This book is a tool to give your students practice in taking standardized tests. Research shows that students who are acquainted with the scoring format of standardized tests score higher on those tests. Students also score higher when they practice and understand the pressures of time tests. The language arts and writing concepts presented in this book are typically found on standardized tests at this grade level. The scores on these activities are an indication of a student’s ability to take tests, not necessarily to master the concepts or content used for practice.
Language expression is a very important skill for students to master. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has stressed that “all students must have the opportunities and resources to develop the language skills they need to pursue life’s goals and to participate fully as informed, productive members of society.” The NCTE also states that students need to “employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.” This book helps students to practice a variety of testing strategies.
The book is divided into three units, each focusing on particular areas of language arts: Capitalization, Punctuation, and Spelling; Grammar and Usage; and Writing. The book’s structure has two parts. In the first part are a pretest and a posttest for each unit. These tests can be used as diagnostic tools. The pretest can help you to determine students’ problems. The posttest can help you to determine progress. In the second part, fifteen lessons provide students with practice in typical test formats they can expect to see. These pages also identify testing strategy tips to improve accuracy and speed. At the end of most lessons, students are encouraged to evaluate their performance. Again, the goal of the book is to improve the students’ ability to perform well on tests.