English Language Arts Skills & Tests

Reading Strategies:

• Make Inferences & Draw Conclusions
• Summarize
• Make Predictions
• Ask Questions
• Make Connections
• Build Vocabulary
• Define Vocabulary in Context
• Increase Fluency
• Annotate Text
• Strategies for Answering Multiple Choice Questions about Comprehension

Reading Skills: 

• Identify Central Idea & Key Details
• Determine Author's Purpose
• Identify Claims & Supporting Evidence
• Nonfiction Text Structures (compare/contrast, problem/solution, etc.)
• Text Features (headings, captions, glossaries, table of contents, etc.)
• Visual Text Features (maps, graphs, photographs, etc.)
• Identify the Author's Tone
• Fact vs. Opinion

Literary Concepts:

• Foreshadowing
• Irony
• Figurative Language (idioms, metaphors, hyperbole, etc.)
• Tone & Mood

Nonfiction:

• Central Idea & Key Details
• Author's Purpose
• Identify Claims & Supporting Evidence
• Text Structures (compare/contrast, persuasive, etc.)
• Text Features (headings, captions, glossaries, etc.)
• Visual Text Features (maps, graphs, photographs, etc.)
• Author's Tone
• Fact vs. Opinion

Fiction:

• Plot Structure
• Characterization & How Characters Change or Grow
• Conflict
• How Setting Affects the Plot
• Narrator's Point of View
• Resolution of Conflict
• Themes & How Characters Reflect Themes
• Tone & Mood

Text Structures & Features: Poetry

• Structures (lines, stanzas, etc.)
• Rhyme & Rhyme Schemes
• Meter 
• How Rhyme & Meter Affect Meaning
• Poetry Forms (sonnet, haiku, etc.)
• Tone & Mood
• Point of View of Speaker or Author

• Writing Process (planning, drafting, proofreading & editing)
• Essay Structure (introduction, body, conclusion)
• Short Essay Responses to Text
• Extended Essay Responses to Text
• Literary Analysis
• Making a Claim (thesis)
• Choosing & Incorporating Evidence
• Citing Sources
• Elaboration
• Writing for Standardized Tests
• Writing Essays/Samples for Applications
• Research
• Persuasive/Argumentative
• Analytical
• Expository
• Personal Essays & Narratives
• Simulated Research Essays
• Research Reports
• Revision Skills (word choice, sentence variety, adding a strong hook, etc.)

 Literature Studies:

• Rhetorical Situation & Devices
• Claims, Evidence & Addressing Opposition
• Reasoning & Organization
• Rhetoric & Stylistic Choices
• Studies by Time Period (Romantic, Modern, etc.)
• Studies by Author (Dickens, Poe, Frost, etc.)
• British & American 
• Novel & Poetry Study

• Parts of Speech (nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.)
• Parts of a Sentence (subject, verb, predicate, etc.)
• Identify Complete, Fragmented & Run-On Sentences
• Written Expression
• Usage
• Punctuation
• Capitalization

• A.P. Language & Composition
• CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test)
• COOP
• HCHS (Hunter College High School)
• HSPT
• Iowa/ITBS
• iReady
• ISEE
• MAP (NWEA)
• NJSLA
• NNAT
• PSAT
• SAT
• SSAT
• STAAR
• State Standardized Tests
• Virginia Standards of Learning
• Other Private School Entrance Exams & Essay Submissions

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