PSSA Test Taking Strategies for Multiple Choice and Constructed Response - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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PSSA Test Taking Strategies for Multiple Choice and Constructed Response

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Title: PSSA Test Taking Strategies for Multiple Choice and Constructed Response


1
PSSA Test Taking Strategies for Multiple Choice
andConstructed Response
2
Prepare Physically and Mentally
3
Be Physically Ready
  • Get a good nights sleep before the test.
  • The morning of the test, eat a breakfast that
    includes protein eggs, bacon, peanut butter,
    cheese, yogurt, tofu, etc.
  • BE ON TIME.
  • Stretch during testing breaks.
  • Wear comfortable clothes! ?

4
Be Mentally Prepared
  • Being nervous or not caring ruins your
    performance.
  • Be competitive with the test
  • makers, not intimidated by them.
  • Remember, the passages were not chosen to
    entertain you. Keep yourself engaged through
    active reading, highlighting, and writing margin
    notes.

5
Before Reading Strategies
  • The test is on your desk.
  • What do you do now?

6
Open the Proper Mental Files
  • Scan the test and look at the task ahead of
    you, but only after you have been told to start,
    and only the test that you are going to work on
    in that session

  • Identify the genres and subgenres of the
    passages. Activate what you know about these
    types of reading. What kinds of questions do you
    expect for an informational vs. a narrative vs.
    a poem?

7
Scavenger Hunt
  • Read the multiple choice and open-ended questions
    before you read the passage.
  • Dont read the answer choices. Doing so will take
    too long and confuse you later.
  • In each question, highlight the key words that
    tell you what the test maker is looking for-main
    idea, compare, or in the beginning of the
    passage.
  • Highlight unusual or very specific
    words/phrases that you can look for while
    reading.

8
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9
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11
ANSWERING Best Questions
  • Sample questions Which best explains? or
    Which best supports?
  • When you see the word best
  • One choice is OK/good
  • One choice is better
  • One choice is BEST
  • One choice is a total distraction
  • Dont choose the FIRST OK answer you come across-
    read all choices!!!

12
The Constructed Response
  • Give them what they want!

13
Constructed Response
  • Read the constructed response or essay question
    before you start reading the passage.
  • Highlight or underline things you are asked to
    do, statements like
  • Explain the main idea...
  • Describe the character...
  • Use 3 examples from the passage...
  • Keep the constructed response prompt in the back
    of your mind while you are reading.

14
The Constructed Response
  • The most important thing to know is that your
    comprehension is whats being evaluated here
    they want to know if you understood the reading.
  • You must answer ALL PARTS of the question.
  • You must include the right number of specific
    details from the text to support your answer.
  • You must tell why your text details support your
    answer.
  • You should not include things that have little to
    do with the passage, like your personal
    experiences, unless they tie DIRECTLY to the
    question.

15
  • AREA
  • Answer
  • Reasons (Give context!)
  • Evidence
  • Answer Again

16
Writing Your Constructed Response Essay
  • You will be given scratch paper during the PSSA,
    but you will NOT be told what to do with it.
  • Thats up to you.
  • You should automatically think

Venn Diagram
Graphic Organizer
Write Tools Essay Organizer
  • Decide what works best for your ideas.

17
Use the words In the prompt to Form your topic
Sentence.
The word that I would use to describe both the
student and the school representative is logical.
An example of the student being logical is that
he said that cell phones are needed for safety.
A parent might need to get in touch with a child
in an emergency.
Example of logic from 1st one
The school representative is also logical when he
says that cell phones ringing in class will cause
disruptions since kids will forget to turn them
off.
Example of logic from 2nd one
18
Writing Your Constructed Response Essay
  • Transfer your response from your scratch paper to
    the test booklet when you feel that it answers
    the prompt completely.
  • Use your best writing skills (even though your
    writing ability is not being scored on the PSSA
    Reading Test.)
  • Use high level vocabulary, clearly expressed
    and organized ideas to create paragraphs.
  • Proofread.

19
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20
When youre finished, remember
  • DONT TRUST YOUR MEMORY
  • GO BACK TO THE TEXT.
  • Its not cheating you have the time, and why
    else did you highlight?

21
During Reading Strategies
22
Active Reading Strategies
  • RESEARCH SHOWS YOU ABSORB INFORMATION BETTER WHEN
    YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING!!
  • Read with a pencil in your hand, underlining key
    phrases, and/or use a highlighter to mark
    important parts of the passage

23
ACTIVE READING STRATEGIES
  • Always read the text in the box at the top of the
    first page and any footnote. The main idea and
    more are often stated in the box, and the genre
    or source is often revealed in the footnote.
  • Read in chunks, stopping frequently (every
    paragraph or sub section) to question the author.
    Ask yourself, What did the author give me in
    this chunk of text? Make notes in the margin!

24
  • Silently restate the main idea/key point of that
    chunk in your mind.
  • If you cant restate it, REREAD IT until you can.
    This way youll catch where you stopped
    understanding, and youll be more willing to
    reread a chunk than the whole piece.

25
  • Label it. Highlight or make a margin note of the
    main idea/key point. This will help you locate
    relevant parts of the passage when youre
    answering the questions, including the
    constructed response.

26
Highlighting Strategies
  • We all know to highlight whats important as we
    read,
  • but what is important here?
  • Highlight only main ideas/key points (yellows)
    and text that match the questions.
  • Dont worry about vocabulary words they will
    already be underlined in the text.
  • As you read, highlight any sentence that
    contains the unusual words that you
    highlighted in the questions. The answer is
    probably right there.
  • Highlight areas that address the inferential
    questions about main idea, theme, conflict,
    character traits, etc.

Caution Too much highlighting defeats the
purpose of highlighting.
27
Answering Word Identification Questions
  • You will be asked to identify meaning of a word
    based on context in passage
  • Re-read sentence
  • Before sentence with word
  • With Word
  • After sentence with word
  • Pay special attention to all words underlined,
    italicized, or boldfaced

28
Genre

Main idea clue
Hes for cell phones
3 Shakypics can Help with vandalism
1st reason safety
4 Fla did it.
2nd reason simplify life for everyone
Concl. the times Are changing
29
3 Cheating
Against cells
Reason 1 fisrupt class kids forget to turn
off
Conc No for safety and learning env.
2 Shaky-May cause danger
30
Eliminate those that Dont match text.
Go There
Highlighted Go there!
Go There and Read context.
Substitute each
31
Find the one that recognizes the other side
2 possible answers!
If you dont know what 1st person POV is good
for, you wont get this one.
32
This is an authors purpose. The answer has to
apply to BOTH
33
After ReadingStrategies
34
Ive Tried All That And Still Dont Have A Clue
  • Research shows that first instincts are often
    correct, but we tend to second guess ourselves.
  • If you cannot figure out the answer by using the
    text and strategies within a few minutes, go with
    your first impression. Dont leave it blank. You
    run the risk of incorrectly numbering the rest of
    the test.
  • Circle the questions youre unsure of, even
    though youve answered them. Go back when youre
    done with the section and take a fresh look.
    Sometimes, later questions help to answer
    earlier ones.

35
  • Bubbling Advice
  • A dull pencil works best its faster and does
    not snap off or tear the paper.
  • DO NOT press so hard that you cant completely
    erase the bubble.
  • Make sure that the center of the bubble is filled
    in the scanner reads from the center of the
    bubble.
  • Erase all stray marks and smudges. They may be
    read as answers.

36
The PSSA Format
  • Knowing the tests design can help you
    strategically.
  • There are 6 tests on this years PSSA
  • 3 Math
  • 3 Reading
  • You will alternate, starting with Math.
  • On the 3 Reading sections, you will answer a
    total of
  • 58 Multiple Choice Questions
  • 5 Constructed Response Questions
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