Transcript Welcome to ACT Reading

Welcome to
ACT Reading
Mrs. Tomhave
[email protected]
Today’s Agenda
9:00 -9:10 = Introductions & Goals
9:05 – 9:50 = Baseline Score & Scale Scoring
9-50 – 9:55 = What did you notice? Strengths? Weaknesses?
9:55 – 10:10 = Questions types and examples
10:10 – 12:10 = Passage deconstructions & Strategies
12:10 -12:40 = Lunch
12:40 – 12:45: Scale Scores
12:45 – 1:15 = Question Match
1:15 – 1:45 = Full Practice Reading Test
1:45 – 1:55 = Scoring & Strength finding
1:55 -2:00 = Survey & Debrief
On-Line Test Practice
1) Sign-in to www.mel.org , enter password
2) Click on Reading test
3) Begin when prompted; you will have 40 minutes
4) When finished, record score on your hand-out
ACT Reading: #4
Prose Fiction
1. A
2. G
3. B
4. F
5. C
6. J
7. D
8. J
9. C
10.H
Social Science
11.B
12.F
13.A
14.F
15.C
16.G
17.D
18.J
19.A
20.J
Humanities
21.B
22.F
23.C
24.H
25.D
26.F
27.D
28.G
29.B
30.H
Natural Science
31.B
32.F
33.D
34.G
35.D
36.H
37.B
38.F
39.D
40.H
Scale Scoring
1)
Add up your correct answers (raw score)for each of the 4 sections of
passage #1
2) Add up your correct answers (raw score) for each of the 4 sections of
passage #2
How to determine your scaled score:
_________ x 36= _______ /40 = ____________
Raw
Scaled Score
Score
ACT: Reading
General Information:
•35 minutes to read 4 passages & answer 40 questions
• Always in the same order:
Prose fiction, Social Science, Humanities, Natural Science
Question Types:
1) Main Idea: of a paragraph or passage (theme)
2) Inference: what is suggested, implied, inferred
3) Detail: facts, people, theories, relationships, etc.
4) Vocabulary: in context w/line reference
National Average: 21
ACT: Reading
Quick Tips for a better score
Manage your time
Only use the info presented in
the passages; NOT
background knowledge
Start with your strongest
passage first; save
hardest for last
Average about 8 ½
minutes per section
Could throw you
off…all of the answers
are in the text
Be sure to bubble in
correctly if using this
method…know your
strengths!
ACT Reading:
Strategies that work:
ACT Decoding Key
Circle
Important names, dates, events…
Underline
Key points & arguments
Star
Important ideas, unique things that stand out
Strategies that work:
• Read the question stem first
• Start with your strongest passage, end with
your weakest
• Speed/Skim read…if you’re comfortable
• Mark up the text
• Use the process of elimination
• Manage your time
• Never leave an answer blank!
Question Types
1) Main Idea
Passage as a whole
or individual
paragraphs; “theme”
2) Inference
What is “suggests”;
author’s intentions;
your “guess”
3) Detail
Facts, dates, names,
etc.; line references
4) Vocabulary
Words w/context
clues & line
references
Question Analysis
• Look at the set of questions you were handed
• With a partner, match up the questions to the
“answer set” they belong with
• Read through the answer sets you matched to
the question and determine/guess the correct
answer. Record your guess.
• Read through the passage that the questions go
with, annotating as you read.
• Answer the questions.
• Log your thoughts for discussion
ACT: Reading
Sample Questions
PROSE FICTION: This passage is adapted from
the novel The Men of Brewster Place by Gloria
Naylor (©1998 by Gloria Naylor).
Questions regarding:
• Relationship between characters
• Inference
• Mood & tone
ACT Reading: Prose Fiction
Prose Fiction
1) Read passage #1 (9 minutes)
2) Answer the reading questions & Score
3) Discuss: What do you notice?
4) Read passage #2 (9 minutes)
5) Answer Reading questions & Score
6) Discuss: What do you notice?
What you noticed…
•
•
•
•
•
•
Topic/theme:
Question Types:
Tone:
Characters:
Difficulty:
Organization:
What you noticed…
•
•
•
•
•
•
Topic/theme:
Question Types:
Tone:
Characters:
Difficulty:
Organization:
ACT: Reading
Sample Questions
SOCIAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from
the chapter “Personality Disorders” in
Introduction to Psychology, edited by Rita L.
Atkinson and Richard C. Atkinson (©1981 by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.).
Questions regarding:
• Cause-effect relationships
•Comparisons
•Sequence of events
•Lots of DETAIL questions
Social Science
1) Read passage #1 (9 minutes)
2) Answer the reading questions & Score
3) Discuss: What do you notice?
4) Read passage #2 (9 minutes)
5) Answer Reading questions & Score
6) Discuss: What do you notice?
What you noticed…
•
•
•
•
•
Question Types:
Topic:
Organization:
Difficulty:
Key elements:
ACT: Reading
Sample Questions
HUMANITIES: This passage is adapted from “A
Poem of One’s Own,“ an essay by Mary Jo Salter
The essay was taken from Audiences and
Intentions: A Book of Arguments (©1994 by
Macmillan College Publishing Company, Inc.).
Questions regarding:
• Non-fiction
• Point of View
• Infer relationships between ideas,
events, trends, etc.
Humanities
1) Read passage #1 (9 minutes)
2) Answer the reading questions & Score
3) Discuss: What do you notice?
4) Read passage #2 (9 minutes)
5) Answer Reading questions & Score
6) Discuss: What do you notice?
What you noticed…
•
•
•
•
•
Topic range:
Specifics:
Question types:
Difficulty level & WHY:
Paragraph breaks:
ACT: Reading
Sample Questions
NATURAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted
from the article “How to Build a Baby’s Brain”
by Sharon Begley (©1997 by Newsweek, Inc.).
Questions regarding:
• Significance of topic
• Specialized/technical language
• Cause-effect, comparisons,
sequences…
Natural Science
1) Read passage #1 (9 minutes)
2) Answer the reading questions & Score
3) Discuss: What do you notice?
4) Read passage #2 (9 minutes)
5) Answer Reading questions & Score
6) Discuss: What do you notice?
What you noticed…
•
•
•
•
Question Types:
Tone:
Difficulty Level:
Organization:
Scale Scoring
1)
Add up your correct answers (raw score)for each of the 4 sections of
passage #1
2) Add up your correct answers (raw score) for each of the 4 sections of
passage #2
How to determine your scaled score:
_________ x 36= _______ /40 = ____________
Raw
Scaled Score
Score
Strategies that work:
• Read the question stem first
• Start with your strongest passage, end with
your weakest
• Speed/Skim read…if you’re comfortable
• Mark up the text
• Use the process of elimination
• Manage your time
• Never leave an answer blank!
On-Line Test Practice
1) Sign-in to www.mel.org , enter password
2) Click on Reading test
3) Begin when prompted; you will have 40 minutes
4) When finished, record score on your hand-out
Survey Link
• www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BQ8AK5GYM/
Thank you!