2 Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment: Administering and Interpreting Results
This binder details how to score and interpret the results of the Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (TMSFA). This course is Unit 4 of the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academy (TALA). These materials are available for view only; no credit or certificate is provided.
Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (TMSFA)
Texas Education Code (TEC) §28.006(c-1) requires that students who do not meet the passing standard on the Grade 6 State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading test must be administered a reading assessment at the beginning of grade 7. The Texas Middle School Fluency Assessment (TMSFA) was developed with Texas students to be a valid and reliable instrument for determining students’ areas of instructional need.
The TMSFA is based on valid and reliable scientific research, thoroughly measures each domain of development, and is user-friendly. The following three domains of development are assessed using the TMSFA.
- Text Comprehension (Reading)
- Word Analysis
- Fluency
Disruptions of the Cell Cycle: Cancer
Given illustrations or descriptions, students will identify disruptions of the cell cycle that lead to diseases such as cancer.
Mechanisms of Genetics: DNA Changes
Given illustrations or partial DNA sequences, students will identify changes in DNA and the significance of these changes.
Taxonomy Standards
Given examples, students will recognize the importance of taxonomy to the scientific community.
Taxonomy: Major Groups
Given illustrations or descriptions, students will determine the classification of organisms into domains and kingdoms.
Linguistic Roots and Affixes (English 8 Reading)
You will be able to recognize linguistic roots and affixes to use in determining the meanings of academic English words and in other content areas.
Cognates (English I Reading)
You will use your knowledge of cognates from other languages to help you understand unfamiliar words.
Homeostasis: Ecological Systems
Given images, videos, or scenarios, identify and describe the responses of organisms, populations, and communities to various changes in their external environment.
Synthesize Ideas and Details in Several Texts (English I Reading)
You will learn how to synthesize ideas and details in texts and support the connections with textual evidence.
Biological Systems: Homeostasis
Identify and describe internal feedback mechanisms involved in maintaining homeostasis given scenarios, illustrations, or descriptions.
Relationships Between Organisms: Food Chains, Webs, and Pyramids
Given illustrations, students will analyze the flow of matter and energy in food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids.
Organisms' Adaptations
Given scenarios, illustrations. or descriptions, the student will compare variations and adaptations of organisms in different ecosystems.
Investigating and Comparing Life Cycles
A Tier I life science instructional resource for grade 3
Cell Homeostasis: Osmosis
The focus of this resource is cell homeostasis and, more specifically, osmosis. Students investigate the concept through a virtual lab, recording and analyzing data, creating sketches to represent vocabulary, and discovering the role of aquaporins in water transport through the cell membrane.
Increasing and Decreasing Energy
This resource provides sample activities for teachers to use in helping students to identify and investigate the effects of increasing and decreasing amounts of light, heat, and sound energy on an object.
Weathering and Decomposition
A Tier 1 earth science instructional resource for grade 3