A Summary of Core Test Design and Administrative Features for Grades 3-8 conducted by the New Jersey Department of Education through the Division of Academics and Office of Assessments on September 2012 continues on to state quote €The money would be used to maintain and improve buildings, fields, courts, and playground equipment. This proposal is controversial, and many citizens have strong opinions about the idea. You decide to write an editorial for the local newspaper expressing your opinion about whether to charge a 2 dollar fee for each person to enter and use parks and community playgrounds. Writing Task. Write an editorial for the local newspaper expressing your opinion about whether to charge a $2 fee for each person to enter and use parks and community playgrounds. Be sure to include reasons, facts, examples, and/or other evidence to support your position.

Sample Informative/Explanatory Writing Prompt Grades 6-8 CCSS: W.6.2, W.7.2, W. 8.2; W.6.4, W.7.4, W. 8.4. Anne Frank once said, How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Think about what Anne Frank is saying regarding how people can improve the world around them. Write an essay about how people can improve the world around them. Use your knowledge and your own experience or observation to develop your essay. Use details, reasons, and examples in your explanation. Sample Narrative Writing Prompt Grades 6-8 CCSS: W.6.3, W.7.3, W. 8.3; W.6.4,W.7.4,W.8.4. Think what it would be like to live one day in the setting of your favourite book or short story. What would happen to you in this place? What would you do? Use your knowledge of the setting of a book or short story along with your imagination to write a story about your experience in this place.

Mathematical Practices. Connecting Content Standards and Mathematical Practices. 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. Connecting Content Standards and Mathematical Practices. Practices combine easily, and single student behaviour could be thought of as exhibiting multiple practices at once. - Not a checklist. There is an expectation that the mathematical practices develop through the grades as students grow in mathematical maturity and in the sophistication with which they apply mathematics€ end quote.