Mr. Schellenberg
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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!!!!
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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!!
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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…
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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?
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1234567-
Introduction
Most important point
2nd point
3rd point
Personal experience
Refute other side
Conclusion
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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???
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35 minutes—40 questions—4 passages
Approx. 8 ½ min/passage + 10 questions
4 passages include…
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Prose Fiction
Social Studies
Humanities
Natural Sciences
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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.
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Focus on character’s thoughts and feelings
Focus on the why, not the what
Keep straight who said what
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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.
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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.
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The natural sciences passage can cover chemistry,
biology, physics, and other physical sciences.
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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!
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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.
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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!!
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Read the question stems.
Now you should have an idea of what the
passage is about.
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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!!
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Answer is…
D. River stage of the eel life cycle.
◦ Keywords: Estuaries, mouths of rivers, upstream,
Miss river system, rivers of Iowa,
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Other answers make sense, but D is the main
purpose of that paragraph.
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Popular= G. commonly known
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Read= observe
Plug that word into the sentence and see
what makes the most sense.
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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.