Grade 7 Georgia Reading CRCT What You Need

Grade 7 Georgia Reading CRCT What You Need To Know

What’s on the Test… • Six reading selections • 50 Multiple Choice Questions that measure your ability to: – Determine the meaning of unknown words using context clues and word parts. – Determine what you read-literary works, informational texts, and media reading materials. – Analyze literary elements and techniques – Compare and contrast literature from different cultures. – Identify textual features and organizational patterns.

Comprehension • Understanding Main Ideas and Supporting Details • Identifying Author’s Purpose • Using Context Clues • Identifying Point of View or Bias • Summarizing a Text • Making Inferences • Predicting Outcomes • Drawing Conclusions

Understanding Main Idea and Supporting Details Step 1: Read the selection and determine the topic. Step 2: Look at what all the details have in common. They should point to the main idea. HINT: Pay attention to the first and last sentences. Sometimes you may find the main idea.

Understanding Main Idea and Supporting Details Step 3: State the main idea in your own words and look for an answer that closely matches yours. BE CAREFUL NOT TO SELECT A DETAIL THAT MERELY SUPPORTS THE MAIN IDEA. Step 4: Check to make sure that the details in the selection support your answer.

Identifying Author’s Purpose There are usually 4 main reasons an author writes: Persuade Inform Entertain Share Personal Experience You can remember this using this acronym: PIES

Identifying Author’s Purpose • Look for the following clues to help you determine the author’s purpose: – TO INFORM: Illustrations, diagrams, maps, charts, headings, and bulleted or numbered items – TO PERSUADE: words like should and must, and words that assign value such as worst and best – TO SHARE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: frequent use of the word I and emotional words – TO ENTERTAIN: use of vivid descriptions, dialogue, rhymes, drama, or humor

Using Context Clues Step 1: Look at the context of the unfamiliar word. See if the words and sentences around it provide clues to the word’s meaning. Step 2: Use the context clues to make a guess at the unfamiliar word’s meaning. Step 3: Check your definition by inserting it in the passage in place of the unfamiliar word.

Identifying Point of View or Bias Step 1: Determine whether the writer uses more positive words or more negative words. Step 2: Try to answer the question in your own words. Step 3: Look for the choice that best matches your own answer.

Summarizing a Text Step 1: Look for the main idea and the most important details as you read the passage slowly and carefully. Step 2: Consider every answer choice, eliminating those that restate a single detail from the passage, make a general statement about the passage but include no important details, or have little or nothing to do with the passage. Step 3: Be sure the answer you choose covers the ENTIRE passage by including the main idea and major supporting details.

Making Inferences Step 1: Skim the passage once for general understanding; then, re-read it carefully. Keep in mind that most test questions are designed to measure your reading comprehension, not your reading speed. Step 2: Locate key words and phrases in the answer choices that match similar words and phrases in the reading passage. Step 3: Confirm your answer by considering your prior knowledge about the subject of the passage.

Predicting Outcomes Step 1: Read the passage carefully. Everything you need to know is there. The correct answer must follow easily from the information in the passage -it should never depend on a change in a person or an unlikely turn of events. Step 2: Using the information in the passage, make a prediction about what will most likely happen next. Ask yourself what will result from the events in the passage. Step 3: For this kind of question, you will need to read ALL the answers before you choose one.

Drawing Conclusions • You may be asked questions like, “Why do you think…”or “Based on the information in the passage…”. These types of questions require you to draw conclusions. • STEP 1: Read the question or stem to identify the topic of the question. • STEP 2: Study the answer choices, eliminating the ones that are clearly wrong. • STEP 3: Re-read the passage and look for evidence that supports which of the remaining answers choices is correct.

Analyzing Elements of Character, Theme, or Setting Step 1: Be sure you understand the three basic elements: character, theme and setting. Step 2: Read your questions BEFORE you read the passage so you will know exactly what to look for in the passage. Step 3: Look for information in the passage that relates to the literary element you are asked to find. Step 4: Choose the answer that most correctly relates to the details in the passage.

Analyzing Tone • An author’s tone is his or her attitude, conveyed largely through word choice. Step 1: Look at the writer’s diction (word choice). In particular, identify any connotative words the writer uses. Determine what the connotations suggest about the writer’s attitude toward the subject. Step 2: Read ALL the answer choices, and eliminate the ones that are clearly inconsistent with the writer’s tone. Step 3: Examine the remaining answer choices, and choose the one that best describes the tone of the passage. *BEWARE of answer choices that exaggerate the writer’s attitude.

Analyzing Style • Style refers to the author’s unique manner of expression. • Mood is a critical element of style. • Mood is the FEELING that the literature creates. • As with tone, the author’s diction is a major component of mood. • Another way to analyze style is to classify it as formal or informal.

Analyzing Style • Step 1: Look at the answer choices – Words like admiring, bitter, and comic suggest that the question is focusing on tone or mood. – Words like slangy, lofty, or elevated suggest that the question is focusing on formality or informality. • Step 2: Eliminate answer choices that are clearly inconsistent with the diction, tone, or mood of the selection. • Step 3: Select the remaining choice that seems most consistent with the diction, tone, or mood of the selection.

Evaluating Rhetorical Strategies Step 1: Look for general statements. Words like no one, never, every, and always may signal a general statement. • An example of a general statement that sounds like an overgeneralization is “All dogs love to play in the water. ” Step 2: Identify the details that support the statement. If there are none, it’s probably an overgeneralization. Step 3: Evaluate the support. Does it really support the broad generalization or only a qualified version of the generalization. * An example of an overgeneralization that has been qualified is “Some dogs love to play in the water. ”

Analyzing Literary Devices Device and definition Example An allusion is a reference to a person, place, “I was not born in a manger. I was actually or event from history, literature, religion, born on Krypton and sent here by my father, mythology, politics, sport, science, or pop Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth. ” (From a 2008 speech then Senator Barak Obama gave culture. alluding to Jesus and Superman. ) Figurative Language describes one thing in terms of another and is not meant to be taken literally. A metaphor compares one thing to something quite unlike it. A simile compares two things using like or as. Personification describes an inanimate object having human characteristics. Metaphor: The wind is a rake. Imagery is language that appeals to any of the five senses: sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste. At the pond, a rustling of dry reeds revealed the brown head of a grackle, who watched the cool, gleaming water with a beady eye. Simile: The thick woods were like prison walls. Personification: The flower turned its gaze toward the sun.

Analyzing Literary Devices Device and definition Example Irony is the contrast between expectation and reality: between what is said and what is meant (verbal); between what is expected to happen and what really happens (situational); between what a character thinks is true and what the audience knows to be true (dramatic). A symbol is an object, event, person, or animal to which extraordinary meaning is attached. Verbal irony: Someone spills a drink all over themselves and they say, “Oh Great!” Situational irony: A soldier survives many dangerous battles in the war overseas only to come home and be run over by an ice cream truck. Dramatic Irony: A play’s hero thinks her son is dead, but the audience knows that her son is alive. A skull and crossbones symbolize danger; Red roses symbolize love. These are symbols everyone uses.