Get Ready for STAAR

1. Get Ready for STAAR Readers Rock!

2. Get Ready! Get Set! • Get a good night’s rest. Sleep happy! • Eat a healthy breakfast. • The most important things you say are the things you say to yourself. Give yourself a positive pep talk! • Come prepared! Bring sharpened pencils, a good eraser, and a great attitude. • Cell phones must be turned off, placed in your backpack, and left in the hallway.

3. Take the Test One Step at a Time • Read the directions! • Preview the selection and the questions. Read the title, headings, and captions. Look at any text features such as graphs, pictures, or sidebars. Think about the genre. Is it fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? A Play? Read the questions only. What should you pay attention to while reading the selection? The questions will help you think.

4. Take the Test One Step at a Time • Chunk the text and put thinking dots . at spots you should stop & think. • Read very carefully! • Stop on a thinking dot to think & track your thinking. • Track your thinking: (1) Put brackets around unknown words as you read. When you stop to think, use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word.

5. Take the Test One Step at a Time • Track your thinking: (2) Put a next to places where a possible answer to a question might be found later. (3) Put a ? mark next to tricky spots. Go back and reread the tricky parts to try and figure out the meaning. • Read the questions twice – carefully! Put your finger under each word to make sure you don’t miss an important key word.

6. Take the Test One Step at a Time[ • Go back into the selection to find text evidence (words in the passage that show you the answer) to support your thinking. • Read the question again. Does the answer match the question? Does the text evidence support your answer? • If you get stuck between two answers, then select the BEST answer. Trust yourself. • Bubble in your answers carefully as you go.

7. Take the Test One Step at a Time • When you’re finished look at the clock. Do you have plenty of time left? Take a little rest, then double check your answers! Go back over the tricky questions and choose the BEST answer. • Complete a TWO FINGER CHECK twice before you raise your hand! Once you turn in your test, you cannot get it back. Did you do your very best? Did you give the test 100% effort?

8. Tired? Stuck? • You get four hours to complete the test. If you take a restroom break it comes out of your time. If you need to go to the restroom, raise up two fingers and wait for the teacher. Make it a quick break. Don’t forget to get a drink of water from the fountain. • If you get really tired, then take a quick mental break. Lay your head down for one minute and think about your favorite thing, then get right back to work.

9. Tired? Stuck? • If you get stuck on a question, then put a big ? mark next to it. Go ahead to the next question. When you are done, go back and try again. Be careful with your scantron, and don’t forget to go back! • Remember to TRUST YOURSELF! Your first answer (thought) is usually right when you get stuck between two answer choices. Remember to choose the BEST answer. Did you find evidence to support your thinking?

10. Tired? Stuck? • Don’t give up! Persevere! When things get tough, the tough get going! You’re a Wedgewood Timberwolf! You’re strong and mighty! Push through the hard parts. • No matter what – find evidence to support your thinking for EVERY SINGLE QUESTION! • You can do it! Believe in yourself! You’re an awesome reader. Not it’s time to rise to the challenge and show what you know. • Wedgewood Readers Are the BEST in the Land! Go Timberwolves!

11. Review Time! Fiction – make believe stories with characters, plot, setting, and dialogue Examples of Fiction: Realistic fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, mystery… Authors write fiction to entertain and / or to tell a story. Plays are a form of fiction, but are meant to be performed on stage as a drama. Plays use dialogue to tell the story and some stage directions for the necessary action in the story. Plays are organized like fiction, but also include acts and scenes.

12. Review Time! Nonfiction – is real, true information. Examples of nonfiction – informative articles, personal narratives, persuasive (to convince) letters or essays, personal essays, instructions (how-to, teach, directions), recipes, descriptions (to describe), explanations (to explain), biographies, news articles, nonfiction narratives (tells a true story about a real person or event),… Authors write nonfiction to inform readers about a topic, event, place, or person by describing and / or explaining; to persuade or convince them to think differently or take action, and to give instructions or directions.

13. Review Time! • Poetry • can rhyme, but it doesn’t have to • can tell a story, but it doesn’t have to • usually has a theme or focused topic • is written in lines and stanzas • sometimes uses repetition • usually has a rhythm and / or beat to it • can be short or long • A line is to a sentence as a stanza is to a paragraph.

14. Review Time! Simile – compares two things using “like” or “as” Metaphor – compares two unlike things Alliteration – repetition of the beginning sounds Onomatopoeia – words that make sounds Personification – gives human qualities to non human objects Repetition – repeating a word, phrase, or line

15. Review Time! • Synonyms– words that are similar (little, small) • Antonyms – words that are different (big, little) • If you need to figure out an unknown word, reread the sentence before, during, and after. Plug in each answer choice into the sentence with the unknown word to see which one makes the most sense in context. PLUG IT IN • Do the same thing with dictionary definitions!

16. Review Time! • The BEST summary tells the main ideas from the beginning to the end. Be sure to notice if you’re supposed to summarize the entire selection or just a section or part of the selection. • Determine the main idea (main idea, mostly about, mainly about) for a paragraph by using tally marks. Put a tally mark next to the matching answer choice for each sentence in the paragraph. See which answer has the most tally marks. Does this answer make the most sense? Is it the main thing the paragraph is talking about?

17. Review Time! • If you have a question that begins, “Which sentence shows…?”, then circle the word and underline the rest of the sentence. The answer choice should show the part of the sentence that is underlined. • Illustration = picture • A sentence that best fits an illustration would also make the best caption for a picture. • To conclude is to figure something out on your own using your schema (background knowledge) and text evidence (words in the text). shows

18. Review Time! • Theme is the common idea or central idea that weaves through the entire story or multiple selections. • Examples of Themes in Literature: love, death, survival, friendship, family, perseverance, circle of life, growing up, honesty, fear of failure, hope, power, patriotism, etc. • In paired selections: (1) figure out the genre; (2) look at the way the writing is organized; (3) think about the author’s purpose; (4) notice what the two selections have in common; (5) think about what the characters have in common

19. Review Time! Narrator – the person telling the story First Person Narrator (uses the pronouns “I”, “we”, “me”, and “our”) The reader is being told the story by one character as if they are in their mind. Example: I sat down in hardwood chair in the waiting room, folded my hands in my lap, and stared at the door. Second Person Narrator (uses the pronouns “you” and “your”) The narrator is talking directly to the reader. Example: You should listen carefully and take notes. Third Person Narrator (uses the pronouns “he”, “she”, “it”, and “they”) The narrator tells the reader what different characters are doing and thinking. Example: She jumped off the couch and ran to the door.

20. Review Time! • Cause and effect question key words: why, because • He dropped a banana peel on the floor. (cause) • She slipped on the banana peel and fell down. (effect) • Find the situation in the text and prove your thinking with text evidence! • E + E = I Experience + Evidence = Inference • Text Evidence: The words in the text that prove to you that your answer choice is correct. Find the proof!