Strategies for the ACT English Test

Recommended Reading: Barron’s ACT English, Reading, and Writing Workbook [Paperback]Linda Carnevale M.A. (Author)

 It’s that time of year again. College applications are flowing out of high school students and parents are getting nervous. testing is a huge part of the formula, so here are some suggestions and resources  to help keep nerves calm:

Barron’s ACT English, Reading, and Writing Workbook by Linda Carnevale gives college-bound students extensive practice and review that will help them excel on all three verbal sections and all four reading genres of the ACT. An introductory overview explains the formats for the English Test, the Reading Test, and the Writing Test. A full-length self-assessment test follows with an answer key and explanations to help students assess their strengths and weaknesses. Succeeding chapters review the subject matter of all three tests and present drills, strategies, practice questions, study advice, and test-taking tips. Students review English grammar, punctuation, and style. They sharpen their reading comprehension with practice passages in the Humanities, Natural Science, Prose Fiction, and Social Science. Finally, they hone their essay-writing skills, guided by the author’s instruction in organizing their ideas, writing a rough draft, and editing the finished essay. A final chapter presents a full-length practice test with answers and explanations.

The Grokit website says:

1. Think simple.  As far as the ACT is concerned, the best writing uses the fewest possible number of words to convey an idea.  This doesn’t always mean the shortest answer is the best answer–sometimes more words are needed in order for a phrase or sentence to be grammatically correct.  But in general avoid answer choices that seem wordy.  The best answers are concise and clear.

2. Take the whole sentence into account.  It’s easy to read just the underlined portion the question asks about, or maybe just the clause that the underlined portion is a part of.  However, many times the other clause or clauses in the sentence can affect your answer.  For example, if the other clause is an independent clause, you will need to make sure that the underlined portion does not create a comma splice with another independent clause.  Read the whole sentence to yourself and you will be less likely to overlook an error.

ACT English Scoring

Just like the other sections, the ACT English section can earn you between 1 and 36 points. This score will be averaged with the scores from the other multiple-choice sections (Math, Science Reasoning and Reading) to get you your Composite ACT score. You’ll also get a subscore for both the Usage/Mechanics and Rhetorical skills subcategories between 1 and 18. These subscores having nothing whatsoever to do with your overall score, and most colleges and universities will not care what your subscores are. Strange, but true. The average ACT English score is about a 21, but you’ll have to do much better than that if you’d like to hit up a top university for admissions acceptance – more like between a 30 and 34.  Source: About.com

 10 Tips for the ACT English Test

1. Skim an English passage before starting work on the questions
2. On questions that ask you to judge a passage, lean toward selecting a choice that favors it
3. Choose answers that match the level of formality of the entire passage
4. The best way to write something is the shortest correct way of writing it
5. If you speak a “nonstandard” dialect, be extra careful with questions that focus on idioms
6. Watch for subject-verb and noun-pronoun agreement
7. Make sure parenthetical phrases begin and end with the same punctuation mark
8. Look out for sentence fragments and run-on sentences
9. Make sure that nouns and pronouns are modified by adjectives, and that verbs and adjectives are modified by adverbs
10. Learn the difference between it’s and its

Source: Kaplan Test Prep

Bebop Books: Common Core Now Supported

This comprehensive literacy program includes resources for guided reading, classroom libraries, shared reading, assessment and ESL/Dual Language programs. Explore our site to learn more about how Bebop Books can help your children succeed in their reading efforts.
Read this article by Jeanne Clidas, Ph.D.

Common Core State Standards

Our Bebop titles support the new K-5 Common Core State Standards. For every title, rigorous, reading-level appropriate decoding and comprehension questions for both Literature and Informational Text have been provided, targeting:

• Key Ideas and Details
• Craft and Structure
• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

| Learn more |
Guided Reading
Bebop Books are carefully leveled texts that appeal to children’s interests and provide the supports they need as they face challenges in their development as readers. All books are leveled by the most common book leveling systems used by teachers ensuring appropriate matches between children and books. Our titles cover a wide range of concepts, themes, and interest areas that appeal to children and fit right into your daily reading block.

Perfect for small groups, Bebop Books include leveled sets that meet the needs of your emergent readers and comprehensive lesson plans to guide your instruction. Our literacy materials provide opportunities in guided practice, scaffolded learning, independent sustained reading, and comprehension applications. In addition, all books contain text features that support emergent reader strategies, skills, and behaviors such as:

• Topics familiar to children
• High-frequency words, sight words and decodable words
• Simple patterns and a clear sequence of events
• Extensive vocabulary and more!

Lesson Plans
Our Guided Reading Lesson Plans promote authentic reading, writing, listening, and speaking experiences and are free for classroom use.

• Early Emergent (Levels A-C)
• Emergent (Levels D-I)
• Early Fluent (Levels J-M)
• Fluent (Levels N-S)

Leveled Library
Build and continually revitalize your classroom library with Bebop Books! Our extensive collections cover all of your classroom library needs by meeting national curriculum standards in Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, and Math, as well as providing dual language practice, and satisfying multicultural interests.
Bebop Books are available from levels A-S. See Grade Level/Book Level Correlation chart.
Meeting Criteria for Reading First Programs Are you a reading first School? Supplement and enrich your daily reading block with Bebop Books. Our titles focus on the five essential components of reading and meet the guidelines of the Reading First/No Child Left Behind initiative.

Assessment

Bebop Books is proud to have its books included in the Teachers College Alternative Reading Assessment for Grades K-2. Developed by some of our nation’s top educators, the complete assessment program will provide a trustworthy system for tracking and supporting children’s growth in literacy. The assessment kit includes twenty-two Bebop titles for use in grades K, 1, and 2, running records, student profiles, teacher scripts and tips, and assessment charts.

New York City schools can place an order using the NYC FAMIS form. Be sure to indicate NYC Vendor #: LEE075000 and NYC Contract #: 7000509. All other schools and school districts must use the Teachers College form.

Shared Reading

Practice shared reading in your classroom with Bebop dual language lap books. Lap books allow students to practice reading behaviors of proficient readers with the support of teacher and peers. A strong shared reading experience can help:

• Build on prior knowledge
• Promote print awareness
• Develop oral language
• Foster critical thinking and imagination

ELL/Dual Language

Libros en español
English Language Learners need the same literacy support as native speakers. Bebop Books recognizes the need for quality leveled books in Spanish, as well as English in today’s schools. We offer many Spanish / dual language editions of our existing children’s books. Young readers will find stories with familiar ideas and events, as well as stories with new information that will build on their knowledge base. Most importantly, the diversity of the stories ensures that all children see themselves reflected in stories that are fun to read.

Related Reading:
 
The Common Core Standards: A Defense
Tisch and King to Randi: No Moratorium on Common Core Testing

350 Fabulous Writing Prompts: Thought-Provoking Springboards For Creative, Expository, and Journal Writing

350 Fabulous Writing Prompts: Thought-Provoking Springboards For Creative, Expository, and Journal Writing Paperback by Jacqueline Sweeney highlights creative, engaging, thought-provoking prompts for every day of the school year! More than 300 ways to motivate even your most reluctant writers. Topics include feelings, ethics, “imagineering,” quotations, humor, problem-solving, school situations, and so much more. For use with Grades 4-8.

Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes. Due to the looseness of the definition, it is possible for writing such as feature stories to be considered creative writing, even though they fall under journalism, because the content of features is specifically focused on narrative and character development. Both fictional and non-fictional works fall into this category, including such forms as novels, biographies, short stories, and poems. In the academic setting, creative writing is typically separated into fiction and poetry classes, with a focus on writing in an original style, as opposed to imitating pre-existing genres such as crime or horror. Writing for the screen and stage—screenwriting and playwriting—are taught separately, but fit under the creative writing category as well.

Also consider Coming to Know by Nancy Atwell. This  book is for teachers who are ready to put writing to work across the curriculum. It is written by teachers of grades 3 through 6 who, dissatisfied with encyclopedia-based approaches to content-area writing, asked their students to write as scientists, historians, mathematicians, and literary critics do – to use writing-as-process to discover meaning.

One of the subjects of this volume is report writing and ways to help children produce content-area writing that is as personal and meaningful as their stories of their own experiences. Students learn how to take notes in their own words, conduct interviews, record observations, design their first simple research project, select appropriate genres for their research, and apply the techniques of writing workshop in science, social studies, and reading classes.

In addition, Coming to Know explores the uses of academic journals, or learning logs. Children speculate, brainstorm, role play, correspond, predict, and ask questions about math, reading, science, and social studies – and demonstrate the power of informal writing to generate thinking. Coming to Know is also about the connections between reading and writing, the effects of using writing to learn on curriculum and planning, and the role of children’s literature in teaching science, social studies and math.