Short stories
Identify the five elements of a plot diagram
What are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Identify the difference between a biography and an autobiography
A biography is an account of someone's life from another person'a perspective.
An autobiography is an account of someone's own life from their perspective.
The speaker
Identify the mindset students will need to successfully complete the ELA MCAS.
What is a growth mindset.
Before reading a text identify the strategy all students should use on the MCAS tomorrow.
What is read the directions and skim the text for headings and text features to make a prediction.
Identify the plot element where the character faces the conflict and changes in some way?
What is the climax?
Based on the claim:Chewing gum can improve alertness and lower stress levels.
Identify the evidence that best supports it:
Evidence A: During a class discussion, a student shared that he chewed gum throughout a recent chemistry test because he heard it helped him to stay calm and alert. He believed he did well on that test as a result.
Evidence B: In a study of forty participants, those who chewed gum while performing stressful tasks had lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of alertness than those not chewing gum.
Evidence B
Identify the difference between stanzas and lines.
Stanzas- are the groups of lines formed in chunks, similar to paragraphs.
Lines are the individual words grouped together in one row.
Give an example of something a student can tell themself while testing to ensure they have a growth mindset when faced with a challenge.
Answers may vary.
Identify the name of the strategy that is most helpful for defining vocabulary words.
What is context clues?
Name the six different types of conflict in narratives.
What are character vs self, character vs character, character vs technology, character vs nature, character vs supernatural, character vs technology, and character vs society
Give an example of a text feature that might be provided in a text during the MCAS.
glossary, diagram, graph, caption, footnotes, picture, etc.
Identify the difference between mood and tone.
Mood- the audience/reader's feelings about the topic of the poem created by the author.
Tone- the author's feelings about the topic they are writing about.
Identify one strategy to use when answering multiple choice questions.
-re-read portions of the text/annotations
-look for similar words/ideas in answers that are in the text
-look for opposite answers
Identify the two things all students must do before submitting their MCAS test.
-Check their work at least 2-3 times
-Get permission from their proctor to submit.
Identify the literary term used to describe the personality or physical traits of a character. Then identify the acronym used to identify this in a text...define each letter in the acronym.
characterization
STEAL
says, thoughts/feelings, effect on others, actions, looks
Name the five types of text structures
sequence, description, problem and solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect
identify the type of figurative language in the example and explain what it means:
If you don't mind waking up at the crack of dawn (or if you even prefer it), consider a career as a baker, a teacher, or an investment banker.
What is an idiom that means the people in these jobs have to wake up very early.
Identify the best strategy to utilize when a question references specific paragraphs or lines from a text.
What is re-read the portion of the text the question is asking about.
Use the context clues to define status quo: When things are going well, voters tend to endorse the status quo. For example, when the economy is flourishing or student test scores improve, voters are likely to reelect incumbent presidents and school board members rather than gamble on the challengers.
Status quo means the current state of things or the way things currently are.
Identify the four types of point of view and define each.
First person- the narrator is a character in the story and we know their thoughts/feelings. Uses pronouns I, me, my, we, us.
Second person- the narrator addresses the reader directly. Pronoun-you, your, yours.
Third person limited- the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of one character in the text. Pronouns-he,her,they, them
Third person omniscient- the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters in the text. Pronouns- he,her,they, them
Identify the synonym used for main idea of a text.
What is central idea?
Identify the verbal irony and explain what it means.
As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter flocked out of the houses and followed me. They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant. They had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot. It was a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd; besides they wanted the meat.
They had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot.
It implies the people are more interested in being entertained than in caring about their own homes.
Break down the example MCAS prompt to determine task, claim or narrative view, and any other important information.
Prompt: Based on “The Sound of Summer Running,” write an essay explaining the significance of the shoes to both Douglas and Mr. Sanderson. Be sure to use information from the short story to develop your essay.
Task: Essay
Claim: In the story "The Sound of summer Running" the shoes are significant to both Douglas and Mr.Sanderson because...
Evidence must come from both characters
Identify the required elements of a five paragraph essay and put them in order and identify the average number of characters expected for a writing task on the MCAS for a narrative or an essay.
Introduction paragraph: hook, context of texts, thesis statement
Body paragraph 1: topic sentence, context, evidence with citation, reasoning, conclusion sentence.
Body paragraph 2:topic sentence, context, evidence with citation, reasoning, conclusion sentence.
Body paragraph 3:topic sentence, context, evidence with citation, reasoning, conclusion sentence.
Conclusion paragraph: re-state thesis statement and main points of the essay, final thought