Reading Question Tools
This strategy for multiple-choice questions means crossing out the silly or wrong answers.
What is "Slash the Trash"?
The "Big Idea" of the whole passage.
What is the "Main Idea"?
The "R" and "A" in RACE stand for this.
What is "Restate and Answer"?
Revising with ARMS is for making the ideas in the story...
What is "better" (or "clearer")?
Editing with CUPS is for finding and fixing...
What are "mistakes"?
This question type asks you to find and click on the exact sentence in the story that proves an answer.
What is "Hot Text" (or "Click the Text")?
The "math problem" for making a smart guess: Story Clues + What I Know = ?
What is an "Inference"?
The "C" in RACE stands for this, which means using proof from the text.
What is "Cite Evidence"?
The "S" in ARMS stands for this, which means "to trade" a weak word for a strong one.
What is "Substitute"?
The "C" in CUPS reminds you to check for the first letter of a sentence and names of people or places.
What is "Capitalization"?
For a "Pick Two" question, you must find two answers that are both correct and...
What is "proven in the text"?
To figure out a tricky word, you should read the sentences around it. This is called using...
What is "context" (or "context clues")?
This is the most important part of an ECR, where you explain how your evidence proves your answer.
What is the "E" (Explain)?
The "R" in ARMS means finding a sentence that is off-topic and needs to be...
What is "Removed"?
The "P" in CUPS reminds you to check for "stop signs" like periods and question marks.
What is "Punctuation"?
This type of question has a Part A and a Part B, where Part B asks for the evidence that proves Part A.
What is a "Two-Parter" (or "Multipart") question?
An answer choice that is true but is only a tiny detail from one paragraph is not the...
What is the "Main Idea"?
You use RAC for an SCR (Short Answer), but you use RACE for this type of question.
What is an ECR (Extended Constructed Response)?
If a paragraph is missing a good topic sentence, you would need to use this letter from ARMS.
What is "A" (Add)?
Checking for the correct use of their/there/they're or was/were is part of this letter in CUPS.
What is "U" (Usage)?
The "Slash the Trash" strategy is most helpful when you can get the answers down to this many choices.
What is "two"?
When you make an inference, the answer is not directly written in the text. You are "reading..."
What is "between the lines"?
A great pattern for a 3rd-grade ECR is R+A, C, E, and then...
What is "C, E" (Cite and Explain again)?
Deciding if sentence 5 should actually come before sentence 4 is using this ARMS strategy.
What is "M" (Move)?
If you read a sentence and a word just "looks funny," you should check this "S" part of CUPS.
What is "Spelling"?