Descriptions of the Tested Topics Grades 7–9

Below are descriptions for all the tested topics in Reading and an activity that you can do with your child to address each topic.

Word Analysis Skills and Strategies

Words are the building-blocks of everything students read. To truly understand a word, readers need to figure out both what it means and how it is used. Students should be able to use parts of a word to figure out its meaning. This will help them figure out the meanings of new words with similar parts. They should also be able to use clues from the word’s context to figure out its meaning.

Encourage your child's interest in language by leaving new vocabulary words all over the house. Jot down new words and their definitions on colorful pieces of paper. Slip these papers into your child's desk drawers, lunch bag, or dinner plate. Leave words taped to the mirror in the bathroom or in the laundry basket. Challenge your child to do the same for you. Sponsor a race among family members to see who can leave and collect the most words each week.

Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Literature

By reading, watching, and listening to plays, poems, and stories, students connect their own lives to literature. Students should think about and discuss characters, settings, plots, conflicts, and resolutions. When reading poetry, students should pay attention to the musical and visual qualities of descriptive language. Students should also understand how an author’s background, environment, and history influence the author’s writing.

Ask your child to imagine a reading companion who uncovers and records the important details in every book your child reads. Using well-developed note-taking skills, this imaginary companion gathers and records details about characters, makes predictions about events, and draws conclusions about important themes. As your child begins reading a new book, have him or her become this companion and keep the notes this companion would have taken.

Read to Comprehend, Interpret, and Evaluate Informational Text

Informational texts present ideas and opinions that are based on real-life events. Students often use informational texts for research. When they read informational texts, students should think about and discuss the main ideas, important details, visual features, and organization. They should also make conclusions about the uses and purposes of information within different texts.

Ask your child to help you understand an upcoming election in your community. Read an article about a political candidate and have her summarize the candidate's beliefs about a particular issue. Talk about how to determine the candidate's beliefs from statements in the article. Then ask your child if she agrees or disagrees with the candidate, and why she would or would not vote for this person.

Forming an Initial Understanding

When readers form an initial understanding, they are able to understand the basic facts of what they read. Understanding the basic facts is an important first step for more complex understanding. Some people call questions that address this topic “find and point” questions, because the answers are right in the text.

As you talk to your child about the books he or she is reading, help your child locate sentences or paragraphs that are long and/or confusing. Show your child how to break these sentences up phrase by phrase into their parts. Translate the longer sentence or paragraph into a simple summary of the most important information. Also, talk with your child about how the parts of each sentence work together. What are the relationships among them? Do some parts modify others?

Developing an Interpretation

When readers develop an interpretation, they have a more complete understanding of what they read. They can connect information across parts of a text, and they can also focus on details in a text. Questions that address this topic ask students to “read between the lines.”

Choose a book that you and your child can read at the same time. After you have each read a chapter or section, discuss the main character. Ask your child what she and the main character have in common. Then ask her to come up with differences. Discuss some of the main character's important decisions and ask your child to describe what she would have done.

Determining a Critical Stance

When readers determine a critical stance, they are able to ask questions, form opinions, and make decisions about what they read. Students might be asked to evaluate a text’s quality and appropriateness, the information the author includes, the way the text is organized, and how it compares to other texts. Questions that address this topic ask students to “read beyond the lines.”

The point of view of a text refers to who is telling the story. When reading with your child, ask her to identify the author's point of view. Is the writing first person (I, me, we) or third person (he, she, they)? Discuss why the author might have chosen a particular point of view, and what effect it has on the reader. You can even challenge your child to rewrite a paragraph from an alternate point of view.