ACT Aspire/ACT

1
Reading-Social Studies
Social Studies Support for Reading

High School Social Studies Department

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

2 ACT Aspire
Reporting Categories- Reading
 Skills assessed on the ACT Aspire :
 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Reading strand
 ACT College and Career Readiness Standards in Reading

 Key Ideas and Details

 Craft and Structure
 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

3 ACT Aspire Reading/
Social Science
 Each ACT Aspire Reading assessment contains several passages
o literary narratives (prose fiction, memoirs, personal essays) and
o informational text (social science, natural science).
 Within and across grade levels, the passages span a range of complexity
levels in order to provide students, teachers, and parents with information
about how well students understand texts of increasing difficulty.
 Students answer questions that assess their abilities to:
 recognize meaning in,
 reason logically about, and
 make connections between and among texts.

http://alex.state.al.us/ccrs/sites/alex.state.al.us.ccrs/files/3203%20ACT%20Aspire%20Summative%20Ove
rview-IRC.pdf
J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences
4 ACT Aspire Reporting Category
Key Ideas
 reading texts closely; determine central ideas and themes and summarize
information and ideas accurately; understand sequential, comparative,
and cause-effect relationships
 What should this look like in a social studies classroom?
 “What is the main idea?” (paragraph, section heading, passage)- “
 Give evidence for you’re answer using the text.
 Summarize this paragraph in your own words.
 How would you say this in another way?
 Are there any events that lead up to our topic today? Can we show a
cause-effect relationship in these events?

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

5 Acting Aspire- Reporting Category
2. Craft & Structure
 determine word and phrase meaning and analyze an author’s word
choice rhetorically; analyze text structure; understand purpose and point of
view
 What does this look like in a Social Studies Classroom?
 What is the author’s purpose? What evidence do you have?
 Why did the author use a particular phrase or word
 What is the author’s point of view? Why do you think this?
 Did the author mention any diverse ideas from his own? Why or why not?

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

6 Act Aspire – Reporting Category
3. Integration of Knowledge

 understand how arguments are constructed; make connections to prior

knowledge and between and among texts
 What does it look like in a Social Studies Classroom ?

 “Are the points of view of the two authors similar? Why or why not”
 How did the background of the two author’s influence their perspectives?
 Do you remember another event similar to this one? How are these events
similar? How are they different?

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

7 ACT Aspire
Reading
 25 – 48% of the ACT Aspire Reading Test is;
DOK level 3
In Grades 3–5, half the Multiple Choice items (10–11) will pertain to
literary narratives and the rest divided evenly between social science
and natural science informational texts.
Grades 6–EHS, items will be distributed evenly across the three passage
types – literary, social science, natural science (i.e. 7 items each)

http://alex.state.al.us/ccrs/sites/alex.state.al.us.ccrs/files/3203%20ACT%20Aspire%20Summative%20Ov
erview-IRC.pdfJ. Jackson, High School Social Sciences
8 ACT Aspire Reading
Points by Category Points by Item Type

Grades 3–7 Grade 8– Grades 3-7 Grade 8-EHS

EHS
Points % Points Points %Points
Points %Points Points % Points
MC 18-19 62-66 21-21 65-68
KID 3–18 42–65 13–20 42–65 TE 2-3 7-10 0-1 0-3
CR 8 28 10 32
CS 6-11 21-38 6-12 19-39
Total 29 100 31 100
IKI 3-6 10-21 1-8 13-26 Notes. EHS = Early High School (Grades 9 and 10); MC =
Multiple-Choice; TE =Technology-Enhanced. Paper-and-
pencil tests do not have TE items. MC items are
Total 29 100 31 100 used in their place.

Notes. KID = Key Ideas and Details; CS = Craft and Structure; IKI =
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.
J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences
9 The ACT Test

Content
 English 75 questions 45 minutes
Measures standard written English and rhetorical skills.

 Mathematics 60 questions 60 minutes Measures mathematical skills students

have typically acquired in courses taken up to the beginning of grade 12.
 Reading 40 questions 35 minutes Measures reading comprehension.
 Science 40 questions 35 minutes Measures the interpretation, analysis,
evaluation, reasoning, and problem-solving skills required in the natural
sciences.
 Optional Writing Test 1 prompt 40 minutes Measures writing skills
emphasized in high school English classes and in entry-level college composition
courses.

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

10 ACT Reading
 40 Questions
 35 minutes
 Four (4) Sections - 1 long prose and 2 shorter prose in each section
 Each section contains a set of multiple choice questions
 Categories of questions- Key Ideas and Details, Craft & Structure, Integration
of Knowledge
 Three scores are reported:
 Total Test Score for all 40 questions
 Sub-score in Social Sciences/Sciences Reading Skills– 20 questions
 Sub-score in Arts/Literature Reading Skills – 20 questions

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

11 ACT Reading–
Content Covered

 Social Studies (25%)- Anthropology, archaeology, biology, botany,

chemistry, geography, education, history, political science, psychology,
and sociology
 Natural Sciences (25%) – astrology, biology, botany, physics, ecology,
medicine, meteorology, microbiology, physiology, natural history,
technology, and zoology
 Literary Narrative (25%) – short stories, novels, memoirs, personal essays
 Humanities (25%) - architecture, art, dance, ethics, film, language, literary
criticism, music, philosophy, radio, television, and theater

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

12 ACT – Reading Test
 What do the test questions ask students to be able to do?
1. Refer to what is explicitly stated and reason to determine implicit meaning
• Determine main ideas
Locate and interpret significant details
•
Specific
Understand sequences of events
•
Skills
• Make comparisons
• Comprehend cause-effect relationships
• Determine the meaning of context-dependent words, phrases, statements
• Draw generalizations
• Analyze the author’s or narrator’s voice and method

No rote recall of facts from outside the passage, isolated vocabulary items, or rules of formal logic

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

13 ACT Reading

2. Sections that contain two short passages:

 Students must answer questions that involve both the passages in
the section.

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

14 ACT Aspire Reading
&
ACT Reading

 CCRS Literacy Standards

 DOK Level 3
 Key Ideas & Details (50%)
 Practice Practice Practice

 Skills can be learned

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences

15 ACT Aspire/ACT
Resources
 ACT Summative Assessment
http://alex.state.al.us/ccrs/sites/alex.state.al.us.ccrs/files/3203%20ACT%20Aspir
e%20Summative%20Overview-IRC.pdf
ACT Aspire Exemplars
http://actaspire.pearson.com/_documents/exemplars/3816_Aspire%20Exempl
ar%20EHS%20Reading_Web.pd
 Preparing for the ACT
http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/Preparing-for-the-ACT.pdf

J. Jackson, High School Social Sciences