Preparing for Standardized Tests, Reading Lite

Preparing for Standardized Tests, Reading Lite (PSTRL) contains tutorials and practice questions for developing users’ skills to pass high-stakes reading tests. Specifically, PSTRL builds users’ abilities to do the following:

• Interpret the author’s purpose.
• Find the topic and main idea.
• Identify supporting details.
• Distinguish facts, opinions, and assumptions.
• Create summaries and paraphrases.
• Make inferences.

In PSTRL, separate tutorials are provided to build users’ skill sets in each area and includes a 12-question practice assessment. As a part of the assessment, rationales that justify the correct answer are provided for users to review after answering each question.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can use PSTRL as a pre-assessment. For example, a teacher could instruct students to complete a practice test in the PSTRL app. Upon completion of the test, students take a screen shot of their results and email it to their teacher. By analyzing all of the screen shots, the teacher can design future instruction to meet students’ needs.
2. In preparation for high-stakes standardized reading tests, teachers can have students create presentations about each skill included in the PSTRL app. For example, a teacher could create six groups of students where each group is instructed to design a mini-lesson for an assigned skill. The lesson could include a description of what the skill requires them to do, why the skill is useful, and model strategies for using that skill while reading. To conclude the lesson, the group would provide a classroom activity using an example text with questions that requires their classmates to apply the presented skill. Upon completion of the activity, the presenting group reviews each question and supplies justification for each correct answer.
3. After using PSTRL to build students’ abilities for a particular skill, teachers can assign students different texts and questions to allow them to practice that skill. In addition to answering each question, students could be instructed to include a short piece of writing (approximately 100 words) to justify each answer selection.
4. Teachers can use PSTRL to create a jigsaw activity for the students. For example, a teacher could divide students into groups of six and assign each group a specific text. Next, the teacher, assigns each student within that group one of the six skills covered by in the app. Working independently of their group, students would have to apply their assigned skill to the text (e.g., the student assigned the “author’s purpose” skill would have to read the text and identify the author’s purpose. The student assigned the “making inferences” skill would have to make an inference based on the text, etc.). After all students in the group complete their work, they come back together to share what they did. Teachers can add another layer to this assignment by requiring groups to present their text and answers to the entire class or by having groups submit an answer sheet in which they state a response for each skill and provide a rationale explaining why the response is valid.

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