On this page:
- Evaluate which skills students need to practice most
- Discover activities by state standard
- Support students on the Florida B.E.S.T. essay
Evaluate which skills students need to practice most
On the Planning Diagnostics page, you’ll find pre-made planning diagnostics aligned to your state's standards for each grade, as well as to the ACT and SAT.
Your diagnostic results will help you identify which language skills students need to practice most and assign work to reinforce those skills.
From your diagnostic results page, we recommend starting a unit on a given skill and track students' progress through a short diagnostic, practice, and growth quiz. (Check out our Example Unit Plan for one way you could plan units based on the results of a Planning Diagnostic.)
Discover activities by state standard
If you already know which specific standards your students need to work on, browse activities on our Standards & Tests alignment page.
Support students on the Florida B.E.S.T. essay
Visit our Florida State Tests alignment page and select B.E.S.T. Writing to browse essay assignments.
In these assignments, students will write on real test prompts, and you will grade them using the official rubric.
Each essay assignment has two versions, which you'll find under the headings Scaffolded Practice Essay and Authentic Practice Essay.
- Scaffolded Practice Essay: These versions use Guided Draft assignments to provide just-in-time tips and examples as students write practice essays. If students are just starting to prepare for test essay-writing, we recommend starting with one of these. Learn more about Guided Drafts.
- Authentic Practice Essay: These versions use our Quick Write assignments, which require students to write with no additional support, just like they will on the real test. Try assigning these when you feel your students are ready to write on their own.
NoRedInk also offers prompts for the old Florida FSA tests to support retakes. Because the FSA essay task is fairly similar to the B.E.S.T. Writing essay, FSA prompts may also provide students with additional practice.