Power Up: ACT Prep

Introduce the model activity participants will be going through, “Power Up: Reading ACT Prep, Week 2” using slide 7. Transition to slide 8 and share the topic for this model activity: finding main ideas and supporting details.

Share the essential question on slide 9 and the learning objectives from slide 10.

Move to slide 11 and introduce the Always, Sometimes, or Never True strategy to participants. On slide 12, read the statement on the slide: The ACT reading test is divided into four passages. Ask participants to think for a moment. Then ask for a volunteer to share whether they believe the statement is always true, sometimes true, or never true. Move to slide 13, which reveals that there are always four passages on the reading portion of the ACT. The slide also provides additional information about the exam: the test takes 35 minutes, and there are 40 questions on the reading test.

Repeat this process with the additional statements on slides 14–17.

Move to slide 18 and introduce the strategies that will be used in this next section, Fist to Five and Categorical Highlighting.

Give each participant a copy of the attached Passage handout, which is a student-material for week 2 of the Reading ACT Prep. Move to slide 19. Ask participants to look at the information provided at the top of the handout. Ask participants to consider whether the passage is fiction or nonfiction and use their hands to indicate their answer. Direct participants to hold up one finger for fiction or two fingers for nonfiction. Confirm that the passage is nonfiction.

Move to slide 20 and review the four types of passages that are on the ACT reading test: literary narrative, social science, humanities, and natural science.

• Literary Narrative: often excerpts from short stories, novels, memoirs, or personal essays

• Social Science: often a straightforward discussion of a topic from psychology, history, political science, etc.

• Humanities: often a nonfiction, informational passage about a topic from art, philosophy, theater, etc.

• Natural Science: often a detailed nonfiction passage about a science topic

Ask participants to hold up one, two, three, or four fingers (as indicated on the slide) to represent which type of passage is on their handout. Confirm with participants that the passage type is Social Science. 

Display slide 21. Ask participants to consider what the purpose of the passage is. Ask participants to hold up one, two, or three fingers (as indicated on the slide) to represent the purpose. Confirm with participants that the purpose of the passage is to inform.

Reinforce to participants that it is helpful to determine whether the passage is fiction or nonfiction, the type, and the purpose of the passages before answering questions. 

Move to slide 22 and give each participant three highlighters or colored pencils. Direct participants to read the passage silently and to highlight in different colors as they read the main idea of the passage, supporting details of the passage, and evidence that supports the details highlighted. After providing about ten minutes for participants to complete this, have participants partner together and review the items they chose to highlight. Have a brief group discussion about what the main idea, supporting details, and evidence of supporting details are for the passage.

Display slide 23 and pass out the attached Questions handout to each participant. Have participants answer the multiple-choice ACT-style questions about the passage. Review the correct answers with participants using slide 24.

Move to slide 25 and continue to model the ACT Prep activity: congratulate participants on working to increase their ACT scores. Suggest that participants spend twenty minutes weekly reading a text to prepare further for the ACT reading section.