ACT Aspire-Grades 6 & 7
Testing Date Testing Time Subject Types & NO. of items
4/28 30 minutes Writing Writing prompt/1 4/28 35 minutes English MC & CR/45
4/29 60 minutes ReadingMC & CR/31
4/30 60 minutes Mathematics MC & CR/41 District option 55 minutes Science MC & CR/35 5/13 (makeup testing)
*mc-multiple choice *cr-constructed response
Reading Item Types
Selected-response items designed to collect evidence of student skill
level in specific domains
Constructed-response items (short answer questions) that specifically
test reading comprehension rather than writing skill.
Students must
Formulate a conclusion by making connections within a passage and providing support using specific details from the text.
Formulate a conclusion by making connections between a pair of passages and provide support using specific details from both texts.
Cause and effect relationships
Reading Bands for Grades 6-8 (Approx. 955 – 1155)
See if I Care
As I reflect in my old age on my accomplishments and disappointments, my triumphs and regrets, I wonder if I distort the truth to ascribe a certain, shall we say, significance to events. Is it wrong to interpret events symbolically? Perhaps I have read too many books. Perhaps I long to assign order and m eaning to what is mere randomness, mere chance. And yet (cal l me old-fashioned if you’d like) a life without meaning strikes me as una cceptable, even impossible, because to me it seems the more th ings change, the more they stay the same. I consider chaos, chance, and randomness nothing more than the newest attempts to explain this inexplicable life. Of course I am thinking of my career, my meteoric rise to editor -in-chief and my ruination, which at the time seemed wholly withou t cause or explanation. Even then, it is true, I considered Grady Maxwell my story's villain. But I did not hate the man. I almost rather pitied him. No longer. He has grown in my mind over the years, and so too has his importance to my story. Maxwell's very brilliance blinded me to the traps he laid, and I fell into them, helpless. But I do not like to dwell on evil. I occupy my days with my hobbies. I have a wonderful collection of butterflies, the joy of my life, including the astonishingly rare Greta Oto, the glass winged butterfly, which I captured in the marshlands of southern Mexico.
See if I Care
As I reflect in my old age on my accomplishments and disappointments, my triumphs and regrets, I wonder if I distort the truth to ascribe a certain, shall we say, significance to events. Is it wrong to interpret events symbolically? Perhaps I have read too many books. Perhaps I long to assign order and m eaning to what is mere randomness, mere chance. And yet (cal l me old-fashioned if you’d like) a life without meaning strikes me as una cceptable, even impossible, because to me it seems the more th ings change, the more they stay the same. I consider chaos, chance, and randomness nothing more than the newest attempts to explain this inexplicable life. Of course I am thinking of my career, my meteoric rise to editor -in-chief and my ruination, which at the time seemed wholly withou t cause or explanation. Even then, it is true, I considered Grady Maxwell my story's villain. But I did not hate the man. I almost rather pitied him. No longer. He has grown in my mind over the years, and so too has his importance to my story. Maxwell's very brilliance blinded me to the traps he laid, and I fell into them, helpless. But I do not like to dwell on evil. I occupy my days with my hobbies. I have a wonderful collection of butterflies, the joy of my life, including the astonishingly rare Greta Oto, the glass winged butterfly, which I captured in the marshlands of southern Mexico.
Left column in computer testing
What will Aspire Text Passages look like?
Aspire Reading Passage Length
• See the printed sample text provided for you.
• Lexile 1100 – within the middle school range (probably 8th grade or EHS).
Grades 3-8 have 60 minutes to read
three or four passages and answer 31
questions:
Passages A (and B)– Social Science
(an informative piece from anthropology, business, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, etc.)
Passage C – Literary Narrative
(a novel or short story excerpt)
Passage D – Natural Science
(an informative piece from biology, chemistry, geology, medicine, physics, technology, zoology, etc.)
* That’s roughly 15 - 20 minutes per passage;
or1.9 minutes per question.
•
determine main ideas
• locate & interpret important details
• understand sequences of events
• make connections (comparisons/contrasts)
between texts
• determine cause/effect relationships
• make generalizations / conclusions
• analyze the passage's mood or tone
•
formulate conclusions, providing support (specific
details) from one or more texts
Aspire Reading Questions (Objective and CR)
ask students to…
PART 2: PREPARING FOR THE TEST
Yes, you should because the ACT doesn’t penalize for guessing. It’s better
to answer all questions than to skip one or leave it
blank.. The I can read
anything, but I wonder if I have to answer every
Let’s Get Revved up for Active Reading!
EYES - Good readers LOOK for clues to draw conclusions, make predictions, and support statements.
HEART - Good readers LOVE to make brain movies while reading. NOSE - Good readers SNIFF
OUT important details.
EARS - Good readers LISTEN to their own
thinking, asking and answering questions while they read.
STOMACH - Good readers are HUNGRY to connect their text to things they already know.
FEET - Good readers STAND FIRM in knowing the parts of a text and use knowledge to help them
understand.
HANDS - Good readers PUT IT ALL TOGETHER to retell, summarize, and compare.
KNEES - Good readers know they NEED to understand what they read and know what to do when they don’t.
WAIST - Good readers don’t WASTE time… they choose a purpose for reading and pick the best strategy.
Strategies for the Reading Test:
You should have two goals when you first read the passage: 1) find the main idea, and
2) get a vague idea of what is going on in the different paragraphs.
What’s the main idea?
What does each paragraph add to
General Strategies for the Reading Test:
•
Mark While You Read
- Read and annotate the passages first. If you try to read the questions first and return to look for the answers, you will get the “basketball-suicide-laps” effect.•
Look for “Specials”
-Circle or underline structural clues:- (trigger words), especially if they begin a paragraph - numbers
- bolded or italicized words - names
•
Expect to Paragraph Hop
– Questions are NOT arranged in the order of the passage. You will have to use margin Notes to find the location of answers.General Strategies for the Reading Test:
•
Expect Return Trips:
Do not begin with the idea that you can read the passage once and answer the questions without going back. The test passages are designed to make you go back to find evidence.•
Map the Passage:
Jot down notes in the margin beside each paragraph so that you can easily find the info you need when you go back to find answers.General Strategies for the Reading
Test:
•
Increase Your Chances
-ACT and Aspire always have 4 possible answers.
If you can eliminate one answer, you have a 25% higher chance of getting it right.
If you can eliminate two answers, you have a 50% chance of getting it right.
One answer choice could not possibly be correct. Two others will be close to each other or will be details. The fourth will be the right answer. You should be able to eliminate at least one.
The next few slides will
give you a game plan to
follow for the Aspire
Attacking Any Passage:
•
Begin with the Blurb
- Each passage is prefaced by a “blurb” in italics that provides context for the passage. The blurb can bequite important, so read it and underline any key words. Example:
SOCIAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from the article “Biscotti di Prato” by Pamela Sheldon Johns (2011, The Art of Eating)
Eve
n if you don’t k
now wha
t the word “bis cotti” mea ns, y ou now know tha
t it has som
eth ing to do w
ith eating.
Attacking an Informational Text
Passage:
• You will read the first paragraph closely to look for the author’s thesis or main/central idea.
• But then read only the first sentence of each of the rest of the paragraphs, skimming and marking the “specials” or structural clues already discussed (trigger words, numerals,
bolded or italicized words, and names).
• Read the last paragraph of the passage to confirm what you first thought about the thesis or main/central idea.
B
= Beginning. Read the title and the blurb in italics and determine what clues they give you. Highlight or circle key words.2
= Read the first two sentences of the first paragraph1, 1
= Read and highlight or underline the first sentence of each body paragraph.F
= Final. Read the last paragraph of the passage to confirm main/central idea.From these pieces, you should have a fair understanding of the passage’s content. Now visit the questions and see what further reading you need to do.
Informational Text Strategy:
1. Underline keywords in the blurb and/or author and title for clues to
topic.
2. Underline the first two sentences in paragraph one. Then closely read the rest of it for the author’s thesis. What does s/he want you to know, think about, or believe?
3. Read and underline the first sentence of each paragraph. Skim the rest of the paragraph, looking for important
information.
*Note “specials” and jot down one key idea for each
paragraph in the margins.
4. Closely read the last paragraph to verify the
thesis/main/central idea you found. By now, you should know what the author was trying to say.
Let’s Practice Reading Informational Text!
As you read the passage provided for you, apply
the B, 2, 1, 1, F strategy. You will be timed.
Now prepare to use option elimination strategies
to answer the questions.
Ready,
Set, Go!
Attacking a Fictional Text Passage:
• In these passages you are looking for problems and solutions.
• You will read the first two paragraphs to look for
• setting
• characters
• problem
• Underline “specials” (names, words in foreign languages, numerals, bolded or italicized words, and place names). • Skim through the rest of the passage to confirm what you
first thought about the thesis or main/central idea.
S
= Setting. Read the title, the blurb in italics, and the first twoparagraphs to determine what clues they give you about when and where the passage is set. Highlight or circle key words that will help you make mind movies.
C
= Character. Read the next few paragraphs to gather information. What can you infer about the characters and the narrator?Jot down notes in the margin beside each paragraph.
CP
= Central Problem. From reading the first few paragraphs youshould have a good idea of what the problem is. Write a word or two in the margin beside that paragraph when you find it.
So
= Solution. Read the last few paragraphs of the passage to find a partial solution to the problem. Now you should have a fairunderstanding of the passage’s content.
Visit the questions and use margin notes to help you find the answers.
Fictional Text Strategy:
Read with
a pencil in
hand!
1. Read the first two paragraphs (or the first column) to identify setting, characters, and the central problem. Mark each in the margins.
2. Read the rest of the paragraphs to identify attempted solutions. *Don’t expect a full solution to the original problem.
* Notice that you spend more time reading the fiction passage.
Let’s Practice Reading Fictional Text!
As you read, use the “problem-solution” identification strategy
Now prepare to use option elimination strategies
to answer the questions.
Ready,
Set, Go!
CONCLUSIONS
:
• ACT and Aspire are not close reading but close reading will
prepare students for the kind of independent reading they will need to do.
• Students will be tested on more informational text than
fictional text.
• Students may see headings and subheadings but are unlikely to see any other informational text structures.
TEACHABLE MOMENTS:
• We need to build reading stamina in students starting NOW.
• Students need to practice inferring setting, character, and conflict
(problem/solution) in fiction texts.
• Students need to practice noticing sequence (e.g., steps in a process) when
some steps are missing.
• Students need to practice noticing thesis statements and topic sentences in
informational texts.
• Students need to practice underlining key terms in questions.
• Students need to practice answering constructed-response items (e.g., those
