testing gaps: main idea of a passage, data analysis: help!

[prairiewindmomma]

Ds took the PSAT-10 last fall and the ITBS this spring. (We now live in a state with required testing.)  While he had perfect scores in many areas, he has two glaring gaps that have persisted from fall through the spring.  I see these gaps when working with him as well.  He struggles with finding the main idea of a passage (particularly when it is inferred) and with data analysis.

Can someone suggest resources so that we can address these two things directly?  Thanks!

[madteaparty]

We have the data analysis issue as well, even though DS did Aops intro to Counting and Probablity in middle school. For us, I think studying statistics chapters in MEP or something like that has been the plan. But we are still sort of travelling around for various reasons and so I don’t know what those chapters are. I have to trust they exist ?.  I also have to trust a whole year of algebra 2 will also cover those topics. 

[Lecka]

This is maybe not helpful, but I have a rising public school 8th grader who is on track to take Algebra I as a 9th grader, but next year my understanding is he will have about a semester of Statistics.  

I have no idea where this material was covered before Common Core, and I am curious where it would have fit in when I took math, or if I just didn’t do it in the math sequence at the time.

Anyway — I wonder if the Data Analysis is coming from the 8th grade Common Core?

I am still trying to piece this together for myself. 

If it is the case you can look at Khan academy for 8th grade. 

If this is not the case I am sorry to be off on a tangent.  

[JoJosMom]

My DD shared these two areas as her problem areas. WRT to Data Analysis, honestly, we did nothing. She does the SAT question of the day during the school year in her "warm-up" time, so she may have seen some problems then. But I think, really, she looked at the problems that she missed and then figured it out. Math is her thing. Khan Academy is free; I would start there.

As for the "inferring the main idea," I think that the Reading Detective series from the Critical Thinking Company is good at helping with this skill. We used this also during warm-up time and discussed why the "right answer" was right. BUT, and this in the unhelpful part (sorry!), I believe that what has been most effective and made the most difference is time and maturity. Those questions, in my opinion, are generally pretty crappy. I think smart and quirky kids frequently see things differently and tend to focus on thinking their thoughts and not on vomiting up what the test-designers intended. With time and maturity they learn that standardized tests are not so much about thinking but about vomiting. So to speak. So they learn the skill.?

[Roadrunner]

Same here. We are planning on working through Khan’s statistics segment for math. Not the AP version but the regular high school one. 

[PeterPan]

Ironically, the issue with the data analysis could be the same sort of thing, looking at pieces and drawing a conclusion or inference. 

You might want to figure out if the scores and level of issue are a touch up or a therapy-level intervention need. If you want therapy level, then look at Linguisystems.

[prairiewindmomma]

On 7/22/2018 at 11:00 AM, PeterPan said:

Ironically, the issue with the data analysis could be the same sort of thing, looking at pieces and drawing a conclusion or inference. 

You might want to figure out if the scores and level of issue are a touch up or a therapy-level intervention need. If you want therapy level, then look at Linguisystems.

I do think these things are related, and tied to his quirky brain, but this is a touch up area for him. His scores in these areas were at national median levels. It’s just a huge drop from his other 99-100 level scores.

[PeterPan]

That discrepancy is enough, that if there's ASD going on I would go ahead and get therapy materials. That's more than 2SD of discrepancy probably. 

[kbutton]

On 7/24/2018 at 10:02 PM, prairiewindmomma said:

I do think these things are related, and tied to his quirky brain, but this is a touch up area for him. His scores in these areas were at national median levels. It’s just a huge drop from his other 99-100 level scores.

A gap that big suggests to me that he's not picking it up on his own. If he has had pretty typical exposure to those sorts of things, I think you might want to consider therapy level. If it's been a less emphasized thing, then maybe it's not a big deal to just add some touch up work. 

For ordinary work, I suggest something like The Reader's Handbook or maybe some units from I'm Lovin' Lit (TPT store).

[alewife]

On 7/17/2018 at 8:55 PM, prairiewindmomma said:

Ds took the PSAT-10 last fall and the ITBS this spring. (We now live in a state with required testing.)  While he had perfect scores in many areas, he has two glaring gaps that have persisted from fall through the spring.  I see these gaps when working with him as well.  He struggles with finding the main idea of a passage (particularly when it is inferred) and with data analysis.

Can someone suggest resources so that we can address these two things directly?  Thanks!

The Critical Thinking Company has workbooks that may help:  Reading Detective for grades 7 -8 and Science Detective.  If your son can work through these with no issues, I would have him work through Erica Metzler's Critical Reader book.  

Just fwiw, many of the students that I work with who struggle with the data analysis questions struggle with the reading comprehension piece and not the math piece.  I obviously don't know if this is the case with your son, but thought I would mention it.

[Mom22ns]

The biggest thing that helped my kids with main idea and other reading comprehension was actually Wordly Wise. It is a vocabulary workbook, but at the end of each week's lesson is a reading passage (which uses all the week's words) and questions which always include main idea. My kids really struggled with these when they started and the improvement was remarkable. We used it for several years though.

I bought Reading Detective mention above thinking that would be useful, but my kids hated it and I couldn't push through.

[prairiewindmomma]

I will look into these.

He answered the short answer and essay questions in HoAW and HoMW with insightful and nuanced answers. I don’t think this is a reading comprehension problem in the traditional sense.

[prairiewindmomma]

I know I started this thread, but here are the types of problems he's needing to improve on in the data analysis section:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/problem-solving-and-data-analysis-sat-math

And here are some examples from the SAT reading section:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/big-picture-questions-in-sat-reading-strategies-tips

I'm looking at the resources linked, and I'm not seeing anything at that level.  What I'm really looking for are things like the tips given like:

*identifying pivot words " yet, however, but"

*identifying argument structure on the rhetorical analysis questions

and how to practice citing evidence from the text.  

I am going to shift our English class this year to work less on writing and more on literature analysis.....and I'm hunting down SWB's resources on this, but I would love more ideas on this!

[JoJosMom]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I know I started this thread, but here are the types of problems he's needing to improve on in the data analysis section:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/problem-solving-and-data-analysis-sat-math

And here are some examples from the SAT reading section:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/big-picture-questions-in-sat-reading-strategies-tips

I'm looking at the resources linked, and I'm not seeing anything at that level.  What I'm really looking for are things like the tips given like:

*identifying pivot words " yet, however, but"

*identifying argument structure on the rhetorical analysis questions

and how to practice citing evidence from the text.  

I am going to shift our English class this year to work less on writing and more on literature analysis.....and I'm hunting down SWB's resources on this, but I would love more ideas on this!

 

My question would be: Why change your entire English class when what you really want to do is focus on certain aspects of test-taking? Seriously. So much of what is on these tests is entirely limited to the test. Just get some test-prep books and be done with it. Use your class time to actually study literature - in a valuable and coherent way. (And please know that this comes from a person who is all-in on the PSAT for National Merit money.)

 

(Oh. And check your public library for test prep books before you buy.)

[prairiewindmomma]

That’s a good point. I saw a good selection of test prep books at the library.

[readinmom]

Read Theory, Common Lit are free resources, as is NEWSEla.  NEWSEla is hardcore when it comes to the gaps you mentioned for reading.  I tutor for the SAT, received intensive training from Horizon Prep, and honestly, kids either have the gift of test taking or they practice, practice, practice.  Common Core has obliterated what we think of as literature, no offense, please.  It's just...different.  The Read Theory questions and NEWSEla questions are good prep.  

As far as citing evidence, practice writing the response paragraphs for NEWSEla.  We require an intro (article title, genre, author/source, argument), two pieces of evidence from the text (TLQ--Transition, Lead in, Quote/explanation), concluding sentence.  The great thing about NEWSEla is that you can choose the text set/topic, and change the writing prompt. Replace it with one of the question stems from the PSAT/SAT and you will be good to go.  

As far as data analysis, if your library has a used bookstore attached, they probably have a ton of test prep books.  The environmental science one has lots of data-related questions, graphs, scatter plots.  

Hope this helps...

 

[ScoutTN]

Zombie thread with AI bots

[gstharr]

On 7/29/2018 at 9:02 PM, JoJosMom said:

 

My question would be: Why change your entire English class when what you really want to do is focus on certain aspects of test-taking? Seriously. So much of what is on these tests is entirely limited to the test. Just get some test-prep books and be done with it. Use your class time to actually study literature - in a valuable and coherent way. (And please know that this comes from a person who is all-in on the PSAT for National Merit money.)

 

(Oh. And check your public library for test prep books before you buy.)

My 12th grader took psat 8/9 in fifth and the SAT in 6th and 7th. His weakest area was reading. and remained so through hs final SAT. We focused test prep primarily on reading.  We worked together on reading passages from past official SAT tests, and 2-3 year old SAT test prep books (cheap).  In scoring his practice tests, I did not just rely on the answer grid.  I read every question and answer options.  Over time, I developed a feel of the type of questions that would give him difficulty, and the trap that would get him.  The reading test are test traps. For example the historical passages are based on real documents/literature, but rewritten to be more difficullt.  His biggest problem was that he would anticipate the answer or use his outside knowledge in answering question.  It was a struggle to get him to read the passage if it was topic that he knew something about, and to  understand that if the passage said whales have mouths, the wrong answer was the one having baleen in it.  This is how we did it.

BTW, will he using the old SAT or NEW SAT for college apps?  Test prep might be different using the NEW SAT.