1. Language Arts-Reading
Prepared by:
Robin C. Letendre, M.Ed
Preparing Our students to take the HiSET®
Friday, October 20, 2017

2. About This Test
The Reading test provides evidence of a candidate’s ability to understand, comprehend, interpret and analyze a variety of reading material.
Selections are presented in multiple genres on subject matter that varies in purpose and style.
The test is comprised of:
Literary texts, which is 60% of the test
Informational texts, which is 40% of the test
Taken from:

3. What This Means for Our Students
Our students will have to interact with text.
They will have to develop critical thinking skills.
Any question may involve content from more than one category.
Our students will be exposed to high quality, increasingly challenging texts, between words.
The texts will include: narratives, memoirs, essays, biographical sketches, editorials, and poetry.
Taken from:

4. Demand on Cognitive Complexity
The kind and level of thinking required of students to successfully engage with and solve a task.
Ways in which students interact with content.
To ensure that teachers are teaching to a level that will promote student achievement which is directly tied to the College and Career Readiness Standards or CCRS.
The Reading test is aligned with CCRS Anchor 10, “Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.”
The Reading test is aligned to 34 different standards. These can be found on at:

5. Reading Process Categories What is most important to your lessons?
1. Reading Comprehension
2. Inference and Interpretation
3. Analysis of: main idea, theme, purpose, point of view, fact or opinion, literary techniques and arguments
4. Synthesis and generalization
Taken from:

6. Skills for the Reading Test: Non-fiction What is the easiest skill for your students to learn? What is the most difficult skill for your students to learn?
Main idea and details
Determine Author’s Purpose
Summarizing
Analyze Elements of Persuasion
Categorizing
Identify Evidence
Sequencing
Determine Point of View
Cause and Effect
Style and Tone
Compare and Contrast
Generalize
Distinguish Fact from Opinion
Make Inferences
Draw Conclusions

7. Skills for the Reading Test: Fiction What skill is Easiest to teach?
Context clues
Setting
Cause and Effect
Tone
Compare and Contrast
Figurative Language
Plot Elements
Symbols and Imagery
Characters
Make Inferences
Motivation
Draw Conclusions
Point of View
Apply Ideas
Theme

8. Skills for the Reading Test: Poetry how do you approach poetry?
Rhythm and Rhyme
Analogies
Figurative Language
Symbols and Imagery
Make Inferences
Restatement
Theme

9. Integrate Content Areas with Reading Skills
Do not just do reading skills in reading.
Use the reading skills across the curriculum.
The skills needed for reading, such as compare and contrast, identifying evidence and making inferences are not just for the reading test-these skills are critical in passing science, social studies and math.
When thinking of test prep, think interdisciplinary.

10. For determining the reading level of texts not aligned with college and career readiness standards
ATOS analyzer: text-complexity/
Degrees of reading power:
Flesch-Kincaid:
Lexile:
Reading Maturity:

11. Quantitative analysis chart for determining text complexity
CCRS Levels of Learning
ATOS
Analyzer
Degrees of Reading Power
Flesch-Kincaid
The Lexile Framework
Reading Maturity
B (2nd-3rd)
42-54
C (4th-5th)
52-60
D (6th-8th)
57-67
E (9th-10th)
62-72
E+ (11th-CCR)
67-74

12. Resources https://hiset.ets.org/
ReadTheory, online reading resources:
Read, write, think:
Education world:
Pro/Con:
Grammar tip of the day:
The change agent:
For the HiSET® test, all subject areas, new readers press, copyright 2016

13. An Example of One of My Lesson Plans
An interdisciplinary approach to the HiSET® exam.
Contains lessons for all aspects of the test, including simple math word problems. (I do not teach math at Salem Continuing Education, but add it into my lesson plans for cross curriculum approach.)
“The brass teapot” by tim macy