The Speaking components of Summit K12’s Connect to Literacy programs provide automated grading of student voice recordings. Students will submit audio recordings for specific activities and Summit K12 will grade those recordings using AutoScore algorithms designed to follow the ELPAC Speaking Scoring rubrics.
Students will be graded according to the 6 Speaking Types:
- Talk about a Scene (K-12)
- Speech Functions (2-12)
- Support an Opinion (K-12)
- Retell a Narrative (K-5)
- Present and Discuss Information (6-12)
- Summarize an Academic Presentation (K-12)
Scoring Criteria:
- Keywords
- Question Words
- Complex Sentences and Coordinating Conjunctions
- High-Frequency Words
- Word Count
- Word Variety
Keywords
The student’s response is assessed by how effectively the student integrates the keywords from the prompt into their response. It’s important for students to include multiple keywords when formulating their answers. Furthermore, using words and phrases accurately within the given context will result in a more precise proficiency rating.
Question Words
The student’s response will be evaluated based on their use of question words within the accurate context to form a cohesive answer. To achieve a higher proficiency rating, the response should effectively address the prompt in a clear way without errors that impede meaning while also incorporating a variety of question words.
Complex Sentences and Coordinating Conjunctions
The evaluation of the student’s response will focus on the utilization of sentence patterns and grammatical structures. Additionally, the system will consider the incorporation of words and phrases that contribute to proper sentence structure. The use of unique subordinating and coordinating conjunction words will also result in a higher proficiency level rating. Moreover, the use of terms that convey sophisticated, complicated ideas will result in higher proficiency level ratings.
Examples:
- Coordinating conjunctions
- Subordinating conjunctions
- Correlative conjunctions
- Relative pronouns
- Conjunctive adverbs
High-Frequency Words
The student’s response will also be evaluated for using high frequency words and high frequency phrases. Higher scores will be awarded to students who accurately use multiple variations of these terms within their responses.
Word Count
The student’s response will be evaluated based on the number of words they use to create a cohesive answer.
Word Variety
The student’s response will be evaluated based on the amount of unique words and phrases the student incorporates into their response to create a cohesive answer.
The table below will provide further information regarding the scoring criteria of each Speaking Type:
| Keywords | Question Words | Complex Sentences and Coordinating Conjunctions | High-Frequency Words | Word Count | Word Variety | |
| Speaking Type 1: Talk About a Scene | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Speaking Type 2: Speech Functions | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Speaking Type 3: Support an Opinion |
✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Speaking Type 4: Retell a Narrative | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Speaking Type 5: Present and Discuss Information | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Speaking Type 6: Summarize an Academic Presentation | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Summit K12 uses a comprehensive approach to score responses based on ELPAC standards. Although the AutoScore algorithm works a majority of the time, there may be infrequent outliers that would require review. We highly recommend teachers listen to student recordings to ensure the scores are accurate. To learn how to listen to a student’s response, visit our help article: How to Listen to a Student's Recording - ELPAC.
If a teacher believes the auto-score of a Speaking response is not accurate, they can overwrite it by following the instructions listed in our help article: How to Overwrite Auto Scores on Recordings - ELPAC.