Reading a Passage
You do this BEFORE reading the passage.
What is read the questions only? Remember that you do not read the answer choices. Three out of four of the answer choices are wrong.
Look for key words such as numbers, statistics, dates, historical events, names, places, references, experts, and scientific data.
What are facts?
Central idea for the whole passage.
What is look in the first and last paragraphs?
If the word is not defined for you in the question
What is...look up the word in the dictionary?
Key words in answer choices that help you determine the answer. These are words that are used in reading and not everyday language.
What is academic vocabulary? The authors of the STAAR test want you to know academic terms and will more than likely have answer choices that include them.
You do this after reading the questions only.
What is read the passage?
Meant to be applied in real life and does not include the names of characters. May have more than one.
What is theme?
Grabs the reader's attention in the first paragraph and usually the first sentence instead of the central idea
What is the hook?
More than one meaning to the vocabulary word
What is...look for context clues in the sentence that the word is used in?
Read one of the answer choices up to the comma and determine if this is true or false. Mark above it with an X or a checkmark. Read the part of the answer after the comma and decide if it is true or false. Mark above it with an X or a checkmark. If one part of the answer is false, it is incorrect.
What are Two Part Answers?
You do this after reading the passage.
What is write genre, author's purpose, and point of view and write the answers for each one?
Descriptive or feeling based words.
What are opinions?
Support the central idea and include facts.
What are details?
If the word is defined for you in the question, you do not need to...
What is...look it up in the dictionary?
"No, never, none, always, all, every, entirely, only" imply that the answer must be true 100%.
What indicates false answers?
You do this before answering the question.
What is annotating the question by highlighting key words?
Look for key words such as first, second, then, next, finally, and after.
What is sequential order?
Central idea location in a paragraph.
What is the first and sometime the last sentence?
You need to write this next to the question
What is...the sentence with the vocabulary word and the definition of the word?
You need to use your brain bank (schema or background knowledge) and the story clues, text evidence, around the part of the passage.
What is an inference? These questions are not stated in the passage and can only by proven by context clues.
You do this after annotating the question.
What is reread and scan the passage for the key words in the question? It is easy to find words that are capitalized such as names of people, places, or things.
Choose the three answers that you know are in the passage.
What is what is "not included" or "all of these happened except?"
The central idea is also called this.
What is the big idea?
You need to do this after writing the sentence with the vocabulary word next to the question.
What is...plug in each answer choice?
Look for the ending in the passage or paragraphs. Mark out any answers that do not include the ending. Check for the beginning and the middle in the remaining answers. If there are two or more answers left, select the answer with the most details (who, what, where, when, why, how.)
What is summary?