Test Strategies
What is the FIRST strategy to do when you receive a multiple text test?
Count texts/questions and divide them between the amount of time allowed for the test.
What does the word conflict mean in a question?
Example: Which sentence from the story best describes Catalina’s main conflict?
conflict means problem
What do you do before starting to read a text?
I identify all the text features in the text such as title, illustrations, tables, graphs, pictures, captions, subheadings, and more.
What are the most common five organizational patterns an author uses when writing an informational text?
Descriptive/Compare and Contrast/Problem and Solution/Cause and Effect/ Chronological order
What 4 or more things do you do first when you are going to read a poem?
You write the number of lines, number of stanzas, the rhyme scheme, and while reading I identify any poetic device I found.
What is the most important thing to do to make sure you selected the right answer?
Provide evidence/proof from the text that my answer is right.
What does the word emphasize mean in a question? Example: The author includes the imagery in paragraph 1 most likely to emphasize...
Emphasize: Highlight or Make it important
What are the 4 strategies to do when the question asks for the meaning of a word?
1. Context clue/Find a word between ..____.. to help me understand the word.
2. Divide the word and identify prefixes (letter before a word) or suffixes (letters after the word) Example
Careless Care/less without care
3. Substitute the different answers while reading the word in the sentence.
4. Dictionary
When a question reads...What is the most likely reason the author includes the information in paragraph __? What is the reader supposed to do?
To understand why that particular information is important to the text.
When you read...Based on stanza 1 (lines 1–7) of the poem “__________,” the speaker/character most likely feels — is asking you to...
Identify the speaker or the character's feelings in that particular event.
Sometimes answers to a question include real text information but...
Even though it is real information, it does not answer the question.
If a question asks you...The story’s third-person point of view helps the reader
It helps you understand the feelings and or thinking of the characters.
What do you do when the question asks you to infer?
You find the text evidence + what you know about the topic = The inference.
Example: What can the reader infer about the main character?
Text: Alice's facial expression showed everyone she did not like those comments. + I know when someone does not like some comments the person gets mad, = The main character is mad about what someone said.
What does the word conclude mean?
Example: Based on information from paragraph 7, the reader can conclude _______
Conclude: to bring to an end/ to reach a logically necessary end by reasoning
In the question... Which lines from the poem “_______________” support the idea that the speaker _____________________?
What does support mean?
What do you chuck the story for?
To read a chunk and check ALL of the questions to see if I can answer any question with that chunk.
What does the word advance mean?
Example: How does ______________ in paragraph 8 advance the plot of the story?
To accelerate (make it faster) the progress of the plot.
What does the word support mean?
Helps/In favor of
What is the best way to summarize a text or paragraphs?
The summary should include Key details from the story meaning the Main Idea and Details or it should include information from beginning, middle and end.
When the poem says... These lines suggest that ... What does the word suggest mean?
Suggest: Suggest: to offer for consideration as a possibility
What do you do after reading the first chunk and before going to the questions?
Write in my words (paraphrase) what the paragraph is about.
Provide 5 examples of figurative language authors use in texts and their meaning.
Metaphor/ Comparing without using like or as
Simile/Comparing using like or as
Personification/Give human features to unanimated things or to animals
Onomatopoeia/ Sounds
Hyperbole/Exaggeration about something
Sensory Language/ When one or some of the 5 senses is used in a text
Imagery/ Visualize something the text describes
Alliteration/ Use of the same consonant in a line to create an effect in the reader
Idioms/ a form of expression that does not mean literary what is said... "Raining cats and dogs"
What does the word suggest mean in a question?
Example: In paragraph 5 what does the author suggest about the main character?
suggests: to offer for consideration as a possibility.
Explain how to address a summary question? What do you do to prove you selected the right answer?
I count the paragraphs and divide them into 3; the remainder goes to the middle. For example, if a text has 11 paragraphs, you divide it, and it has 3 paragraphs for the beginning, 5 for the middle, and 3 for the end. Then I write B.M.E next to each answer and find the one that has the most important information from the 3 parts of the text.
When you receive 2 texts and you have to answer questions about both at the end, what are some signal words that help you compare/ and what are some signal words that help you contrast?
Compare: Both/In similar/Similarity/alike
Contrast: Differ/Different/difference