About The Triplet Ticket:

The Triplet Ticket promotes enhancement of students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. The reading portion presents two thematically linked selections and a viewing and representing selection. Multiple-choice questions following the three segments assess literal, analytical, and inferential comprehension of the text and visual. Three, thought-provoking open-ended queries follow the three sets of objective questions. The first open-ended question relates to the first reading selection. The second open-ended question pertains to selection two. The third open-ended question asks students to find common elements in the two reading selections and to discuss unifying concepts using support from both selections. A purpose of the reading, viewing and representing, and the questioning is to give students a chance to incubate ideas which will be used in addressing the final component of the triplet, the writing prompt. Students are expected to write a fully elaborated, expository composition using real and vicarious experience and personal opinion as a basis for the essay.

Note to the Teacher:

The purpose of The Triplet Ticket is to provide teachers with a user-friendly resource to familiarize students with standardized testing format and to elevate their English skills level. Studies have shown that students who take practice tests formatted like the actual test do better in high-stakes testing situation than students with no experience with test format. The positive effect is known as the "test-wise phenomena." The Triplet Ticket also builds skills in the following areas:

• Basic understanding of literal comprehension of facts and details
• Analysis of literary elements and techniques
• Analytical writing with textual support
• Evaluation of author's purpose and content
• Writing expository essays in response to incubated ideas

Scoring Rubrics:

Electronically graded written responses are scored using available criteria for computer grading of writing mechanics and are also scored using rhetorical features that indicate writing proficiency. Electronically graded written responses are given a 2+ if they show minimum mastery and should be further evaluated to assign an exact score. Two sets of rubrics are included: one for scoring responses to the open-ended questions, and the other for scoring the elaborated essays. The electronic capablities of the software are limited to breaking down the scores to show "Insufficient" versus "Sufficient" responses. The breakdown is between scores of 0 or 1 deemed "Insufficient," and scores of 2, 3 or 4 deemed "Sufficient." Teachers should further evaluate compositions using the rubrics for Exit Level English Langauge Arts at the following site:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/taks/rubrics/index.html

Conclusion:

Selections are chosen to appeal to a variety of adolescent interests. Mastery of the Triplet Ticket objectives demonstrates college-preparedness and measures what all American secondary English students need to know to be academically successful.

Grade level appropriateness for high school triplets:

Grade 11: Triplets 1, 2,3,10,12,13 Grade 10: Triplets 4,5,6,7,8,9,11

Grade level appropriateness for middle school triplets:

Grade 6: 3,5 Grade 7: 6,4 Grade 8: 2,1

The reproducible notebook edition, the stand-alone word-processing edition, and the web-interfaced, electronically graded version of the Triplet Ticket were designed by Texas A&M researcher and AP English teacher Dr. Nancy Drew. The resource helps Texas secondary school students prepare for the English Language Arts portion TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), an exam requiring mastery for graduation. The materials found in the Triplet Ticket provide practice exercises correlated to the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) Student Expectations, the learning benchmarks for all grade levels that provide the core curricular elements used throughout Texas schools. The English skills development program implemented in Texas now serves as a model for many other states in preparing their students for graduation and beyond. The Triplet Ticket provides teachers nation-wide with cutting-edge, high interest supplemental practice for high school exit and college entrance exams. The basic objectives from the TEKS Language Arts used as the curricular base for the Triplet Ticket follow:

Reading Objectives:

Objective 1: The student will demonstrate a basic understanding of culturally diverse written texts.

Objective 2: the student will demonstrate an understanding of the effects of literary elements and techniques in culturally diverse written texts.

Objective 3: The student will demonstrate the ability to analyze and critically evaluate culturally diverse written text and visual representations.

Writing Objectives:

Objective 4: The student will, within a given context, produce an effective composition for a specific purpose.

Objective 5: The student will produce a piece of writing that demonstrates a command of the conventions of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, usage, and sentence structure.

Objective 6: The student will demonstrate the ability to revise and proofread to improve the clarity and effectiveness of a piece of writing.

TEKS Curriculum Correlates to The Triplet Ticket

(1)Writing/purposes. The student writes in a variety of forms, including business, personal, literary, and persuasive texts, for various audiences and purposes. The student is expected to:

(G)analyze strategies that writers in different fields use to compose.

(6)Reading/word identification/vocabulary development. The student acquires an extensive vocabulary through reading and systematic word study. The student is expected to:

(B)rely on context to determine meanings of words and phrases such as figurative language, connotation and denotation of words, analogies, idioms, and technical vocabulary;
(C)apply meanings of prefixes, roots, and suffixes in order to comprehend;
(E) use reference material such as glossary, dictionary, thesaurus, and available technology to determine precise meaning and usage;
(F) discriminate between connotative and denotative meanings and interpret the connotative power of words; and (G) read and understand analogies.

(7)Reading/comprehension. The student comprehends selections using a variety of strategies. The student is expected to:

(A)establish and adjust purpose for reading such as to find out, to understand, to interpret, to enjoy, and to solve problems;
(B) draw upon his/her own background to provide connection to texts;
(E)analyze text structures such as compare/contrast, cause/effect, and chronological order for how they influence understanding;
(F)produce summaries of texts by identifying main ideas and their supporting details;
(G)draw inferences such as conclusions, generalizations, and predictions and support them with text evidence and experience.

(8)Reading/variety of texts. The student reads extensively and intensively for different purposes and in varied sources, including American literature. The student is expected to:

(D)interpret the possible influences of the historical context on literary works.

(9)Reading/culture. The student reads widely, including American literature, to increase knowledge of his/her own culture, the culture of others, and the common elements across cultures. The student is expected to:

(A)Recognize distinctive and shared characteristics of cultures through reading; and
(B) compare text events with his/her own and other readers' experiences.

(10)Reading/literary response. The student expresses and supports responses to various types of texts. The student is expected to:
(B)use elements of text to defend, clarify, and negotiate responses and interpretations; and

(11)Reading/literary concepts. The student analyzes literary elements for their contributions to meaning in literary texts. The student is expected to:

(A)compare and contrast aspects of texts such as themes, conflicts, and allusions both within and across texts; (B)analyze relevance of setting and time frame to text's meaning;
(C)describe the development of plot and identify conflicts and how they are addressed and resolved;
(D)analyze the melodies of literary language, including its use of evocative words and rhythms;
(E) connect literature to historical contexts, current events, and his/her own experiences; and
(F)understand literary forms and terms such as author, drama, biography, myth, tall tale, dialogue, tragedy and comedy, structure in poetry, epic, ballad, protagonist, antagonist, paradox, analogy, dialect, and comic relief as appropriate to the selections being read.

(12)Reading/analysis/evaluation. The student reads critically to evaluate texts and the authority of sources. The student is expected to:

(A)analyze the characteristics of clearly written texts, including the patterns of organization, syntax, and word choice;
(B)evaluate the credibility of information sources, including how the writer's motivation may affect that credibility; and
(C)recognize logical, deceptive, and/or faulty modes of persuasion in texts.

(20)Viewing/representing/analysis. The student analyzes and critiques the significance of visual representations. The student is expected to:

(B)deconstruct media to get the main idea of the message's content;
(C)evaluate and critique the persuasive techniques of media messages such as glittering generalities, logical fallacies, and symbols.

Note: The Triplet Ticket answer keys are correlated to the listed TEKS for item analysis and diagnostic purposes.