Test Prep Reading 6-8 2014-2015.docx
Unit Five B - Test Preparation for the Reading Demands of the NYS ELA (Grades 6-8) Late Feb/March This version of the test preparation unit was updated in January of 2015, based on the most recent, up-to-date knowledge on the 2014 ELA tests and the New York State Learning Standards. You will find it similar to last year‘s curriculum in its genre based structure. Note that it also complements the structure and instruction of the test prep workbooks Ready New York CCLS. Many of the preparation tips in this unit are classic tips that will be helpful regardless of changes to the test. However, please note that we have also made a few significant revisions to this unit based on the newest information released by the state. This test prep curriculum also builds on much of the work taught in the reading (and content area) units across the year. -4254519050Our research indicates that certain kinds of questions are predominant.While we cannot know exactly what the 2015 ELA tests will be like, there have been some sections of the test released for each grade which include multiple choice, short response, and essay questions. These released test questions are annotated and they are available on the Engage NY website (). These released, annotated questions also guided the development and revisions of this test prep curriculum. Of course, not all of the questions from the 2014 test were released. So while the released, annotated questions offer an opportunity to see and study some of the kinds of questions which were asked last year, they do not reflect everything that students will be asked this year. Based on our analysis of the most current released items from Pearson, PARCC and Smarter Balanced, we have found that main idea questions comprise an average of 43% of questions asked, and that vocabulary-based questions comprise 24% of these tests.The tests tend to prioritize these and other kinds of questions, which range in cognitive rigor from DOK Level 2-4. We have listed below a summary of priority questioning (questions that were asked a high percentage of times in the test we analyzed, and/or questions that, based on our analysis, many students had difficulty answering correctly):Central Idea - When a question asks about the central idea, either of a part or the whole of a text, it is asking the reader to find a claim or an idea that cuts across that part or whole. The main idea may be directly stated or implied. Sometimes these questions are written in reverse: readers will be asked to find the best supporting detail for a main idea that is given. Theme questions are very similar to main idea questions and are included in the percentage we used to calculate priority questions.Vocabulary: When the question asks for the meaning of a word/phrase (including academic, domain specific and figurative language), the reader must think carefully about the use of this word or phrase in the context of the part or of the whole of the text. Sometimes these questions are actually main idea questions in disguise, as they are asking readers to determine the best possible meaning of the word or phrase, which will often connect to a main idea. Tone/Attitude: When the question asks to determine the tone or the author’s attitude in a part or a passage, the reader is expected to think about the feeling the author is conveying through a part or the whole of the text. Looking at author’s word choice can help students answer these kinds of questions. Structure: These questions ask the reader to consider the structure or organizing pattern of a part or the whole of a passage. They may ask readers to compare structures or to discuss the way a structure supports a main idea.Purpose: When the question asks for the author’s purpose, the reader needs to consider the possible reasons why the author would have written a part or the whole of the text.This test is a reading test! Protect reading time and responsive reading instruction!It’s important to remember as you prepare students for these state tests that the tests are, in fact, reading tests. They test the level at which a student can read with strong comprehension, and, in most states, including New York, they test a student‘s rate as well—the pace at which he or she reads with strong comprehension. Students who read at high reading levels with solid reading rates do well. Students who read below grade level, or who read so slowly that they take an unusually long time to finish books and texts, perform poorly on state tests.Stamina is a critical factor in test taking. You need to expect students to be able to maintain focus and to use a repertoire of strategies for approximately 90 minutesTherefore we recommend that you protect reading time, making sure that students have at least 45 minutes to read every day, and up to 60 or even 70 minutes (reading marathons) once a week.If your students are struggling readers, we also recommend that you maintain guided reading for these students. It is more important than ever during this period in time that your students continue to move up in reading levels.-38100-19050The big work of this unit is not to teach new reading strategies for each genre, it is to support students in bringing forward all they have learned all year about each genre. It is also about helping students to see connections between genres, for example, reminding them to use all they know about story structures in fiction to identify important elements in biographies. The work, then, will be to support students in reading passages and holding on to meaning, to review strategies students already know for each genre, to teach strategies to quickly identify genres, and to teach predictable question types for each. The bends are organized, as in past years, around text structures. (see below) The first bend teaches literary structures, including a few days at the end of the bend on less obvious examples of the narrative form (folk tales, narrative nonfiction, and poetry). Bend Two focuses on informational structures, first looking at typical informational texts, followed by a few days on other forms, like argument or opinion, interviews, or procedural texts. Finally, in Bend Three, we recommend setting students up to work across a variety of genres, in a context closer to actual testing conditions. It will be important for you to bring back your charts from earlier in the year as you teach into each genre, visual reminders to students of what they have already learned and should be drawing upon. Bend One – Literary Texts: including Fiction, Narrative Nonfiction, Myths and Fables and Poetry*Choose shared experience texts and student passages based on what your data indicates your students need support with. You may also want to give students some opportunities to read genres they have not yet seen in order to help them to continue to become more flexible readers. **See chart in Treasure Chest - Short Response and Extended Response folders - for suggested passages from Ready New York that offer short and extended response prompts - you will want to include some of these in this bend especially so that students can work from familiar passages during writing workshop.**Bend Two – Informational Texts: including Expository, Opinion and Argument, Interviews, etc.*Choose shared experience texts and student passages based on what your data indicates your students need support with. You may also want to give students some opportunities to read genres they have not yet seen in order to help them to continue to become more flexible readers. Include some paired passage work in the packets for the week. For paired passage work, match these texts by considering content, time period, theme, tone, or genre, or other.Bend Three– Down and Dirty Test Prep *This bend is designed to be a week for students to draw on all they have learned as readers and test takers and spend time reading passages in mixed genres and answering questions. You will want students’ work this week to be timed so that students feel a sense of what it is like to do this work under the testing conditions. (Remember to time students appropriately, given that some will have extra time if they have a 504.) One Possible Week of Test Prep DAY 1DAY 2DAY 3DAY 4DAY 5Shared ExperiencePartner Work (if needed, scaffolded with heavy support)Partner or Independent Work (depending on your class’s needs)Small Group/Centers Work or Continued Independent PracticeIndependent Reading Marathon & Answering ?s w/Small Group Work (option of doing centers part of the time) JeopardyTogether, the class reads one text and answers the questions.Teacher models prompts and strategies to help students navigate and hold on to the text. Demonstratethrough think alouds.Some sections are read aloud while others areread together or in partnerships.After minilesson, partners read and talk about leveled passage(s), using strategies from the year/bookmarks.Next, partners read each question and talk about what it means and what they must do to answer it. Then they write an answer in a short, simple sentence. Then they look at the choices and pick the answer that is closest to theirs, unless there is a better answer.Teacher confers into all partner work.At the end of the workshop, partners who read the same passage gather in small groups to compare their choices and discuss why they made them. Teacher coaches students to explain their logic in the form of teaching their peers a strategy for each kind of question (main idea, vocabulary, etc.).After minilesson, students read alone (same passage(s) as partner), then talk about what they read.Confer with individual students as they read.Then, students answer the test questions alone before discussing the choices they made and why. If they disagree, they can revisit the text.Confer with partners as they discuss their choices.Share:Pop out predictably tricky questions for these kinds of texts. Use the share time to teach into strategies for re-reading and using annotations/coding to answer these kinds of questions.Option 1: Start with Centers: See Treasure Chest for suggested content for Centers. Small groups of students will participate in and rotate across centers that pop out key skills they will need for the ELA.Teacher coaches into centers and take notes to plan for future conferences and small groups.Option 2: Start with minilesson, based on what students need help with.See Day 3 description for workshop time for this option.**As the test approaches, give students same time limits as those of the test. Options for Share:1. students try another passage independently, for you to collect and assess.OR:2. Shared Experience of a paired passage, using a text that pairs with the text from Day 1. (bends 2-3 only).Reading Marathon: Try to plan for several times across this unit when students will read for 45-60 (or more!) minutes straight - could start with independent reading Week 1, then move to baskets with passages or shorter articles across genres. Use predictable question stems for them to pause and jot responses to.If not a Marathon Day:Option 1. Students read alone (same passage(s) as partner) and answer questions while you gather small groups to respond to your data from the week. OR:Option 2: Additional Centers time to practice specific test taking and reading strategies to respond to data from the week.Or:A combination of both.DAY 6DAY 7DAY 8DAY 9Shared Experience of a less familiar example of this genre (e.g. folk tale or poem in Literary or opinion piece or interview in Informational)Independent or Small Group Work practicing on additional passages that are trickier examples in this categoryIndependent or Small Group Work practicing on additional passages that are trickier examples in this categoryReading Marathon or Targeted Centers Work to respond to data from this mini-week.See explanation of Shared Experience from Day 1See explanation of Day 4See explanation of Day 4See explanation of Day 5012700Before each bend of this unit, you will want to look at data to inform the path you will take for your students. Here are some examples of data that will be useful to you:You might want to give your students a practice test from Engage New York, Rally or Ready New York CCLS. Once students have taken a test, look at their scores and look for trends. It is so important that you design test prep work that builds on what students can already do, rather than repeating work they can already do well. Looking closely at how they handle a test will help you find areas to prioritize. As you move through this unit, you will see that we allude to some trends that we have noticed this past year in the majority of schools across New York State. You might want to look back at your students’s work - using conference notes, student Post-its and reading responses - in genre-based studies this year and recall which genres were easier for them and which proved more challenging. You might see that students were able to think, talk and write well about realistic fiction but need help with figuring out the lessons in folktales, in which case, as you move through the first bend you may opt for a folktale as your Shared Experience or for small group work. You might want to weave some test-like questioning into read aloud/shared text as a way to gather some data on which kinds of questions tend to trip kids up - and which students tend to get confused when facing these questions. The units of study recommend some of these questions or you can refer to the documents Teaching Towards the CCSS in Treasure Chest for help with finding prompts that align to likely ELA questions.You might want to weave test-like questions and sentence frames into book clubs - See Treasure Chest for the document titled “Becoming at Home with Academic Language” for examples of these kinds of prompts that could happen now in fiction and nonfiction contexts.You might use your running records, conferring and reading rate data to plan strategically - noticing for example that a student is not moving up to a level because he/she is not navigating something critical at that level - such as tracking more than one character trait. Working with that student on this will not only help the student move up levels, but prepare him/her for questions about characters on the exam. Reading rate data can be of similar use - it can help you plan for small groups that tackle this key skill head on. You might make a grid (see Treasure Chest for an example) to collect data on students’ reading behaviors - either during a practice test or independent reading. If you see certain students stay on one page for a long period of time, for example, you would want to address this with this group and teach them to move down the page and across the text.Note that throughout this unit, we will allude to trends that we have noticed in a majority of schools across New York State in the past year. These trends are based on looking across many schools, and may or may not be ones you are noticing in your school.00One of the most important skills for test takers is active reading―not just reading for the ideas or the story but using the structure, or genre of the passage in order to hold on to ideas and to locate details easily when they approach the questions. Grouping information into categories is a much more effective way to hold onto ideas than trying to remember all of the details from the passage. You’ll want to model this work in the Shared Experience kick-off for each bend. We have also drafted sample minilessons for each major genre (literary and informational) which you may decide to use as follow-up lessons if students need more time with this. See Treasure Chest in the folder marked “Minilessons”. Teach students to stop to quickly annotate, code or flag the key parts of a text as they read, based on predictable elements of each genre. For example, in narrative passages, flagging the character, setting, and problem(s) of the story. In nonfiction reading, flagging obvious structures that pop out, such as cause and effect or boxes and bullets. If the text is obviously persuasive, flagging the claim or position statement, and the reasons and evidence. You can teach students how to create road maps depending on the passage type. Different students can benefit from different types of road maps and some students may not need this strategy at all. Here are some possibilities that teachers have shown students to help them make road maps of texts: Road maps might consist of the gist (most important ideas) of each section, written in the margins at the end of that section, as well as a few notes that will help them answer commonly asked questions, such as the main idea or theme or multiple main ideas.Underlining parts of the text is a helpful strategy for some test-takers. Of course, you will need to determine which students in your class benefit from this and which don't. This strategy won't be helpful for those students who underline almost the whole text.012700Across all bends of the unit, you will want to teach students strategies for tackling multiple choice questions. Because these strategies are not uniformly effective - different test-takers use different strategies and not all approaches work for all students - it’s important to teach these responsively, and as flexible options not hard and fast rules. For example, you would not want to teach all students to preview the questions before reading a passage, but for some students who are organized, methodical and read at a good pace, this might make sense. Show them how to mark their answer sheet and to avoid skipping any questions as they go. Teach them to return to questions they were unsure of if they have time at the end, and, most of all, teach them to keep going! This kind of teaching and learning is not invigorating and can only be sustained for a few weeks, so do it intensely, but briefly. Here are some examples of strategies you could teach for students who are considered struggling readers. Remember to prioritize which strategies will work best for particular learners:Read the question then ask yourself, “What does this question mean?” “What is it asking me to do as a test taker?” There may be more than one part to a question.Re-read just the relevant part or parts of the text that will help you with this question. Use your coding to help find those parts quickly, or skim for key words to get to the right part, or find the paragraphs or lines the question e up with your own answer before you read the choices.Read through all of the choices before you pick an answer. Say to yourself, “why is this is or isn’t the answer?”If none of them fit with the answer you came up with in your mind, reread the question because you might have misread it.If you get it down to two choices ask yourself, “Which one would most test takers pick?-1143006413600This bend reminds students of all they know about reading narratives, and teaches them to apply this when they encounter a variety of types of test passages, all of which are narratives at their core. You will want to get ready by putting together narrative passages and questions for students to read in partnerships, then independently, across the bend. For the first five days, typical story passages are the best as they are most obvious examples of narrative. For the following four days, select examples of folktales, poems, memoir, and narrative nonfiction - examples of this structure that are less familiar, focusing on passages you think will be a bit tricky for your class. The following genres are labeled “literary” by the test-makers: realistic fiction, historical fiction, folktale, myth, poetry, biography, personal narrative, memoir, narrative non fiction.**See chart in Treasure Chest - Short Response and Extended Response folders - for suggested passages from Ready New York that offer short and extended response prompts - you will want to include some of these in this bend especially so that students can work from familiar passages during writing workshop.**Shared Experience Highlights - Making a Road-Map for Literary/Narrative PassagesIn your Shared Experience, be sure that you demonstrate for students the act of noticing that this is a story. Model reading the directions carefully and pausing when the test says, “Read this “story.” You might have a chart handy from a prior fiction-based unit so that you can dramatize the act of remembering all that readers do when they read stories well. Make sure you read whatever information about the story is included in the directions - often students skip this and miss out on building schema that could help them!As you read, model stopping at predictably important parts: when a character does or says something revealing, when a problem is introduced, when something changes in the mood of the character… Use the bookmarks that you will eventually give students as your cuing system, and show how you code or flag the passage to note when key elements are introduced. Choose a strategic point at which you turn over the reading to students in partnerships to continue the same moves you have demonstrated.For the second half of class, give students some multiple choice questions for the passage - some questions that are very common for this genre (see below for examples) - with the possible answers whited out or covered with post-its. Students should work together in groups to discuss the possible answers - forming their best answer first, then discussing among themselves and selecting the group’s best answer before looking at the actual choices.Across the Bend: Predictable Kinds of Questions and Teaching Points for Minilessons and Other InstructionCharacter Traits/Feelings Questions Coding or flagging the passage for character feelings and traits can be a first step in answering these kinds of questions. You’ll want to to teach students to be able to look back to the passage to find places where feelings and traits are likely to emerge: places where the passage uses words and phrases that sound like feelings or traits as well as places where the character is reacting to a situation or to another character. See below for teaching points from prior units that should be revisited now - note that if your grade level work looked different, you’ll want to bring back what you taught exactly, then show how the work students have done connects to the kinds of questions they are likely to see. Some teaching points that you might revisit now:Readers read intently, seeking out relationships that seem complicated, turning points in a story and setting details/ character dialogue that sets an emotional tone.Readers re-read important sections asking themselves how the author hinted at character traits, and revealed a certain tone or theme.When readers encounter objects or symbols in a story, they pause and ask themselves “how might this represent my character”, “how might this connect to a theme/ lesson” or “what might this symbol really mean”?Readers think about the perspectives of minor characters, using their reactions, dialogue and archetypal roles to infer these points of view. Readers consider how these other perspectives help develop a more complex understanding of the story Some questions students will likely encounter on the test:What conclusions can be drawn about the characters development, actions, or traits?What conclusions can be drawn about the author’s message, theme, or view?What inference can be made about the narrator's perspective about the plot?The author/narrator/character implies __________________?Which sentence/evidence/detail/line from the text best supports ________________?What inference can be made about the multiple perspectives in the text?Which word or phrase implies the character is __________________?In paragraph ________, line _______, what does the phrase most likely suggest or imply about blank ________?How does this stanza/paragraph/element about _______ affect the central message or idea of the story?For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York 2014 student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lessons 5 and 6Grade 7: Lesson 5Grade 8: Lesson 5 Character Perspectives/Relationships Questions Students will need to be able to track relationships between characters. You may wish to teach into students reading to think about how characters are interacting, coding or annotating quickly if something happens in the story that gives a strong impression of a relationship. Remind readers of what they know about walking in the characters’ shoes - this strategy will also help in answering questions about characters’ perspectives, and how relationships may affect these perspectives. T-charts may be a good quick strategy for comparing and contrasting characters. Describe the dynamics between characters (in a marriage, family, or friendship). How has the past shaped their lives? Who is talking?What are the different perspectives or points of view of the characters?What’s the solution?How did both characters react to ______? What’s the same and what’s different? Some teaching points that you might revisit now:Readers uncover the layers of conflict in fiction. They can study the personal problems that character faces but also the conflicts that exist in the world around them.Readers read and reread to consider the tone of the text-- what is the narrator’s voice ike and how does it set the reader up to feel a certain way? And readers also think about the mood the author is creating-- what emotions are brought out? Most importantly, readers work to figure out how the tone and mood affect the themes of the story.Readers look out for parts of the story that feel as if they have a spotlight on them, left by the author to point toward something bigger. They re-read these parts to ask: “What could this be really? Why did the author make the choice to include this here? What message is he/she trying to send?”Characters in fiction books are affected by the real world events that happen. Readers make sure to focus on those interactions and think about the effects those events have on the characters in their books. Readers may examine the pressures that are exerted on characters and how those shape identity construction- especially pressures from different sources. For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York 2014 student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lessons 5 and 7Grade 7: Lessons 5 and 6Grade 8: Lessons 6 and 7Setting Questions Questions about setting expect students not only to consider the place, time and location in which a story is set, but also why those elements are significant. If your kids are not seeing the importance in setting, you will want to teach them to take note of the location, yes, but also why that location is so important to the story’s plotline. If your kids are getting the time period of a text wrong, you might suggest that they look not just at the words of the text, but also at the surrounding illustrations or text boxes, which may hold important information about the time. Then teach them to think, “Based on what I know, the author is telling me about this setting because…” Questions about setting may also focus on culture. An author of an excerpt might describe something about the culture of a place or a community. If your kids are getting those questions wrong, teach them to use their knowledge of the place/community to make sense of the text and the question. Finally, you can teach students to think about how the setting is being described—dark, dismal, cloudy. Remind your students that the author chose these words not only to describe the physical setting, but also to create the tone of the text. Some teaching points that you might revisit now:Today I want to teach you that readers understand that sometimes the setting in our story can act like a character. We read asking ourselves, “How are the events in history or the setting having an impact on my character?”Today I want to teach you how to synthesize the clues that teach us about the mood or atmosphere of the setting. We think about the details that the author has included and think about what might the author be trying to let us know about this place. Readers in particular pay attention to how a setting shifts across a story, asking themselves how it shifts the mood or might represent something new about the characterReaders read texts closely to be sure that they are entering the world of the story they pay attention to the setting, the conflicts and the characters to be sure they are digging deeply into and making sense of all parts of the text, right from the start. Readers track the emotional impact of the setting across a text and note when the scene changes, looking to see if that setting change has an effect on the tone of the scene a well. Some questions students will likely encounter on the test:Why is the setting important to the story?How does the setting/feature the author used most likely affect how the story goes?The setting sets the mood or tone of the story by …….How does the way the author describes the setting affect his point of view?For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lessons 6 and 15Grade 7: Lessons 6 and 14Grade 8: Lessons 7 and 17Central Message/Theme/Central Idea Readers will need to answer questions about a central message, theme, big idea, or what something is “mostly about.” These questions do not refer only to the whole text. They also sometimes refer to particular parts of the text. If students are getting these questions wrong, they may not have grasped which part of the text the question addressed. You will want to show students how to stop and think across the text, naming big ideas in each section, and also at the end to stop and think: what was the theme of this story? Recurring words can help students with this, as well as considering big changes in the problem or character. You can also teach them to re-read with the theme in mind if the question gives them a theme and asks for the best evidence of that theme.Some teaching points that you might revisit now:A reader identifies the few things that an author really wants us to know and use the details of a text to support the claims we make about the author’s central idea (nonfiction - consider moving) Today I want to teach you that when a character acts in a certain way over and over again, or when a character changes a behavior at the end of a story, these actions are often written to teach the reader a lesson. You might stop and ask, ‘What lesson does this character need to learn about life. What is this book trying to teach me?’Readers ask themselves what an author is suggesting about large social systems or what critiques of society are featured in the text ( sociall norms about gender, class, race, etc) Readers compare and contrast different authors’ treatments of similar themes. The same theme or lesson will appear in different books or passages but may have a more upbeat or a more sobering tone, depending on the context. (this might be a good one for the writing unit)Some questions students will likely encounter on the test: What is the central idea of this text?What is a theme of this text? How does the setting help us understand the message or lesson the author is teaching us?The author implies __________. Which evidence/detail/line from the text best shows/supports/justifies the theme? Which sentence BEST shows what the story is about? What is the MOST important lesson the character learns? Which detail BEST shows the theme of this passage? For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lessons 5 and 8Grade 4: Lessons 5 and 7 Grade 8: Lessons 6 and 8 Vocabulary/Language Questions: Words and Phrases and Figurative LanguageVocabulary questions are often challenging for students - not only because the words or phrases the questions focus on are tricky, but because in today’s testing climate, these questions are about more than just finding a good definition. They may seem to be asking about the meaning of a word or phrase, but may also ask students to notice how this word or phrase connects to another section or to a theme or bigger idea of the story. So in effect, these may also be main idea or synthesis questions in addition to vocabulary questions. In poetry passages (or in other literary passages), students are likely to also see questions about the use of figurative language. We often see students focusing on a more literal interpretation of the word/phrase and not thinking about its role in part or the whole of the text.Some teaching points that you might revisit now: Some teaching points that you might revisit now for 6-8:Today I want to teach you that readers notice when author’s have included symbolism (images, object, metaphors, events) exist in a text. When we encounter symbolism in our text we ask ourselves, “How did the author use the symbol to advance the theme?”Readers notice when symbols show up that have roots in more classical literature. Before, during, and after we read we rely on our knowledge of classical fables, Greek Mythology to think about how these objects or images might mean something bigger. Readers don’t just skip descriptive words or verbs they don’t know in a story if those words come at a key moment for a character. They go back to try to understand what the unknown word likely meant- to decide if it seems positive or negative based on everything else that is happening in the scene, and then to use many words to say what it likely means. Some questions students will likely encounter on the test: In paragraph ___, the author most likely uses the word (Vocabulary Word) instead of (Word/Phrase) to emphasize ____.A ( Word/Phrase) is like a _____.Read the sentences from the text (lines __). Which phrase best matches the meaning of ________.Read the sentence from the text _______. The word ______ has multiple meanings. What does the word _____ mostly likely mean in this paragraph? What effect does the metaphor/simile/personification in line _____ have on the meaning of the text?What does the _______ (metaphor) mean as it describes the character/setting? What does the ______ (simile) in line ____ help the reader understand about the setting of the passage? For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lessons 13, 14Grade 7: Lessons 12, 13, Grade 8: Lessons 10, 11Bend Two – Informational TextsThis bend reminds students of all they know about reading informational, instructional and persuasive/argument texts, as well as what they know of writing these kinds of texts, and teaches them to apply this when they encounter a variety of types of test passages, all of which have a non-narrative) structure. You will want to get ready by putting together informational passages and questions for students to read in partnerships, then independently, across the bend. Be sure to include some examples of paired passages - passages that are connected through multiple choice questions across the texts (and may also have short and/or extended response questions). For the first five days, typical articles are the best as they are most obvious examples of informational texts. For the following four days, select examples of argumentative writing, as well as instructional or procedural passages - examples of this structure that are less familiar, focusing on passages you think will be a bit tricky for your class.Shared Experience Highlights - Making a Road-Map for Informational Passages - Teaching Students to Hold Onto Key Points and Details as They ReadIn your Shared Experience, be sure that you demonstrate for students the act of noticing that this is an article (or an interview, or a blog - whatever the genre, notice and respond!). Model reading the directions carefully and pausing when the test says, “Read this “article.” You might have a chart handy from a prior nonfiction reading unit so that you can dramatize the act of remembering all that readers do when they read nonfiction well. Make sure you read whatever information about the article is included in the directions - often students skip this and miss out on building schema that could help them!As you read, model stopping at predictably important parts: when a topic is introduced, when a section ends and another begins, when a key term is defined… Use the bookmarks that you will eventually give students as your cuing system, and show how you code or flag the passage to note when key elements are introduced. Choose a strategic point at which you turn over the reading to students in partnerships to continue the same moves you have demonstrated.For the second half of class, give students some multiple choice questions for the passage - some questions that are very common for this genre (see below for examples) - with the possible answers whited out or covered with post-its. Students should work together in groups to discuss the possible answers - forming their best answer first, then discussing among themselves and selecting the group’s best answer before looking at the actual choices.Across the Bend: Predictable Kinds of Questions and Teaching Points for Minilessons and Other InstructionCentral Idea/Supporting DetailsReaders will need to answer questions about a central idea, big idea, or what a passage is “mostly about.” As with theme questions in literary texts, these questions may not refer only to the whole text. They also sometimes refer to particular parts of the text. If students are getting these questions wrong, they may not have grasped which part of the text the question addressed. You will want to show students how to stop and think across the text, naming big ideas in each section, and also at the end to stop and think: what was the main idea of this article? What was the author really saying about this topic? Recurring words can help students with this, as well as considering big changes in the problem or character. You can also teach them to re-read with a main idea in mind if the question gives them a main idea and asks for the best evidence of that idea. Some teaching points that you might revisit now:Readers, when reading more than one text around a topic, compare the ideas put forward by each author. They notice the similarities and differences in perspectives, facts used and presentation techniques.Readers determine what’s most important by noticing the recurring details and the text features.When readers see narratives in informational texts they stop and look carefully at them. They analyze their anecdotes in the same way they read narratives: noticing the words chosen, the setting and the shifts in the story. Readers read texts noticing the difference between their take aways (what’s interesting/ fun) and the important information, or central ideas, that an author wants us to hold onto.When reading multiple texts around a topic, readers go from learning what a particular authors wants us to hold onto to gathering big ideas about a topic because of the overlap between texts. Some questions students will likely encounter on the test:What‘s the central idea of this part of the text? Which details help support the central idea of the text? Which of the following best summarizes a central idea of the passage? Which paragraph represents the central idea of this passage?Which line from the text best represents a central idea in this article?What reason does the author give to support his/her point that…? What does the author accomplish by…..?Read the sentence/content type (picture/illustration/sidebar) from the text and write about how it leads to the central idea. The author’s use of the phrase __________ reveals a central idea of the article by suggesting that…? For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lessons 1 and 3Grade 7: Lessons 1 and 19Grade 8: Lessons 1 and 3Vocabulary Questions and Getting Ready for the Vocabulary of the Test See description and suggested teaching for vocabulary questions in Bend One. Much of this will apply in informational texts as well.The vocabulary of the test itself is also sometimes a barrier. Some teaching for small groups to lift the level of their ability to word solve for academic language will help. Make sure that sight words are coming easily - if not, work to shore up this work. Teach some sorts on prefixes or suffixes if they need this work. Focus on common prefixes like “inter,” “anti,” “in”, “im”, “fore,” “de” (along with others―you can see lists of common prefixes and suffixes online) and involve students in sorting words which have these prefixes then discussing what they might mean. So, if a student sees the term “character interactions” on the test―she will now have another tool to help her and might think―“I know “inter” means between. So something between characters―maybe what they do together or their relationships.” This can be a task at the Vocabulary Center or a game.You may also want to create a "Concentration Synonym Game" or "Word Go Fish," in which students have to match words with their definitions. Creating games will be a fun and effective way of helping your students extend their vocabulary. Who said that test prep had to be boring?Some teaching points that you might revisit now:As readers become experts on a topic, they pick up expert vocabulary that increases their own authority. Readers are careful to not just use their own words, when talking and writing, instead they purposefully use precise vocabulary. Authors use transition words to guide your thinking, to show you how information is related. Words like ‘first’ or ‘as a result’ or ‘in relation to’ should guide your thinking and writing about the topic. Readers notice an author’s use of extreme words. Authors use extreme words when they want you to think about something in a specific way. Readers work to unpack figurative language. They envision what’s going on in this part. Often times this figurative language connects to the character or the setting. Some questions students will likely encounter on the test:What does the word/phrase _______ mean in this selection? Support this with evidence from other lines in the text. How does the word’s denotation compare to the connotation used in the text? Without changing the meaning of the sentence, which other word/phrase could be used to replace the underlined part? In this sentence, the word ______ means _______. What feeling or emotion is associated with the word usage? Why did the author choose to use the word _______ (instead of a word like _____)? Read the sentence from the article. ?“...” (paragraph 3) How does paragraph 7 support this sentence? What does this phrase ____ help you understand about the author’s point of view or perspective?For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lesson 10 Grade 7: Lesson 9Grade 8: Lessons 10 and 11Craft and Structure Questions/Author’s PurposeStudents will be asked questions about how the text is structured, and also about why the author likely wrote the text in a certain way. These questions should have a lot of overlap with the Author’s Goals and Techniques charts that have been in use this year across genres. The structure of a text might be an internal structure such as compare/contrast, argument, or chronological structure; the purpose of a text might be persuasion or informing the reader. As in literary passages, there will be questions asking students to think across parts of a text, making connections about how one part goes with the other. See the minilesson titled “Thinking Across Parts of an Informational Text and Their Roles” as an example of how to teach students to think through these kinds of questions.Some teaching points that you might revisit now:Today I want to teach you that readers can read like a writer - they think about how informational texts are structured and recognize when a new section begins. They can ask, “How does this part fit with what has come before? Is this a new topic or am I learning something different about a topic already started?”Today I want to teach you that readers notice when an author uses a comparison, because this is often when the author is trying to make a point or teach something important. Readers can think about how the comparison works - how the two things being compared are alike, and how that helps to understand part of the topic of the text.Today I want to teach you that readers understand that information writers try to get reactions from readers by choosing their words carefully. Readers notice when a particular word or phrase creates a feeling, and they stop to code for that feeling or strong reaction, underlining the word or phrase.Some questions students will likely encounter on the test:Read these two sentences from paragraph 5: “Soil in a forest might be gritty, which means more sand.” ?“Soil in a meadow might be smooth, which means more silt.” ?Which of the following describes the relationship between these two sentences? ?How does the author of the “_____” organize her ideas in paragraph ___? Explain why the author might have used an _______ to start this informational text. Which statement from “...” gives information about the text structure? Which sentence supports the reason for the evidence the author discusses in paragraph 10? For texts and questions related to these skills in the Ready New York student workbooks, from Curriculum Associates, see:Grade 6: Lesson 11 and 12Grade 7: Lessons 10 and 11Grade 8: Lessons 12, 13, 14 Bend Three: Test-Like Variety of PassagesDuring this final bend, you may opt to skip the Shared Experience, unless there is a particular genre (poetry, for example!) that you feel students have not been exposed to enough. Look carefully at what students are still struggling with, and choose lessons from the recommendations above that meet their needs. For student work time, you’ll want to move towards less partner talk and more independent reading and question answering, on packets that look more like a typical testing array - made up of a variety of text and question types. -761990Small Group WorkDuring this unit, you'll want to pull small groups each and every day during independent reading time, not during the test prep workshop, when you need to be conferring with and coaching students as they read and answer questions. We do think, however, that you might gather small groups on day 5 of this cycle as the rest of the students continue to work on independently answering questions. This will help you to address work that you see students still need around this sort of text type at the end of this bend before you move to the next bend. For the most part, it is important that students spend the bulk of their time during test prep workshop reading passages and answering questions while you move around to confer and coach. To form small groups, you'll want to review last year's test and do an item analysis for each student, noting his or her strengths and weaknesses. Look for patterns in your students’ work on last year’s test in order to ensure you are teaching skills your students really need. In other words, if a student answered a main idea question incorrectly on one passage, look to see if he or she answered other main idea questions incorrectly before putting that student in a small group on main idea. It could be that the passage was too hard or the student didn’t understand the question as it was posed. If you believe this to be the case, work on predictable question prompts that ask about a main idea and confer into the student‘s independent reading. Centers Work In the middle school curriculum calendars there are centers suggestions that you might feel you want to revisit or use. They are perfect for testing centers. As described in the content area calendar, centers are typically organized around a skill or type of text and are full of different tools and ways of learning. Usually, teachers create task cards which direct students’ engagement with the tools in the center and which tend to outline a progression of work so that students’ work becomes more complex and a higher cognitive demand is placed upon them as they continue to work at the center. Most teachers often have the last few tasks on the task card involve students in connecting and drawing upon all of the work they have done at other centers in order to help them with the tasks at this particular center. Suggested centers might be: Paired Passage Center, Short Response Center, Vocabulary Center, Questioning Center, Genre Center, Main Ideas Center, Author’s Craft Center, Structure Center (for informational and for literary), Fluency Center and ones of your creation. In addition, many teachers have created games to support test prep work and these games can also become centers.You can see Treasure Chest for some examples of task cards and materials which might go at a center.Timing GuidelinesBecause students are testing under timed conditions, eventually timing will need to be part of the preparation that they do. Many students need additional coaching on how to use allotted time wisely, both to finish within the time constraints and to not rush through, finishing well before the time is over but not checking their work carefully. At first, what is paramount is that students get plenty of practice becoming more comfortable with test-taking strategies, such as note-taking while reading, so at the start of the test prep unit, don‘t worry too much about timing. One way to start practicing timing is to consider approximately how much time students will have on average for each passage in the section. For specific information about timing of the test for particular grades, you can view our document called Facts of the Test on Treasure Chest in each grade‘s separate folder. If you have students who take too long to read passages, work with them on the strategies they are using to read the passage. They might be taking too long to read the passage, spending too much time marking it up before they go on to the questions. Or, they might be taking too much time going back to the passage to reread to find answers. On the other hand, students might be finishing the passages too quickly and would need more help with slowing down and reading more closely. If you have students who finish really quickly, check their responses. Our data shows us that test- takers, strugglers in particular, often read much too quickly. When students miss more than one or two questions, teach them to stop more frequently, thinking about predictable questions for each genre and holding on to as much information as possible before going to the questions. If most questions are correct, you might not have to work too much on timing. One final note about timing—it usually is more beneficial for students to spend more time on each passage instead of spending their remaining time going back and checking their answers at the end, as their recall will be much sharper right after reading a passage. ................
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