Responding to DBQs Nonfiction Assessment V

The AP US History and AP World History exams include document-based questions (DBQs). A DBQ requires you to analyze a writing prompt, closely read a series of related documents, and then write an essay that answers the prompt using evidence from the documents. The documents may include a variety of media such as articles, graphs, photographs, and political cartoons.

Viewing and Writing Nonfiction Assessment IV

Some Common Core and AP assessments present you with visuals that you must analyze and respond to. Remember that every visual is a form of communication with a sender and receiver (who), a message (what and why), a medium (how), and a context (where and when).

Reading and Writing Nonfiction Assessment III

Closely read the following articles and answer the questions afterward. Then you will need to analyze a prompt about these models and respond by writing an insightful essay.

Reading and Writing Nonfiction Assessment II

Closely read the following articles and answer the questions afterward. Then you will need to analyze a prompt about these models and respond by writing an insightful essay.

Source 1

Nonfiction Reading and Writing Assessment

Many high-stakes assessments test your ability to read nonfiction and write analyses about it. You'll find these types of tasks on the high school tests for the Common Core, the ACT and SAT, and the AP tests for English Language and Composition, U.S. History, and World History.

Of course, these assessments seek to measure the reading and writing ability you have gained over the whole of your schooling so far, so simply cramming won't spell success. However, taking a practice test that requires the same skills will help you know what kinds of questions to anticipate, allowing you to score your best.

How Can I Practice for Assessment?

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In this unit, you'll get to practice closely reading nonfiction texts. After each, you'll answer a bank of multiple-choice questions that check your comprehension but also require you to infer shades of meaning. Then you'll need to analyze a writing prompt about the texts and write an on-target essay response. You'll find three such practice tests.

You'll also find a practice test that requires you to view advertisements, answer questions about them, and write an essay response. Finally, you will find a practice test for answering document-based questions (DBQs) like those on the AP history exams. You'll analyze a writing prompt, closely read seven documents related to it, and write a response to the prompt.

At the end of this unit, you'll find sample argument and explanatory rubrics showing the way that essays are scored on high-stakes assessments. You can find the specific rubrics used for a given high-stakes writing assessment at these locations:

• PARCC Scoring Rubric for Prose Constructed Response Items (Grades 6-11)
• Smarter Balanced Performance Task Writing Rubrics
• ACT Writing Test Scores
• SAT Essay Scoring
• AP English Language and Composition Scoring Guidelines

For practice with high-stakes literature assessments, see the units "Reading and Writing Literature for Assessment" and "Practice Tests for Reading and Writing Literature."

Reading and Writing Nonfiction Assessment I

Closely read the following articles and answer the questions afterward. Then you will need to analyze a prompt about these models and respond by writing an insightful essay.

Reading a Comparison-Contrast Essay

Before you write your own comparison-contrast essay, you should read and respond to an essay written by another student. This student was studying the civil rights movement in Advanced Placement U.S. History and decided to compare and contrast two key documents from the leaders in 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Reading a Student Model

Read the following comparison-contrast essay, in which Lamar analyzes King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and Malcolm X's "Message to the Grassroots." Lamar introduces both documents, reviews each separately (topic-by-topic organization), looks at the similarities and differences of each, and then evaluates both using argumentation and analogy. Click on the side notes to see the features of this comparison-contrast essay.

Warm-Up for Comparison-Contrast Essays

People often say, "You can't compare apples and oranges." Of course you can. Apples and oranges are both fist-sized fruits with an outer protective covering, sweet inner flesh, and seeds. Both grow on trees and appear in supermarkets. Both come in delicious varieties. These fruits are different in many ways as well: color, texture, taste, vitamins, acidity, availability, seasons, and so on. By comparing and contrasting apples and oranges, you learn more about each.

This kind of analytical thinking can help you understand just about any two topics, whether protagonists in novels or types of respiratory systems in animals or generals in the Civil War. In this unit, you'll select two topics from your own areas of study or from personal interest and compare and contrast them.

What Are Comparing and Contrasting?

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When you compare two topics, you find the similarities between them. When you contrast them, you focus on differences. Yes, you can compare and contrast apples and oranges, but your thinking needs to use parallel structure. In other words, you compare and contrast the appearance of both, and then the taste, and then the color. You shouldn't say, "While an orange has a tangy, slightly acidic taste, an apple comes in different colors." You shouldn't compare the taste of the orange to the color of the apple.

As you can see, a comparison-contrast essay needs to keep ideas neatly sorted. You have two separate topics, the similarities and differences between them, and the many points of comparison and contrast. This unit will help you manage all of this complexity, thinking effectively about your topics and developing a clear, thorough, and compelling essay.

You can warm up your thinking by comparing and contrasting yourself and one of your friends or family members.

Thinking About People

You may have a lot in common with a friend or family member, or very little in common, or some combination. You can analyze the similarities and differences between yourself and a person you like by writing about each of you, point by point. One student compared and contrasted himself to his best friend by completing the following chart.

Reading a Cover Letter and Résumé

The cover letter and résumé work hand in hand. The cover letter connects to a specific person at a specific company about a specific job. The résumé then provides detailed information showing how your experience, education, and skill line up with the job. You can review the following samples to get a sense of how these two documents work.

Reading a Cover Letter

Read the following cover letter, written by a student to apply for the position of pool manager where he had been working as a lifeguard. Note how the cover letter highlights details in the résumé that follows, which gives specifics. Click on the side notes to view the different parts of each document.

Sample Cover Letter

Heading Robert Schneider

714 N. Crenshaw St.

Griffith, IN 46319

rschneider315@ghs12.edu

Date 30 February 2018

Inside Address Mr. Carlson, Liaison

Methodist Campground Board

1250 Wesley Road

Des Plaines, IL 60018

Salutation Dear Mr. Carlson:

Opening I'm writing to express my strong interest in the position of Pool Manager for the Campground Pool for this summer's season. To prepare for this role, I have taken the latest Lifeguard Instructor course through the American Red Cross, as you will see on the enclosed résumé. You will also see that I graduate in May from high school and so can work the usual season from Memorial Day to Labor Day this year. Please review the résumé for my other qualifications.

Middle Of course, my greatest store of experience comes from my previous two summers as a lifeguard at the Campground Pool. I understand pool policies and procedures for guarding, locker-rooms, front-desk, chemistry, cleaning, and maintenance. I've worked closely with previous staff and board members, including yourself. You know my work ethic, punctuality, and ability to work well with others to solve problems. I very much appreciate the opportunities and trust you have given me in the past and hope to take on more responsibility at the pool this summer.

The Campground Pool has been a big part of my childhood and an even bigger part of my early work history. I would love the opportunity to lead the staff in making this a great place for families into the future.

Closing If you have any questions or would like to set up an interview, please contact me at rschneider315@ghs12.edu or call me at (219) 555-9242. I look forward to hearing from you!

Complimentary Closing Sincerely,

Signature Block Robert Schneider

Lifeguard Instructor

Enclosure Note Enclosure: Résumé

Answering Multiple-Choice Questions

High-stakes assessments often include multiple-choice questions, which can be graded by machine. Questions may ask about thesis and support, inference and argument, definition and connotation, punctuation and usage, or anything in between. Follow these guidelines to score your best on multiple-choice questions:

• Read questions first. Then you know what to watch for.
• Note question order. Often the first question asks about the first line. Usually questions follow the order of the passage.
• Treat each passage separately. You usually answer a bank of multiple-choice questions for each passage before being prompted to write about a set of passages together.
• Be patient with short passages. They may take as long or longer to analyze than long passages.
• Pay attention to footnotes. If there is a footnote, often there will be a question about it.
• Analyze ideas and organization. Questions often focus on specific ideas and how they contribute to the whole passage. Think of what each idea accomplishes—summing, supporting, contrasting, questioning, and so on.
• Analyze voice. Questions may ask about the writer's tone (feeling about the topic) or formality (relationship with the audience).
• Analyze word choice and sentence fluency. Questions may focus on the writer's sentence style or on figures of speech.
• Answer easy questions first. Eliminate obviously wrong answers.

Answering Multiple-Choice Questions About a Text

Often, high-stakes assessments will present you with a text, asking you to read it and analyze it by responding to multiple-choice questions.

Understanding Vocabulary

When you read an unfamiliar word, you need to figure out its meaning based on how it is used. You can use the following context clues to guess a meaning.