SAT PSAT Important Reading Questions

Exercise One:

Use this link to create the most common question types on the SAT Reading section. Apply them to the text you are reading. Also, create the answers. Be very specific.

https://blog.prepscholar.com/breakdown-of-every-question-type-in-sat-reading-by-percentage (Links to an external site.)

Exercise Two:

Concentrate on the following tasks for a text. Create QUESTIONS and ANSWERS based on the items below. Your questions should be specific to the text I ask you to analyze. For example, 1. What is the author's point of view in paragraph three? Which specific words can you cite to support your answer? 2. What is the central idea in paragraph seven? Which specific words can you cite to support your answer?:

1. Determine an author’s point of view and purpose.
2. Cite strong textual evidence to support some analytical statement you make.
3. Determine two or more central ideas/themes in a text.
4. Explain how you determine the meaning of a word or a phrase in the text using context clues.
5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure/organization an author uses in a text.
6. Analyze how an author uses rhetorical/literary strategy and elaborate on the effectiveness of that strategy.
7. Determine an author’s tone in a text. Explain how you came to that conclusion. Be specific.
8. Infer the meaning of a line or paragraph in a text. Explain how you made that inference. Be specific.
9. Explain the function of a section/paragraph of a text.

If you have already created questions and answers that can be used for the above list, you can use those. Just be certain that you have questions and answers for items 1-9.

Analysis of "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston, an important voice of the Harlem Renaissance, was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and novelist best known for her work, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Sadly, she died in 1960 after suffering financial and medical difficulties. In 1973, Alice Walker, another famous American writer, "rediscovered" Hurston and promoted her body of work. In the classic essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Hurston explores the idea that all of us have multiple selves, depending upon the context and environments in which we find ourselves. Hurston's writing has an ebullience, self-assertiveness, and pride that is particularly evident in this text. She was a flamboyant and dramatic personality, at times clashing with fellow writers from the Harlem Renaissance, who believed that black Americans should use their art to speak out against racial oppression and the white majority. Hurston chose not to align herself with the political ideologies of ot...

All Classes--Analysis of Patrick Henry's Speech in the Virginia Convention

Scholars: It is good to read examples of analytical writing because it helps you understand how to write your own analysis essays. The habit of reading and studying models (examples) is the best way to learn how to write more effectively. Below is an analysis that I wrote on Patrick Henry's Speech in the Virginia Convention.

Teacher Model--Responding to an Argumentative Prompt

Below is an example of a written response to the AP English Language and Composition Argumentative Prompt (2011). I will use this in my classroom to model for students the writing process on the AP Exam. (The response was written in a 40-minute timed session when I attended an AP Summer Institute.) I want to show students that AP Readers understand that their writing is a draft and that they will not be marked down because of cross-outs and penmanship that is difficult to read. The caveat I would tell students is to of course try to write as legibly as possible. If the penmanship is very poor, the AP Reader will struggle and may miss important content in the student response.

Mulhern's English Site

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