There are certain skills we teach your child in order for him or her to be a good reader. These are also the skills that are tested on the Illinois Assessment which all students must take in 3rd grade. The games below will help your child get ready for the tests that we have over these skills in the classroom and also the incredibly difficult ISAT test they will take next year.
ISAT Skill: Infernce and Drawing Conclusions. In this skill, students have to find information that is not really exactly stated in the passage, but based on your own knowledge of the situation, students have to select the best answer or correct inference.
ISAT Skill: Inference and drawing conclusions. (This game is a little bit harder with a bit more to read! Good Luck Superstars!)
ISAT Skill: Words in Context. In this skill, students are given a word they probably do not know the meaning of in the middle of a sentence. They are to use the sentence clues and clues from nearby sentences to figure out the meaning of the word. One exapmple is: Children, do not bicker," said the teacher. "Sit down and stop fighting." An ISAT question might ask "What is the meaning of the word "bicker?"
Author's Purpose: In this skill, students must determine why the author wrote the story. Was it to entertain, inform, or persuade?
Main Idea: In this skill, students are asked about the main idea of a selection. Be careful, this one is tricky! Usually the answer choices include things that did happened in the story, but only one of them describes the WHOLE story.
ISAT Skill: Compare and Contrast in this skill, Students are asked how characters or story events are alike and different
ISAT Skill: Story and Literary Structure: In this skill, students are asked to identify the author, illustrator, and genre (type) of a story. They are also asked to identify the plot of the story which includes the problem and the solution.
Skill: Genre Skill: Problem and Solution
ISAT Skill: Making Predictions. In this skill, students make educated 'guesses' on what will happen next in a story. Their guesses must make sense given the story.
ISAT Skill: Cause and Effect. In this skill, student determine which event cause another and why events in a story occur. An ISAT question might ask something like "This event cause what to happen?" Or "Why did this event occur?"
ISAT Skill: Sequencing and Ordering (Arthur). In this skill, students put the events of the story in order. An ISAT question might ask them "What happened just before ______ in the story?" Or "What happened just after _______ in the story?"
ISAT Skill: Sequencing and Ordering (Pictures) (This is another sequencing game)
ISAT Skill: Fact and Opinion. In this skill, students need to know the difference between a fact and an opinion. We tell the students that facts are things that can be proven true and that opinions are what a person believes or thinks. On the ISAT, students are asked questions such as "Which one of the following statements from the passage is a fact?" Or "Which one of the following statements from the passage is an opnion?"
ISAT Skill: Characterization In this skill, students are aksed questions about a character in a story such as "What type of person is she?" or "What is a good word that could be used to describe him?"