MCAS English Language Arts, Grade 7

by Research & Education Association, Dana Passananti

Overview

REA's Massachusetts Grade 7 MCAS English Language Arts Test Prep! Fully aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework Standards Are you prepared to excel on this state high-stakes assessment exam? * Take the diagnostic Pretest and find out what you know and what you should know * Use REA's advice and tips to ready yourself for proper study and practice Sharpen your knowledge and skills * The book's full subject review refreshes knowledge and covers all topics on the official exam, including Composition and Language and Literature * Smart and friendly lessons reinforce necessary skills * Key tutorials enhance specific abilities needed on the test * Targeted drills increase comprehension and help organize study * Color icons and graphics highlight important concepts and tasks Practice for real * Create the closest experience to test-day conditions with a full-length practice Posttest * Chart your progress with detailed explanations of each answer * Boost confidence with test-taking strategies and focused drills Ideal for Classroom, Family, or Solo Test Preparation! REA has helped generations of students study smart and excel on the important tests. REA’s study guides for state-required exams are teacher-recommended and written by experts who have mastered the test.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738668789
Publisher:	Research & Education Association
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Series:	Massachusetts MCAS Test Preparation Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	12 Years

Read an Excerpt

SUCCEEDING ON THE MCAS

ABOUT THIS BOOK
This book provides excellent preparation for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS)-Grade 7 English Language Arts. Inside you will find exercises designed to provide students with the instruction, practice, and strategies needed to do well on this achievement test.

This book is divided into several parts: a pretest, which introduces students to the sections on the actual test, including o short, long, and longer length reading selections o multiple-choice and extended-response questions o a writing composition section

Following the pretest is a lesson section, which teaches students about the different types of MCAS questions on the reading test, step by step. Students will begin with shorter selections and easier questions and conclude each lesson by completing full-length selections and questions modeled after those on the MCAS. Answer explanations are provided for each question in each lesson. "Tips" are also given below each question to guide students toward answering the question correctly. Finally, this book includes a full-length posttest, which matches the MCAS test in terms of content.

Begin by assigning students the pretest. Answers and answer explanations follow the pretest. Then work through each of the lessons one by one. When students have completed the book, they should complete the posttest. Answers and answer explanations follow the posttest.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
FOR STUDENTS: To make getting through the book as easy as possible, we've included icons shown on the next page that highlight sections like lessons, questions, and answers. You'll find that our practice tests are very much like the actual MCAS you'll encounter on test day. The best way to prepare for a test is to practice, so we've included drills with answers throughout the book, and our two practice tests include detailed answers.

FOR PARENTS: Massachusetts has created grade-appropriate learning standards that are listed in the table in this introduction. Students need to meet these objectives as measured by the MCAS. Our book will help your child review and prepare for the English Language Arts exam. It includes review sections, drills, and two practice tests complete with explanations to help your child focus on the areas he/she needs to work on to help master the test.

FOR TEACHERS: No doubt, you are already familiar with the MCAS and its format. Begin by assigning students the pretest, which is followed by an answer key and detailed explanations. Then work through each of the lessons in succession. When students have completed the subject review, they should move on to the posttest. Answers and answer explanations follow the posttest.

WHY STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO TAKE THE MCAS
MCAS measures the extent to which students are meeting the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework Standards. Massachusetts teachers and curriculum experts developed the MCAS in cooperation with the Massachusetts State Board of Education. The English Language Arts test is given to students in Grades 3, 5, and 7.

WHAT'S ON THE MCAS
The English Language Arts tests in Grade 7 are divided into two parts. Part A is the Composition Test, which uses a writing prompt to assess the learning standards. This part is given in two separate sessions, administered on the same day. The first session is comprised of writing an initial draft of a composition in response to the writing prompt. During the second session, the student will revise the original draft.

Part B is the Language and Literature Test, which includes three separate test sessions. Each session includes selected readings, followed by multiple-choice and open-response questions.


MCAS English Language arts Standards*
Language Strand
Standard 4: Vocabulary and Concept Development
Students will understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing. Determine the meanings of unfamiliar words using context clues (for example, contrast or cause and effect stated in the text).
Determine the meanings of unfamiliar words using knowledge of common Greek and Latin roots, suffixes, and prefixes.
Determine pronunciations, meanings, alternate word choices, parts of speech, or etymologies of words using dictionaries and thesauruses.

Reading and Literature Strand
Standard 8: Understanding a Text
Students will identify basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
Use knowledge of genre characteristics to analyze a text.
Interpret mood in a text and give supporting evidence.
Identify evidence in a text used to support an argument.

Standard 12: Fiction
Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Analyze the connections among setting, characterization, conflict, plot, and/or theme.
Analyze characters' personality traits, motivations, and interactions with others and give supporting evidence from their words, actions, or thoughts.
Analyze the ways characters change or interact with others over time and give supporting evidence from the text.

Standard 13: Nonfiction
Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purposes, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Identify and use knowledge of common textual features (for example, introduction, conclusion, transition words, concluding sentences).
Identify and use knowledge of common graphic features to analyze nonfiction texts.
Identify common organizational structures (for example, logical order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect relationships).
Recognize arguments for and against an issue.
Identify evidence in a text that supports an argument.

Standard 14: Poetry
Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of poetry and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Identify and respond to the effects of form, sound, figurative language, and graphics in order to uncover meaning in poetry.
Form (for example, haiku, epic, sonnet)
Sound (for example, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme schemes)
Figurative language (for example, personification, metaphor, simile, hyperbole)
Graphics (for example, capital letters, line length, word position)

Standard 15: Style and Language
Students will identify and analyze how an author's words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone, and will provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Identify and analyze imagery and figurative language.
Identify how an author's use of words creates mood.


Standard 16: Myth, Traditional Narrative, and Classical Literature
Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of myths, traditional narratives, and classical literature and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Identify conventions in epic tales (for example, the extended simile, the hero's tasks, special weapons, clothing, helpers).
Identify and analyze similarities and differences in mythologies from different cultures (for example, ideas of the afterlife, roles and characteristics of deities, types and purposes of myths).

Standard 17: Dramatic Literature
Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the themes, structure, and elements of drama and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Identify and analyze elements of setting, plot, and characterization in plays that are read, viewed, written, and/or performed.
Setting (for example, place, historical period, time of day)
Plot (for example, exposition, conflict, rising action, falling action)
Characterization (for example, character motivations, actions, thoughts, development)
Identify and analyze the similarities and differences in the presentations of setting, character, and plot in texts, plays, and films.



Standard 1A: Apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to comprehend selections.
1.8.01 Determine the meaning of an unknown word using word or content-area vocabulary using knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and word roots.
1.8.02 Use etymologies to determine the meanings of words.
1.8.03 Determine the meaning of an unknown word using word, sentence, and cross-sentence clues.
1.8.04 Determine the connotation of a word using word, sentence, and cross-sentence clues.
1.8.05 Determine the meaning of a word in context when the word has multiple meanings.

Standard 1B: Apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency.
Standard 1C: Comprehend a wide range of reading materials.
1.8.06 Make and verify predictions based on prior knowledge and understanding of genres.
1.8.07 Clarify an understanding of text by creating outlines, notes, or other visual representations.
1.8.08 Use information in charts, graphs, diagrams, maps, and tables to help understand a reading passage.
1.8.09 Compare the content and organization of various selections.
1.8.10 Relate information in the passage to other readings.
1.8.11 Identify cause and effect organizational patterns in fiction and nonfiction.
1.8.12 Identify compare and contrast organizational patterns in fiction and nonfiction.
1.8.13 Identify proposition and support organizational patterns in fiction and nonfiction.
1.8.14 Determine the answer to a literal or simple inference question regarding the meaning of a passage.
1.8.15 Compare an original text to a summary to determine whether the summary accurately captures the key ideas.
1.8.16 Summarize a story or nonfiction passage, or identify the best summary.
1.8.17 Identify the outcome or conclusion of a story or nonfiction account, based on previous occurrences or events.
1.8.18 Identify the causes of events in a story or nonfiction account.
1.8.19 Draw inferences, conclusions, or generalizations about text and support them with textual evidence and prior knowledge.
1.8.20 Differentiate between conclusions that are based on fact and those that are based on opinion.
1.8.21 Explain information presented in a nonfiction passage using evidence from the passage.
1.8.22 Use information from a variety of sources to explain a situation or decision or to solve a problem.
1.8.23 Determine whether a set of technical, multiple-step instructions or procedures are clear.
1.8.24 Determine the author's purpose as represented by the choice of genre, and literary devices employed.
1.8.25 Determine why some points are illustrated.


Standard 2A: Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas.
2.8.01 Identify elements of fiction: theme, rising action, falling action, conflict, point of view, resolution, and flashback.
2.8.02 Explain how theme, rising action, falling action, conflict, point of view, and resolution contribute to the meaning and a reader's interpretation of a literary selection.
2.8.03 Identify the author's message or theme.
2.8.04 Compare stories to personal experiences, prior knowledge, and other stories.
2.8.05 Recognize points of view in narratives (e.g., first person).
2.8.06 Determine what characters are like by their actions, as well as how other characters react to them.
2.8.07 Determine character motivation.
2.8.08 Identify conflict or contradiction within a character or a character's behavior.
2.8.09 Explain the relationship between main and supporting characters.
2.8.10 Identify literary devices: (e.g., figurative language, hyperbole, understatement, symbols, dialogue).
2.8.11 Explain how the literary devices (e.g., imagery, metaphor, figurative language, dialogue) contribute to the meaning of a literary selection.
2.8.12 Identify varieties of irony, including dramatic irony.
2.8.13 Identify various subcategories of genres: poetry, drama (comedy and tragedy), science fiction, historical fiction, myth or legend, drama, biography/autobiography, story, poem, fairy tale, folktale, fable, nonfiction, and essay.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

About REA
Acknowledgments
Succeeding on the MCAS
About This Book
How to Use This Book
Why Students Are Required to Take the MCAS
What's On the MCAS
MCAS English Language Arts Standards
Tips for Students
Tips for Parents…
Pretest
Answer Sheets
Answer Key
PART A: COMPOSITION
Lesson 1: Writing
Lesson 2: Writing to Speculate
Lesson 3: Writing to Analyze/Explain
Lesson 4: Writing to Persuade
PART B: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Lesson 1: Recognition of a Central Idea or Theme
Passage 1: The Trail of Tears
Passage 2: The Ideal Bunkhouse
Passage 3: A Real Job
Passage 4: DC Dish, A Forum for the Nation
Lesson 2: Paraphrasing/Retelling and Prediction of Tentative Meaning
Passage 1: Daffodils
Passage 2: The Birth of Golf
Passage 3: The "Reality" of Reality Television
Passage 4: From H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Book One: "The Coming of the Martians"
Lesson 3: Recognition of Text Organization and Purpose for Reading, Extrapolation of Information/Following Directions
Passage 1: Cutting Class Size
Passage 2: A Costly Lesson
Passage 3: Space Colonization: Too Big a Risk
Lesson 4: Questioning, Forming of Opinions, and Drawing Conclusions
Passage 1: Center City Science Adventure
Passage 2: "Big Brother" is Protecting
Passage 3: Arachnid Addresses
Passage 4: The Emerald Isle
Lesson 5: Interpretation of Textual Conventions and Literary Elements
Passage 1: Bitter Competition
Passage 2: A Day to Remember
Passage 3: Mr. Salazar
Passage 4: The Adventures of Gilgamesh
Lesson 6: Drama
Passage 1: "Aunt Flo's Café"
POSTTEST
Answer Sheets
Answer Key