be sure to include a character trait with
evidence to describe how he or she was at the beginning then do the same for the ending. You also need to
include how and why this change occurred. Use specific, relevant information from the text to support your
answer.
Example:
At the beginning of the novel Jasons Gold, Jason is determined to get rich. He wants to catch up to his
brothers who are already on a mission to find gold during the era of the gold rush. As the story continues, he...

3. Readers learn the theme of a novel through the characters and their conflicts. Draw a conclusion on the theme
of your novel.. Use specific, relevant information from the text to support your answer.
Example:
In the novel Jasons Gold, the theme is the idea that family and friends are more important than material
objects because

Summer Reading Rubric

Criteria

Demonstrated
understanding of the
text using thoughtful
and reflective ideas

Demonstrated
understanding of the
text using some
thoughtful and
reflective ideas

Demonstrated
understanding of the
text using no
thoughtful or
reflective ideas

Text Evidence
two examples

Cited three or more

specific examples from
the text that accurately
support the response

Cited one or two

specific examples from
the text that accurately
support the response

Cited no specific
examples from the
text or inaccurate
examples

Fluency & Conventions

Wrote with fluency and

clarity of language &
conventions

Wrote with some issues

in fluency and clarity
due to lack of language
& conventions

Wrote with no
fluency and no
clarity of language &
conventions

Used appropriate
vocabulary pertaining
to chosen question

Used only informal

vocabulary pertaining
to chosen question

Used no vocabulary
pertaining to chosen
question

Deeper Thinking

Spelling
Grammar
Capitalization
Punctuation

Vocabulary
Character trait
Character change
Theme