ACT Prep Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 17)

 Greetings!

We had a productive time in class today.  We started with a short discussion about bias in the news media.  Years ago, an infographic was published that should political leanings and reliability of many national news sites.  The purpose of our discussion was not to promote any media source or ideology, but to remind students to be critical thinkers who evaluate what they are reading.  

For this class, students will write 2 rough drafts of College Application Essays.  These will be essays that they could potentially use for their own college applications.   This week we worked through sample of multiple drafts of a student essay.  We discussed what did and did not work in each of the drafts and could see the types of improvements that made for a strong application essay.  It's helpful to look at samples to get a more clear idea about what a good essay looks like.  Over the next few weeks I have more samples that we'll discuss and analyze as a class.

We've finished the Math section of the ACT Prep and are now onto the Reading section of the test.  The Reading test is passage-based with 40 questions and is 35 minutes long.  The 4 passages are prose fiction, social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.  The first strategy is to decide the personal order of the passages and then to work the passages and the questions.  We covered basics this week and will go over some of the more challenging types of questions.  

 

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

• Read Chapters 17 & 18

• Take notes, highlight, underline, and flag sections

• Read Summary for Chapter 17 on p. 244

• Work Sample passage (p. 261 – 263)  (Answers in Ch. 25 on p. 394 - 395)
  

• Reading Drill 1 on p. 269 – 271 (Answers in Ch. 25 on p. 395 - 396)

• Common Application Sign Up

• Start on College Application Essay #1 (Not due until March 31)

Links for This Week

ACT Prep Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 17)

Sample "Ellie"  Essay

ACT Prep Slides -- Ch. 17 & 18

Chapters 16 - 18 pdfs

Common Application 2021 - 2022 Prompts

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 10 (April 1)

 Greetings!

For our class this week, we finished going over strategies and types of questions for the Reading test.  With these strategies, the students should complete the drills in Chapters 17 - 19, practice the Sample Dual Passage, and finally, take the Practice ACT Reading Test.  For this, they should use the first practice test in the book.  When they've finished the test, they should correct it, using the answers included in the test.

Here are some more hints for getting ready to take the Reading test:

-- Stretch your reading ability.  Find challenging articles and literature and read them.  Spending time with more complex writing styles and content is good preparation for the test.

-- Practice picking up the speed of reading passages.  Use a pencil to underline the text to help you to read more quickly and to keep you from going back to words already read.

-- Take more practice tests.  This will help you determine if you want to order the passages any differently than they are given.

We are working on college application essays.  For this week we read some sample essays and discussed their strengths and weaknesses as application essays.

Have a wonderful Easter Weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Week 11 (April 15)

• Read Chapter 19 (p. 273 – 285)

• Complete the Sample Dual Passage on p. 282 – 283 

• Read Chapter 19, p. 286 – 296

• Read Summary on p. 296

• Reading Drill 2 on p. 294- 295 (Answers in Ch. 25 on p. 397 - 398)

• Practice ACT Reading Test (35 minutes) p. 450 - 459

• Correct your test and read explanations for missed test questions (p. 511 – 518)

• College Application Essay  #1

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Sample College Application Essays

ACT Prep Ch. 19 Slides

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 25)

 Greetings!

We had a productive time in class today.  We started with a Quick Write for which I asked the students to think about what they might write about for their college application essay.  They were to start with 3 and then choose 1 to expand upon.  

We've finished the Math section of the ACT Prep and are now onto the Reading section of the test.  The Reading test is passage-based with 40 questions and is 35 minutes long.  The 4 passages are prose fiction, social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.  The first strategy is to decide the personal order of the passages and then to work the passages and the questions.  We covered basics this week and will go over some of the more challenging types of questions.  

Students will write 2 rough drafts of College Application Essays.  These will be potential essays that they could use for their own college applications.   I have some sample essays that we'll be reading for the next few weeks.  The one we read today had 3 versions, each one with improvements.  It's helpful to look at samples to get a more clear idea about what a good essay looks like.  

At the beginning of the class I checked in with the students about their homework and cleared up some missing work.  

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

• Read Chapters 17 & 18

• Take notes, highlight, underline, and flag sections

• Read Summary for Chapter 17 on p. 244

• Work Sample passage (p. 261 – 263)  (Answers in Ch. 25 on p. 394 - 395)

• Reading Drill 1 on p. 269 – 271 (Answers in Ch. 25 on p. 395 - 396)

• Start on College Application Essay (Not due until April 15)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Sample "Ellie"  Essay

ACT Prep Slides -- Ch. 17 & 18

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

ACT Prep & College Essays Class Notes -- Week 10 (Oct. 31)

Greetings!

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

Rocketbook Student Notes for 10/31

Week 10 Slides

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard