ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 28)

 Greetings!

We had a full class today as we worked through Chapters 5 & 6 of Cracking the ACT book.

We started class with a Quick Write in which I asked the students to think and write about two prompts -- 1) What makes you unique?  What makes you "you?" and 2) What factors do people consider when making decisions for the futures?  I appreciated their comments about themselves and about their futures.

As I mentioned, we worked through Chapters 5 & 6, which are about the English Test.  This is the first test of the ACT, and it's mostly about grammar, mechanics, and word usage.  I have slides that I use to present the information; they are also posted on Google Classroom.)  We discussed basic steps for approaching the questions:

Step 1:  Identify the Topic (see p. 35)

Step 2:  Use POE

Step 3:  Use the context

Step 4:  Trust your ear, but verify

Step 5:  Don’t fix what isn’t broken

Each week I will go through 1 - 3 chapters from the book Cracking the ACT, and for homework, students will read that those chapters and do practice exercises or drills. For this week, they are to do the English Drill 1 (here are instructions for how to do the Drills on Google Classroom.)

One thing that I've noticed is that, due to the masks, it's harder to have discussions in part because it takes a lot more energy to respond and talk. That said, the class has done a great job at answering questions and taking part in discussions.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week

Read through Chapters 5 & 6 -- Be an active reader 

• Especially read the practice/example questions and the explanations
  
• Review the Summary
  

English Drill 1 on p. 54 - 56 (Answers in Chapter 25, p. 384)
Bring to class questions about troublesome sections or topics
Review the following topics as needed:  

• Verbs:  Subject-verb agreement, Verb tenses, Irregular verbs, participles
  
• Pronouns:  Agreement, antecedents, cases
  
• Modifiers:  Adjectives, adverbs, comparison, superlative
  
• End (Stop) punctuation:  period, question mark, exclamation point, semicolon
  
• Go punctuation:  comma, colon, dash
  

Links for This Week

Class Notes

ACT Syllabus

ACT Assignments Checklist

Spring ACT Prep Google Drive folder

Instructions for Drills and Practice Tests

ACT Week 2 (Ch. 5 & 6) Slides

Where Will I Go?  (due 1/28)

ACT Videos (Supplemental)

3 Must Know Tips for English Test

4 Major Rules for Commas for the ACT

Number 1 Tip for the English Test

10 Quick Hints for the English Test

ACT Grammar Top Punctuation Rules

Video:  5 Most Important Things to Know for the English Test

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 21)

 Greetings and Welcome to the first set of Class Notes for this class!

It was good to be back in the classroom and to see everyone's faces (at least I'm sure there were faces behind the masks.)

Note:  For those who have been trying to get onto Google Classroom, the site had been down for a couple days.  It's up and running and at its regular speed.

We began class with a Quick Write.  I asked students to give some thought to the ideas of where they saw themselves in 5, 10, and 20 years.  As high school students, it's hard to picture themselves that far ahead, but I feel it's important to start imagining and then planning for the future.  Students shared some comments about college, choices of occupations, and gap years.

After that, we covered some housekeeping topics.  First, I will be using Google Classroom for this class.  (Here's the invitation to the class.)  Most of the students are familiar with it from last semester.  All of the assignments will be posted on Google Classroom.  Finished assignments can be handed in during class OR on Google Classroom -- but not both!  I have all of the assignments posted as "Ungraded," so Google Classroom is the place to go to see what the assignments are and to see whether or not a student is missing an assignment.

For scores, students should go to TrackMyGrades.com.  You should have gotten an invitation to your account; your user name is the chatclasses.com email and the password is a 4-digit number.  

This week was an introduction to the ACT.  My plan for our week by week progress is to introduce the information, give examples and explanations, and do some practice.  Students will then work through those chapters that we discussed and do whatever drills are a part of the assigned chapter.  The homework for the ACT Prep part of the class includes reading chapters, completing the drills, and taking practice tests.

For the College Writing portion of the class, we will learn how to write the ACT Essay Exam and do some initial writing of the College Application Essays.  

In the Class Resources topic on Google Classroom, you will find these resources:

ACT Prep Syllabus, Spring 2021

ACT Prep Assignments Checklist

Instructions for Drills and Practice Tests

In the Week 1 topic, you will find the following material

What are Colleges Looking For?  (Google Slides)

College Admissions in 2021 (Google Slides)

ACT Week 1 (Ch. 1 - 4) (Google Slides)

Taking the ACT (2 Google Docs)

Have a great weekend!  

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week

• Read through Chapters 1 - 4

• Be an active reader -- highlight sections and write in your book.

• Review the Summary

• Sign up on the Princeton Review website -- www.princetonreview.com/cracking

• “Where will I Go?”  Worksheet

Links for This Week:

Google Classroom Class Resources

Google Classroom Week 1

Spring ACT Prep Students Google Drive Folder

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes blog

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

ACT Prep & College Essay Writing -- Grades are coming!

Greetings!

I've got all of the work in for the students in this class, so grades are ready to go out.  Before I send them, however, I want to make some comments about this class and work students did.  For the most part, I considered participation and completion of homework assignments as keys for grading the students this semester.  As I said in the Class Notes, the work they did was practice for the greater test -- the real ACT and an actual college application.  It didn't seem right to give them scores that coincided with how well they did or didn't do on the chapter drills and practice tests.  Every week, students came to class ready to engage with the material.  They listened well, asked questions, and were thoughtful about the strategies and tips for taking the ACT.  

Along with the scores for the class, I'm attaching the final draft of the college application essay with my notes and suggestions.  Many times these applications go through multiple drafts, so even though these are final drafts, I've included thoughts for further improvement  -- my goal for each one is that they have a great  essay that ensures their entrance into the college of their choice.

Look for two emails from me:  one with a copy of the final draft with my notes and one with scores for the class.

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

ACT Prep & College Essays Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 12)

Greetings!

We began our final class with a short Quick Write to reflect on the class and on the past semester.  Research shows that reflecting on what and how you have learned enhanced meaning and encourages insight and complex understanding.  (Here's a good article on learning through reflection.)  For that reason, I have students take time to think back on the semester.  I asked them to briefly write about what worked well, what didn't work, and what one "thing" they learned (from any class) that they found amazing.  I especially value their comments about the structure of the class because these comments help me make adjustments and improvements.

We celebrated our final class with a Christmas party that included an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Design" contest and a Jeopardy game.  Irene was our winner for the favorite "Ugly" sweater.  The Jeopardy game included the following topics:  ACT Strategies, Specific Tests, Essays, Christmas Movies, and Christmas Trivia.  By the way, research also indicates that using game-based learning strategies increases recall, retention, and cognitive growth.  So while we were having fun, we were still intellectually engaged in our topics.

This has been a great class of students.  Some are on the cusp of their next educational adventures, and some are still in their preparation stages.  The information that we learned about testing strategies will not only help with the ACT but with any standardized test that they might take.  (I used them for my teacher licensing exam last spring!)  For those who are not taking the ACT right away, I encouraged them to regularly review the material and to take more practice tests.  One student commented that I could have included more homework and required more practice tests.  He was right in assuming that the more practice the better!

Students handed in their final drafts of their application essays, which I will go over and provide comments.  When it comes time for them to actually be filling out an application and writing the essay, I am glad to offer any assistance.  Sometimes students use the essays that they write for this class, and sometimes they write a fresh essay.  Either way, I can help with content and grammar questions.

About grades.  My goal is to have the grades to you by the end of next week.   If you've looked at My Gradebook, you will see that if the work was done, the full number of points was given.  Scores for this class are primarily based on quantity rather than quality.  Since all of the drills and sample tests were practice, it would not have been right/fair to give scores based on how many answers were correct.  I gave the students the analogy of a sports team.  Although the practices are important and the players should contribute and work hard, the real assessment is the end score of a game.  Their real assessment of their work will happen when they take their next standardized test!

Links for this week:

Class Notes (with pictures)

Learning and Reflection article

Jeopardy Game for ACT Prep

Game-Based Learning

My GradeBook

My GradeBook instructions

I've enjoyed this group of students.  Each one is uniquely gifted for the plans that God has for him/her.  Feel free to keep in touch.

Blessings, 

Mrs. Prichard

ACT Prep & College Essay Writing Class Notes -- Week 12 (Nov. 21)

Greetings!

As we near the end of the semester, many of the approaches, and steps, and strategies that we cover are repeats of those from other tests.  For all of the tests, we use the answer choices themselves to answer the question.  We rely heavily on process of elimination and our personal order of difficulty.  

The last test, with the exception of the essay portion, is the Science Test.  It's a 35 minute test with 45 questions.  There are three sections of this test:  Charts & Graphs, Experiments, and Fighting Scientists.  This week we worked through Chapter 22:  The Basic Approach to learn 3 steps for working through the Charts & Graphs section.

• Step 1:  Work the Figures (charts, tables, graphs)
• Step 2:  Work the Answers
• Step 3:  Work the Questions

We devoted most of the class time this week doing peer reviews of one another's college application essays.  Before that, we discussed the purpose of these essays and what students should try to accomplish.  For these peer reviews, students were mostly looking at writing style and content that allowed the writer's personality to shine through.  Students need to send me a copy of their rough draft of their application essays.  I'll go over them and send them back.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Ch. 22

-- Basic Approach Drill 1 on p. 335

-- Basic Approach Drill 2 on p. 336

-- Basic Approach Drill 3 on p. 337

-- Final Draft of College Application Essays

Links for This Week

Class Notes

11-21 Student Notes 1

11-21 Student Notes 2

Week 13 Slides

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 12 (Nov. 14)

Greetings!

This week we started reviewing the final section of the ACT test -- the Science section.  This fourth test is a 35 minute long test with 45 questions.  It's divided into 3 sections:  Charts & Graphs, Experiments, and Fighting Scientists.  The purpose of the Science section is not necessarily to find out how much students learned and remembered but to assess their reasoning skills, their abilities to understand charts & graphs, and their ability to draw conclusions from data.  Knowing certain topics will be helpful because the familiarity will help students understand more quickly how data and conclusions connect.   They had an overview of Chapters 20 & 21.  For homework they should read through these chapters.  When they encounter sample questions, they shouldn't just read to find the answer and then move on.  They should also read the explanations.  These sample problems are used to explain strategies.

I've listed some videos below that are helpful with the Science Test.

There was some misunderstanding and technical difficulties regarding about the rough drafts for the college application essay, so we decided that next week we will do peer edits of our application essays.  In the list of links below are some websites with sample essays.  Students shouldn't try to mimic another essay because they will lose their authentic voice.  However, reading samples can lead to inspiration.  The should bring a copy to class and to send a copy to me by Wednesday so that I can print a copy for myself.  If there are printing issues at home, I can print the copies, but I need to know that by Wednesday noon.  (I have Wednesday commitments and go to bed early   )

Assignments for Next Week

--  Read Ch. 20 & 21  (No Drills)

-- Finish the Common Application Essay (Bring a copy to class and send one to me.)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Student Notes

3 Strategies for the Science Test (SuperTutor)

Top 10 Hints from Magoosh

Best 3-Step Strategies for the Science Test

How to Quickly Interpret Data

Twelve College Essay Examples

Top College Essays

The Common Application Prompts & Examples

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

ACT Prep & College Essay Writing Class Notes -- Week 11 (Nov. 7)

Greetings!

This week will be a brief set of notes because I might not have access to my computer for a couple days after tonight.

For the ACT Prep portion of the class, we finished Chapter 19, Advanced Reading Skills.  Many of the topics we covered are good all-around critical thinking and analytic reading skills that are useful for many types of academic reading.  

For the College Essay portion of the class, we discussed the Common Application prompts and then took time to brainstorm possible essay topics.  I have also attached a list of essay prompts that came from individual colleges.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read part 2 of Chapter 19 (p. 286 - 296)

-- Take and score Reading Drill 2

-- Take the Reading Practice Test (p. 450 - 459) 

-- Correct the Reading Practice Test (P. 511 - 518)

-- Write a rough draft of a college application essay

     Note:  We will do peer edits in class next week.

Links for this week:

Class Notes

11/7 Student Notes

Week 11 Slides

Common Application 2019 - 2020 Prompts

60 College Application Prompts

Have a great weekend!  It's time to get out those hats and mittens!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard