Our focus for this week's class was again the Reading portion of the ACT test. We debriefed for Chapters 17 & 18 and reviewed how to choose which passages to do first and which types of questions to do first. Irene, who has taken the ACT, said that if you're confident that you can finish the test in time you do not need to worry about ordering the passages. For most students to get to that point, it would help to take a number of practice tests in order to work on speed.
Our book, Cracking the ACT, suggests a 4-step basic approach for working the passages. While it might not matter very much which passage a student does first, strategically answering the questions from easiest to hardest could make a very big difference. Most students find that after the easy questions are answered, the answers for the more difficult ones are more apparent.
I also want to reiterate a comment I've made more than once in class. One helpful strategy for success in the reading test is to simply read academic literature that is challenging. We tend to read material that is easy to understand, but for this test, the passages are at a first year of college level of reading. Another strategy is to work on increasing speed in reading.
For the college application essay portion of the class, we circled up the chairs and discussed a first and second draft of a sample essay. It is really helpful to hear multiple opinions when thinking about writing. Next week I will assign a rough draft of an application essay for the students. (They could start thinking about potential topic ideas.)
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read 1/2 of Chapter 19 (p. 273 - 285)
-- Work the Sample Dual Passage
-- Read the second draft of "Chuck's" essay
Links for this Week
Class Notes
Have a wonderful weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
No comments:
Post a Comment