Portfolio: Kim Corey
Read the words that go before AND after the blank
Many students will read the word that is before the blank, choose their answer and continue on. However, often the word AFTER the blank is more important and will determine if the answer is right or wrong.
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For example:
There are many birds on the island. They can be ____ with binoculars.
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a. looked
b. spotted
c. searched
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Some students see the word "looked" and "binoculars" and will choose "a". However, the sentence "looked with binoculars" is incorrect.
Fill in the Blank BEFORE Looking at the Answers
Have your students try filling in the blank BEFORE they look at the options. This way, students don't find themselves questioning multiple different options when they already knew the answer.
Context
When reading the text, sometimes it switches between tenses. To make sure a student is choosing the correct tense, have them read the sentence for context. Just because a word in the sentence uses past tense doesn't mean that they are looking for a word in past tense, they may actually need a word in the present tense.
Part 5
Text with Gaps
In this section, students will be given a text with gaps - in other words, a text with words missing. They will need to select the correct word to fill in the blank.
Read the Questions First!
This way students know what to look for while they are reading
Method 2: Do 1 Question at a Time
The questions will follow the text. One method that students can try is to read question 1 first, read the text and find the answer and then move to question 2 and continue reading the text.
Make Notes
Have the students make notes on the text while they are reading. Highlighting parts that seem important may help them remember where information is once they get to the questions.
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At the end of the text, make a note about what the whole text was about as the last question often is about the text as a whole.
Part 4
Long Text, 5 Multiple Choice
This will be harder for students because of how long the text is. Tips are below to help handle this.
Questions Follow the Text
The first question will relate to the beginning of the text, and the last question will relate to the end of the text. If a student is at the end of the text and is on question 2, they need to go back up into the text to find their answer.
Wording - Read the Whole Sentence!
Be careful of wording here. Looking for Key Words can only help you so much. Once you find the key words, students need to read the whole sentence (and the ones before and after) to understand the context.
For example, I watched a student of mine read a text about two Ballerinas. A question asked if there was any family history of dancing. The student found the word "family history" and assumed that, yes there was a family history of dancing because of it. However, if that student had read the whole sentence, they would have seen that "there was NO family history of dancing".
Part 3
Long Text, 10 True/False Questions
Sample Prompt
5 different sets of people want to go camping and they all have different needs. Students will be given 8 campsites and the descriptions for each. They will have to determine what campsite is best for each group of people.
Key Words
Each situation has specific requirements. Look for those key terms in the 8 possible choices.
Do the Easy Ones First
If a student gets stuck on one, have them move to the next. Some matches are harder to connect than others. While process of elimination will not give a student all the answers, it will help them narrow down the possibilities for the harder matches.
Part 2
Matching
In this section, students will be given 8 choices. They have 5 situations and have to match those 5 situations to 5/8 of the choices given. The 5 situations will come with a description, which students will read to determine which choice goes with that situation.
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This is a challenging section due to the fact that the descriptions for all are long and process of elimination will only help so much.
Key Words
Look for key words in this section to help narrow down answers.
Read Questions Carefully
Questions may ask for specific details or generalizations. Just because the text is short doesn't make the questions easier necessarily! Be careful for phrases like, "at least" or "less than".
Read for Content
The texts are so short that often the questions will ask overall questions about the text.
Part 1
Short Texts
In this section, students will look at short texts like notes or signs and will have to answer questions about the content in them.
Reading Summary
Information and Links
The Reading and Writing sections are combined for a total allotted time of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Reading specifically though, consists of 5 parts.
