Fourth grade parents study guide

Students and parents,

As you know when you come back from Easter recess, your child will be taking the state test in reading and in math. Below are skills that will be tested in the reading test and some sample questions that will help your child review the wording. There are also links to some sites where you can practice with your child  over the break. It is imperative that your child practices this work during the break, so they have a fresh memory of what is expected of them on the test. 

Below is the link to a the NYS regents site where you will find test from past years. 
The test consist of three parts; 
Part 1- reading and answering multiple choice questions
Part 2- Listening and taking notes to answer open ended questions. 
part 3- Reading and answering open ended questions. 

NYS Regents website  

Mrs.Bagley 

Skills
-          Context clues
Text book writers usually know when they must use a word that will be new to their student readers. So they often include other words or phrases to help with the understanding of the new word. These words or phrases are referred to as context clues. They are built into the sentences around the difficult word.
           When you encounter a word that you don’t understand look any of the following.
-          Read back
-          Read forward
-          Read over. Stop and think.
-          Look for important words around it.

If context clues are not helpful, try using the word itself by
-          Thinking about the meaning of each part.
-          Think about prefixes and suffixes.
-          Putting the word together.
-          Use the following site to practice: http://scc.losrios.edu/~langlit/reading/contextclues/intro1.htm

-          Main idea
Main ideas help readers remember important information. The main idea of a passage, paragraph, or article tells the reader what the story is mostly about. Each main idea has supporting details that support the main idea. Knowing the main idea can help readers understand the story more.

Sample questions:
a.      What is the story (passage, article) mostly about?  ( Main Idea)
b.      Which of these best describes the theme of this story? ( Main Idea)
c.       Which of these best supports the idea (that homing pigeons have been very successful in delivering messages)? * The statement in parenthesis is the main idea and they are asking you which statement is the supporting detail to that main idea.
d.      Web:
Get everything you need

Which of these belongs in the blank oval?
Notes: You choose the detail that fits into the box that supports the main idea that is located in the middle of the web.
- Use the following site to practice:
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/h/mainideap3.cfm
http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/weblessons/gettheidea/default.htm

-Making inferences
Authors sometimes do not gives us all the information in the text. Therefore a reader makes inferences. This is done when readers use clues from the story and prior knowledge to figure out something that the author doesn’t tell you. When you make an inference make sure to know what clue words you used.
Examples:
a.      Which of these best describes how the speaker feels about the snails and slugs?

-Grammar, capitalization and punctuation.
Different types of sentence have different end marks.
A sentence that tells you something ends with a period. (.)
Sentences that ask questions ends with a questions mark. (?)
A sentence that expresses strong or sudden feelings ends with an exclamation point. (!)
Certain words require capital letters. That rule applies to the following. The first word in a sentence, names of people and pets, names of streets, cities, states and countries. Names of days, month and holidays. Personal title and name abbreviations are also capitalized.
Examples: John Smith, Arden, Bronx, New York, NY, United States of America, Monday, May, Thanksgiving. Dr. John Smith, Dr. A. Smith.

Examples of questions:
1. Which sentence is written with correct capitalization?
a.      Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday.
b.      Only some businesses close for Columbus Day.
c.       The year changes at midnight on New Year’s eve.
d.      Our town has a fantastic fireworks show on the fourth of July.
2. Which sentence is written correctly?
a.      Rhonda felt sad after she lost her new watch.
b.      Theo forgets his book when he went to school.
c.       Jonathan will make a new friend when he visited his cousin.
d.      Nina were in the store a long time before her friends arrived.

3. Which of these sentences uses correct punctuation?
a.      Josie counted thirteen stripes and, Billy counted fifty stars.
b.      “The colors of the American flag are red, white and blue.”Jenny said.
c.       The teacher said “There is one star for every state of the United States.”
d.      The American flag did not always look this way, once it had only thirteen stars.

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/quiz/mquiz.asp?filename=kderittecapitals
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/e3topic.cfm?TopicID=138
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/h/punctuationp.cfm
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/inferencep.cfm
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/makinginferencep.cfm

- Sequence
The order in which things happens. Knowing the sequence of events will help you understand what happened first , second , third, etc. There are clue words such as ; first, second, before , after, next , last and finally help you understand when events happened. Listening for these key words may help you in note taking for the listening part, as that section may have a sequence chart to fill out.

Examples of questions:
A. Which of these happens after Benjamin begins to draw?
b. Which event from the poem happened first?
- Use the following site to practice:

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/a/sequencel3.cfm
http://www.quia.com/pages/sequencingfun.html

- Authors purpose
Authors write for different reasons. Some write to inform, entertain and persuade.

Inform- To tell you about a topic such as the Civil War, historical
sites you can visit in Georgia, or about the first World Series game. Even
biographies can be written to inform you about someone. If a book were to
be written about Barack Obama , it would be to inform you about him.

To Entertain- To tell you an exciting story. All fictional stories are
stories the author writes to entertain you. Stories could be those such as
Because of Winn-Dixie.

To Persuade- When an author tries to persuade, he or she wants you
to take his or her view on something. For example, you could write a letter
to the school principal about school uniforms. You could also persuade
people your age to eat more vegetables. You could write a persuasive letter
to the school newspaper or a city newspaper. Big words to remember are I am not
saying that, you won’t be sorry, believe me, trust me, and viewpoint.
Sample of questions:
The author most likely wrote "stage fright" to ...

- Genre
Books/ passages fall under different categories depending what they are about . Below are different genres and what they mean.
-Fantasy: a story including elements that are impossible such as talking "Winn Dixie".
- Realistic fiction: a story using made up characters with events that may happen: "The cotoye School".
- Mystery: Story with a secret answer to a problem , not revealed until the end.
- Science fiction: a story that used science and technology along with unrealistic characters/ events.
- Biography: a book written about someone by someone else.
- Autobiography: a book written about someone by themselves.
a. "Stage fright" is most like a
a. fairy tale
b. news paper article
c. real -life story
d. mystery story

- Drawing conclusions:
When you draw conclusions you use
- what you read in the story and what you already know ( background information) to come up with a conclusion /decision.
-Practice the skill at this site :

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/language_arts/drawing_conclusions_reading_comprehension/quiz1286.html
Sample question:
a. From the information in the passage, a reader can conclude that ....

- Making predictions
A guess based on story information ( story clues) and background information on what is going to happen next.
Sample questions
a. Based on what happens in the poem, which of these is the speaker most likely to do next?
Check out this site:
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/makingpredictionsp.cfm
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/makingpredictionsl.cfm


Fact/ Opinion
A fact is a statement that can be proven true or false. Ex: The sky is green.
An opinion is  a statement that cannot be proven true or false. Ex: I enjoyed the Knicks game last night .
Sample questions
a. Which of these statements from the article is an opinion?
Check out this site ;
http://www.quia.com/jq/24723.html
http://www.quia.com/pop/12709.html

Story elements
- Understanding the stories elements will give you a better understanding of what you are reading.
The elements are ;
characters: who the story is about ( it can be people, animals , machines, etc)
Setting: where and when the story takes place ( location and time).
Plot: what happens in the story( events, problem, solution).
Conclusion: what happened at the end of the story.
Check out these sites;
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/h/storyelements.cfm
http://www.learner.org/interactives/story/cinderella.html
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/charactersandplot4p.cfm
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/identifyplot4l.cfm
http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/character4l.cfm