High School English Teachers

Do you instruct your student's to read the questions first when taking the NYS Regents? I am getting ready to prep my tenth graders for their midterm. This will Task III essay and multiple choice section. This is my first year teaching full time and I want to give them the best advice I can. I did prepare 7th and 8th graders for the ELA last year and we told them to read the question first, highlight important facts, and then read the passage. I have first year teacher brain, I have too much on my mind and not enough time to get all of my work done, please help......tia

Re: High School English Teachers

Tracy,

I have them do a whole procedure before even reading the questions.

1. Read the directions and underline what the test is asking you to do.
2. Read the task and underline what the focus of the essay will be.
3. Then take the focus of the essay and turn it into a question.
4. Then read the questions but DO NOT read the answers. This is b/c as soon as they see a phrase in the passage that was in the answer, they think that is the answer.

I also teach annotation through out the year in order to create better focused readers!

Best of luck!

Stacey