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ACT Reading/Writing. Mr. Schellenberg. Writing. DYK the writing portion is required of all students at Mona Shores in order to get your diploma! It is the last section of the ACT. It is a true test of your mental endurance!!!!. What Are They Looking For?.
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ACT Reading/Writing Mr. Schellenberg
Writing • DYK the writing portion is required of all students at Mona Shores in order to get your diploma! • It is the last section of the ACT. It is a true test of your mental endurance!!!!
What Are They Looking For? • It will always be a persuasive essay. • They are looking for a good first draft. • Chose one side and support it with a strong argument. • Organization (start with an outline) • No Title Needed • Indent paragraphs • Use good punctuation, spelling, grammar, and WRITE LEGIBLY!!
What Will You Be Writing About?? • The topic will always be related to school. • Examples of writing prompts are… • Should schools block access to certain websites? • Should school boards adopt a strict attendance policy for Seniors? • Should athletics be eliminated from schools? • School uniforms? • Etc…
Example Prompt • The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires all school libraries receiving certain federal funds to install and use blocking software to prevent students from viewing material considered “harmful to minors.” However, some studies conclude that blocking software in schools damages educational opportunities for students, both by blocking access to web pages that are directly related to the state-mandated curriculums and by restricting broader inquiries of both students and teachers. In your view, should schools block access to certain Internet websites?
Outline- Aim For 7 Paragraphs • 1- Introduction • 2- Most important point • 3- 2nd point • 4- 3rd point • 5- Personal experience • 6- Refute other side • 7- Conclusion
Introduction • Thesis • Attention grabber! • Take a position. • Pretend like you care! • Do not refute the other side in your intro. • Any questions on the essay portion before we move on to reading???
Reading Test • 35 minutes—40 questions—4 passages • Approx. 8 ½ min/passage + 10 questions • 4 passages include… • Prose Fiction • Social Studies • Humanities • Natural Sciences
Passage 1: Prose Fiction • The first passage in the section is a fiction (make believe) passage from a novel or a short story. Some of the fiction passages are very fun to read. But don't expect that you'll have read them before. The ACT test makers obviously don't want to test you on what you're already familiar with. They want to test you on how well you evaluate a passage that's new to you.
Prose Fiction Tips • Focus on character’s thoughts and feelings • Focus on the why, not the what • Keep straight who said what
Passage 2: Social Studies • The social studies passage comes after the prose fiction piece and covers sociology, anthropology, history, geography, psychology, political science, and economics. That's an incredibly wide range of topics when you think about it. The history passages are generally easier to understand; some of the psychology ones can be intense.
Passage 3: Humanities • The third passage can be about music, dance, theater, art, architecture, language, ethics, literary criticism, and even philosophy. Most students tend to like the humanities passages because (believe it or not) they're actually interesting.
Passage 4: Natural Sciences • The natural sciences passage can cover chemistry, biology, physics, and other physical sciences.
Where to start? • The Prose Fiction passage is the hardest of the 4 because it focuses on characters thoughts and feelings, whereas the others ask fact based questions. • I recommend you skip the first passage and start on passage #2!
Reading Tips • There are many ways to approach the Reading Test. For 99% of you I would recommend this approach. • Read the question stems first • Do not read the answers to the questions yet • Real world example: Mr. Jewitt assigns section reviews. You read the questions first. Then read the section so you know what your looking for.
Miscellaneous Tips • A question stem tells you to look for an answer on lines 45-47. Go to the passage and label with brackets. [ • If you are stuck on a question, skip it! • But answer all questions for each section before moving on to another passage. • Questions about theme can be tough. You may want to answer these questions last. • And the most important question- What letter should I guess if I don’t have a clue?? • It doesn’t matter, but stick with the same one!!
ACT Prep Book Pages 40-41 • Read the question stems. • Now you should have an idea of what the passage is about.
ACT Prep Book Pages 40-41 • Bracket off questions 33, 36, and 37. • Answer these three questions first. • Also, notice that two of the questions ask specifically about the Sargasso Sea. • It would be a good idea to underline this whenever you see it in the passage!!
#33 • Answer is… • D. River stage of the eel life cycle. • Keywords: Estuaries, mouths of rivers, upstream, Miss river system, rivers of Iowa, • Other answers make sense, but D is the main purpose of that paragraph.
#36 • Popular= G. commonly known
#37 • Read= observe • Plug that word into the sentence and see what makes the most sense.
Use the rest of our time… • Actively reading the passage • Underline key words (Sargasso Sea) and phrases • Jot notes in the column if you come across the author’s opinion or get a sense for the main purpose or theme of the passage.
