Step 1 Before Reading: Identify the genre.
Once my students know what the genre of the passage is (fiction or
non-fiction), then they can make a plan to look for the elements characteristic
of that genre.
Step 2 During Reading: If the text is a
fictional piece, plan to look for elements generally found in fictional text: setting,
characters, problem, attempts to solve, solution, dialogue, lesson learned, and
other key events.
If it is nonfiction, plan to frame the
paragraphs or sections of text. Then read to determine what that paragraph or
section is mostly about and record it in the margin, right next to that
portion.
Underline words that seem to be key words.
Examples of these might be: names of important documents, names of events in
history, accomplishments or achievements, etc.
Step 3 After Reading: This part takes place once the
student has finished reading the passage, is are now looking at the questions.
Teach students what key words are in questions, by showing examples of
questions and determining key words together. Teach these examples. Words like when are asking for a date. Words like who are asking for a name. Sequence words are key: first, next, last, finally, etc.
Tell students that a "good" answer
often comes before the "best" answer in a list of answer choices.
Tell them that one major problem many third-graders (or your grade) have when
testing is that they often stop when they read that "good" answer.
Tell that these students usually would have chosen the correct answer, had they
done one key thing...READ ALL ANSWER CHOICES. A good test taker reads all
answer choices and continues reading all choices, even after finding what might
be the correct answer. Then, since the reader has read all the answer choices to
consider, the reader can make the most informed decision, and usually does
much better on tests, than before he learned to read all answer choices.
Just as it was when I was a student in school, we still
need to teach students how to identify one or two answer choices that are
obviously not the correct answer choice. Tell them to draw a line over the
letter of the choice to "eliminate" the selection as an answer
choice. Elimination just keeps students from being overwhelmed with so many
choices, and makes the chances greater that a correct answer will be chosen.
"Prove-Its" - This is my favorite
thing to teach during this unit, because when the students get used to doing
this with automaticity, it can really make a huge difference. For some reason,
third-graders seem to think this test is like a science or social studies test
taken at the end of a unit, where they must read material, study, then take the
assessment, without having the reading material in from of them. To students, his often means
"guessing" if they don't quickly recall the information.
I really try to get this point over to
them...this is not that kind of test. In many ways, this is a test of how well you can locate
information, not how well you can guess. They realize the difference when you
have them read a passage completely first, then answer the questions without looking back.
Now, have them put their pencils away and give them blue or black ink
pens along with the reading passage. Have them go back and locate the answers to
each question, underlining the answer and writing the number of the question in
the margin next to the underlined answers. I tell them this is proving their
answers. Check together. (We always use red pens when we check together.
Parents know I use colored markers other than red when I grade, so they can quickly identify what has been
checked together for feedback, but no grade.) Have students notice if they did
better the second time, as they went back into the text to locate answers, to "prove-it".
This "proving" keeps down the
temptation to "guess".
Third-graders always seem to think they made
a 100% on all papers turned in, and are surprised when they receive anything
different. This is a hard concept for them to accept. However, if you do this
above activity enough, they'll get the idea. Whether they accept it or not, if
they will get used to doing "Prove-Its" on everything, chances are
they will do it on your state testing and get much better results, than just
guessing.
I hope this article is helpful as you plan for your tests.
