English 9, 10, and 11

PSAE Reading Prep

• These resources  could be a decent start… 
  • www.actstudent.org
  • http://www.acttestquestions.com/act_practice_questions.html
  • http://www.bestsamplequestions.com/act-sample-questions/act-sample-questions-reading/act-sample-questions-reading.html
  • Scoring explanation…
    • Each reading question breaks down to about 7/8ths of a point
    • Correctly answering 20 of the 40 total questions equates to a reading score of 18
      • Note that 20/40 would be an F on a traditional in-class assessment
        • The point?  Don’t give up!  It’s simple to gain ground quickly even if you answer a few in a row incorrectly!
        • The Layout…
          • Reading section contains 4 passages, 750 words each
          • Each passage includes 10 questions, totaling 40 questions for the entire reading section
          • Passages fall into the following genres
            • Fiction (passages from short stories or novels)
            • Humanities (architecture, art, dance, ethics, film, language, literary criticism, memoir, music, personal essays, philosophy, radio, television, theater)
            • Social Science (anthropology, archaeology, biography, business economics, education, geography, history, political science, psychology, sociology)
            • Natural Science (anatomy, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, medicine, meteorology, microbiology, natural history, physiology, physics, technology, zoology)
  • With 35 minutes to complete the reading test, you have 8-8.5 minutes to spend on each passage and the correlating questions
• Types of questions
  • Fiction: narration of events and revelation of character
    • Events
    • Mood/tone
    • Relationship of the characters
    • Emotions implied by what the characters say and how they say it
  • Humanities: describe or analyze a piece of art
    • Author’s purpose and point of view
    • Ability to project author’s likely response to a hypothetical argument or situation based on what the author tells you and what the language implies
    • Infer or identify relationships between events, ideas, people, trends, modes of thought
  • Social Sciences: information gathered by research
    • What name goes with what concept
    • Who said what
    • Cause and effect relationships
    • Comparisons
    • Sequence of events
    • How events/concepts shape the ideas of the passage’s subject
  • Natural Sciences: science topic and the topic’s significance
    • Relationships between natural phenomena
    • Cause and effect relationships
    • Comparisons
    • Sequences of events
    • Keep track of specific laws, rules, theories mentioned
• Practice identifying types of passages and recalling what will be expected with each type of passage
• I will do quite a bit of modeling for you…
  • Skim questions before reading the passage
  • Figure out a word in context
  • Identify the main idea /jot down important notes in the margin
    • Identify main idea for each paragraph and for passage as a whole
  • Sequence of events
  • Make generalizations
  • Cause and effect relationships
  • Compare and contrast
  • Indentify and interpret details
  • Author’s voice and method
    • Why is he writing this?  What does he want me to think?  What would he say about…?
• Chunking
  • Students responsible for reading and answering questions but analyze the answers together
• Mock Tests
  • Emphasis on timing (remember, only 8-8.5 minutes per passage)
  • Circle back around to skills for which students need further support

Focus on fiction… what to pay attention to...

The following excerpt is from a fiction passage. What information or special text features should you focus on when reading a fiction passage? (in caps below the passage)

       There was only one source of beauty and light for me and my ninth grade year. The

only thing I had anticipated at the start of the semester was seeing Eugene. In August,

Eugene and his family had moved into the only house on the block that had a yard and

trees. I could see his place from my bedroom window in El Building. In fact, if I sat on

the fire escape I was literally suspended above Eugene’s backyard. It was my favorite

spot to read my library books in the summer. Until that August the house had been

occupied by an old couple. Over the years, I had become part of their family, without

their knowing it, of course. I had a view of their kitchen and their backyard, and

though I could not hear what they said, I knew when they were arguing, when one of

them was sick, and many other things. I knew all this by watching them at mealtimes. I

could see their kitchen table, the sink, and the stove. During good times, he sat at the

table and read his newspapers while she fixed meals. If they argued, he would leave

and the old woman would sit and stare at nothing for a long time. When one of them

was sick, the other would come and get things from the kitchen and carry them

out on a tray. The old man had died in June. The house had stood empty for weeks. I

had to resist the temptation to climb down into the yard and water the flowers the old

lady had taken such good care of.

MOOD/TONE-somber-the narrator was used to the old neighbors/saddened by the old man's death perhaps  

RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHARACTERS-anticipates seeing Eugene/knows the old couple but they do not know her     

PLOT-an old couple occupies a house next door to the narrator's house/the old man dies (climax)/the old lady moves/Eugene moves in

Focus on humanities...what to pay attention to...

The following excerpt is from a humanities passage. What information or special text features should you focus on when reading a humanities passage? (in caps below the passage) 

       The difference between a machine and a tool-between a bread-maker and a bread

pan-is that a tool extends human skills, a machine replaces them. When the freedom

and craft have been squeezed out of work it becomes toil, without mystery or

meaning, and that is why many people hate their jobs. You can measure the drudgery

of a job by the number of layers of supervision required to keep the wheels spinning or

the cash registers ringing. Toil drains us; but good work may renew us, by giving

expression to our powers.

POINT OF VIEW-3rd person "he or she"-although the pronoun(s) do not exist here, "he" or "she" hates their job due to loss of craftsmanship

MODES OF THOUGHT/OPINIONS-the author dislikes the ho-hum of machinery work and wants craftsmanship and pride in manual labor to return to the workforce (without so many rules and guidelines)

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EVENTS, PEOPLE, OR TRENDS-the workforce would be happier working with their hands rather than pushing the button of a machine

Focus on social studies… what to pay attention to...  

The following excerpt is from a social studies passage.  What information or special text features should you focus on when reading a social studies passage?  

        Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) is the most controversial First Lady in Unites States

history.  Her journey to greatness, her voyage out beyond the confines of good wife

and devoted mother, involved determination and amazing courage.  It also involved

one of history’s most unique partnerships.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) admired

his wife, appreciated her strengths, and depended on her integrity.  

WHAT NAME GOES WITH WHAT CONCEPT

WHO SAID WHAT

CAUSE AND EFFECT

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS