ACT Tips

Check out these helpful hints about the ACT from Mrs. Russell! Use the top tips for your classroom and share the bottom ones with students.

Key ACT Prep Strategies for Your School

1. Content remediation is key.

Studies have found that ACT scores are correlated to content knowledge and reading level, NOT test taking skills. As a matter of fact, one study in Illinois found that the amount of class time spent teaching test taking skills was NEGATIVELY correlated with ACT scores.

2. Don't make assumptions about your students' knowledge of fundamentals.

Even high performing students miss ACT questions correlated with fundamentals. If you simply try giving your students a refresher on ACT content instead of actually finding and remediating their deficiencies, you will achieve limited results.

 

3. Work on pattern recognition.

Even if students know how to solve a certain math problem or how to correct a specific grammar error, they may still miss the ACT-level question because they fail to recognize that they need to apply the math or grammar rule to that particular question. Practice helps the students recognize  question patterns and know when a question calls for applying a specific skill or rule. Every skill we teach in the ACT Mastery program has 15 or more practice questions in order to help develop pattern recognition.

Four Easy, Effective ACT Tips for Your Students

 

Get familiar with what the ACT is testing.

You don't want to waste your ACT prep time learning skills that aren't tested!

The English test measures how well you can edit different passages on the fly, improving grammar and composition.

The Math test checks your problem-solving skills. Many ACT math problems are word problems, and it won't be enough to simply know how to do math operations.

The Reading test grades your reading comprehension. The higher your reading level and the better your vocabulary, the better you'll do.

The Science test gauges your science reasoning ability. It isn't measuring what science facts you've memorized; it's checking to see if you can learn new science facts quickly from charts, graphs, and passages.

Practice your pace.

The ACT is a timed test. Time is of the essence.

It isn't just a question of whether you know how to answer a certain problem. It all comes down to whether you can answer it in a limited time frame.

In order to get through the test and still have enough time to double back, check your answers, and re-think any questions you skipped, stick to the following pacing...

English: 30 seconds per question.  

Math: 50 seconds per question.

Reading: 7 minutes per passage (including answering the passage's questions).

Science: 4 minutes and 30 seconds per passage (including answering the passage's questions).

Maintaining the recommended pace will give you 5-10 minutes to check your answers and work skipped problems.

Answer every question.

There is no penalty for guessing on the ACT. Make sure every row on your answer sheet is bubbled with your best guess before time is up. 

Give yourself time to prepare.

Padlet.com - Anonymous Input, Teachable Moments

Submitted by Mrs. Green:

PADLET.com

Have you ever used padlet.com? It is an awesome way to get anonymous feedback. It's a wall where anyone with the link can post to it. In my class, we are using it to share sentences we write with our spelling words.  Each week they write a sentence that uses a certain pattern and a context clue with an ACT word.  Then, I assign students to share at least one sentence. I pull Padlet.com up on the Promethean board and we go over the sentences. In the past, I used to exhaust class time having the students come and write on the board, so this is a major time saver! I copy the link to the classroom Twitter page, and they are able to use their phone and go to Twitter and access the Padlet wall.  They loved being able to use twitter to get to the link and do that right from their phones. The best part is that I have a "collection" of these walls because they are permanent, so I can pull them up weeks later if I need to, and I can also edit and check to make sure everything is "school appropriate" before I project it for everyone to see!

Conversation Cards

Submitted by Mrs. Green:

 

I have heard many teachers say they just don't have time to have individual conferences.  One day, this idea came straight out of nowhere, and I went with it! 

 

Conversation Cards!!

Individual Conversations with Students:  yes, it takes up class time, but here is an IDEA!  Create "CONVERSATION CARDS" with your students.  Here's what I did:  First, I gave the class an assignment (they all worked on a pretty lengthy pre-test); during this time, I called them up one at a time and discussed their testing data with them.  I told them their EXPLORE score, their 9th grade Performance Series Test Score, their 9th grade EOC, and their current 10th grade Performance series score.  They even wrote it down.  Then, we talked about "average" and what that means and where each needs to be.  Finally, as a class, they filled out an index card by labeling their name and a few pieces of information.  Attached is a pictured (anonymous) of what one looks like.  They had to say on what level they are currently reading and list all of their relevant data.  Then, they had to state a goal.  The idea is that I write the student back.  The next time students will write on this, they will tell me what kind of obstacles they face that keep them from improving, as well as one strategy from class that they feel can help them.  Of course, the card is always "open" for them to write anything else they need me to know.  I plan on doing this every 2-3 weeks.  It takes me about an hour to respond to each class.  It has been SOOOO worth it! Check out this sample!

Show Me the Evidence

One of the key shifts of Common Core Standards is a push for students to support claims with evidence. Here's a great idea from Ms. Hicks in the history department for teaching students what showing evidence sounds like in conversation and looks like in writing. She had these "Show Me the Evidence" stem starters made into a poster for her classroom. I love it!

Show me the Evidence

· Because…

· For instance…

· For example…

· The author stated…

· According to the text…

· On page ___, it said…

· From the reading, I know that…

· Based on what I read…

Formative Assessment: Not Just for the First Week of School

Happy New Year! I have been waiting since the end of last school year to blog about formative assessment. I have witnessed in my own classroom the benefits of regular formative assessment, and I wanted to get the word out that formative assessment is not just for the first week of school when we typically get our pretests and Global Scholar tests done; it's for every day. I spent some time last school year and over the summer looking at "unpacked" standards, and I realized that there many skills inherent in one standard. Typically, standards are assessed at the end of the unit, and either a student knows his stuff or he fails, but if formative assessment takes place regularly a teacher can identify intermediate skills/concepts that are not mastered and reteach them before a student fails the test; the result is better understanding, stronger foundational knowledge, and higher test scores. I've tried it. It's easy and it's effective. Some simple formative assessments are listed below so you can have some ideas. You can also post comments with your own ideas.

Exit Pass - Have students answer a question on a slip of paper that must be turned in before leaving the class. One question is easy to evaluate and students can complete it quickly.

Trafffic Light - Green means a student fully understands a concept, yellow means a student is somewhat confused on a concept, red means a student is totally confused on a concept. One way to do this is to have students make colored cards they flash or place on their desks when requested. I have put the colors on my board and had students place post-its with their names or initials on a color. It makes detemining individual and whole group understanding very easy.

Fist to Five - Fist is like the lowest number on a scale and five is like the highest. Students can respond quickly and you get an idea of how well they understood. The teacher might say, "Fist to five, how well do you understand..." The students show the number of fingers that represent their level of understanding.

True / False Pretest - Another very easy to grade but very revealing assessment.

Try these to see how they work for you and remember to simply assess every time you teach a lesson. Then use that information to change your instruction.

I want to hear from you!

As the school year comes to a close, I would like to thank all of you for visiting this blog and submitting your ideas. There is more to come even before the semester ends! I hope that you have found the information here useful, and I want to provide even more of the ideas you like to use, so please leave a comment to let me know what you found most beneficial so more Bright Ideas can be added in the future.Tell me favorite posts, what you have tried, and how it worked for you. Also let me know what you would like to see in future posts. I look forward to hearing from you.

QC Toolbox Strategy #3 - Think-Pair-Share

This is also one of Mrs. Townsend's ARI strategies, yet it is worth blogging about because of the way it gets students thinking, speaking, listening, and writing.

"Think-pair-share (Lyman, 1981) fosters collaboration by giving students time to develop their ideas during class discussion. There are three steps to a think-pair-share:

1. Students independently contemplate a response to a question or prompt.
2. Students pair up to discuss and refine their ideas.
3. Student pairs share their discussions with the entire class.

The think-pair-share strategy is useful because it relieves individual students of the pressure of sharing ideas on the spot. Because they are sharing and exploring multiple perspectives on a common problem or issue, the collaborative discourse initiated by think-pair-share engages students in inquiry that extends their thinking and understanding. It is just this sort of collaborative discourse that research (Sawyer, 2004) shows is particularly conducive to learning."

In addition to what is stated above, I like it because every student shares, not just the ones who volunteer to speak during class discussion. It's also quick and easy; I usually pair students with someone nearby so I don't lose time in transition. I also add a writing component. Students respond to the question or prompt in writing, and they read what they have written to their partner. Students can make adjustments to their own writing before sharing with the rest of the class.

I really like this one. I hope you find it useful!