I have a suggestion

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Archive : 2002 : January : 12

I have a suggestion
By JS

This is a great question! I teach fourth grade in NYC where the ELA is our big test. If the students don't pass with a minimal score they are most likely retained in the grade if they can't pass the test again after taking
summer school. Lots of pressure from the principal to teach strategies for the test. In fact she has even said that we are to focus on teaching these strategies.......sacrificing other curriculum.....until it's all over at the end of January. Let me tell you I HAVE LEARNED A LOT!!!!!!!
Feel free to email if you have any questions.
Now to your question....One of the things I

teach my students is the "3 STEP STRATEGY" for reading passages and answering questions. This strategy works for all subjects and where students have to answer questions after reading a story or non-fiction. I got the idea from Kaplan published test prep materials.
Step 1 is READ THE QUESTIONS FIRST. This gives them an idea of what they should be reading for. They'll know to look for particular details before reading.
Step 2: Look for the two W's. The two W's are Who/What the passage is about (the who does not have to be a person or particular character. It can be a "thing" depending on the topic of the article) The second W is WHAT. What is the action, or WHAT is happening.

Step 3: Read the passage carefully.

This HAS to be practiced over and over. Many times students want to rush through the reading, but I have to constantly remind them to read their questions first. It has helped some of my students tremendously and they feel more confident before they begin reading. This doesn't just work for tests, it also works for content area reading where students many times have to read a chapter and then do the "Comprehension Quesitons" at the end.