Publisher's Synopsis
The fully aligned Explore ASK Language Arts Literacy workbook series (now available for grades 3-8) provides students with guided instruction and strategy-building exercises in order to help them develop the skills needed to succeed on the ASK Language Arts Literacy Test. We've combined both reading comprehension instruction and practice with writing tutorials and practice. Passages range in readability to allow for differentiated instruction. The first part of each book is devoted to helping students grasp the reading comprehension concepts that are tested on the Reading portion of the NJ ASK. Lessons explain major concepts including Theme or Central Idea, Context Clues, Purpose for Reading, Author's Purpose, Text Organization, and Literary Conventions. Instructional sections are followed by 3-6 reading passages. Informal assessment checks (Checking for Understanding) have been built into the passages to allow teachers to gauge student progress while they read and they serve to show the students the importance of critical thinking and evaluating while they read. All multiple-choice and open-ended questions have been tailored to align with grade-level specifications and are formatted as they will be seen on the NJ ASK Language Arts Literacy Test. Each multiple-choice question is coupled with a brief hint to help struggling students focus on what the question is asking. The second part of each book focuses on the writing and editing skills students will have to develop in order to succeed on the Writing portion of the NJ ASK. Students are introduced to prewriting techniques including Lists, Webs, and Outlines and are shown how to go about getting their ideas down on paper in an organized fashion. Elements of good writing (including Sentence Structure, Word Variety, Spelling, Punctuation, Openings, Details, and Conclusions) are demonstrated through examples and comparisons with poorly written text. Each of the three types of Writing Prompts that may appear on the NJ ASK (EXPLANATORY, SPECULATIVE, and PERSUASIVE) is explained in detail. Students are taught what each of these kinds of prompts calls for and are shown how to go about composing strong responses.
