Read about high-interest topics while you practice test-taking strategies with paired passages.
I love when students love reading, but I’ve found that my students don’t love reading when they have to read about topics they struggle to connect with.
Shocker, right?!? (Yep. That was sarcasm!)
Although students may need to know that the Stamp Act took place, a non-fiction passage about the Stamp Act is not something they will probably get really excited to read.
When we are practicing test-taking strategies related to reading, I really like to find highly engaging passages for students to work with. Testing is not really exciting, but when we are practicing test-taking strategies with paired passages, there are no rules that say you have to pick passages that are just as dull as a typical standardized test passage.
I mean, why read about the Stamp Act when you can practice test-taking strategies with paired passages about social media, TikTok, video games, sports, and so much more?
What’s Included in a Paired Passage
Before we talk about test-taking strategies, let’s talk about what these paired passages look like.
Each paired passage set includes passages that are focused on a common topic, and each passage includes a set of reading comprehension questions to test a student’s knowledge.
You can also create your own questions to go along with a passage or ask students to use the paired passages to support their writing practice.
I love paired passages so much; in fact, I’ve come up with a whole bunch of different ways to use them. You can read about the ways I like to reuse my paired passages in this post!
Paired Passages also challenge students to think about the text in a different way. In this post, I’ve talked about how paired passages can prepare students for testing situations.
Practice Test-Taking Strategies with Paired Passages
There are a variety of test-taking strategies out there, and these paired passages allow you to put your students in a test-like situation so they can practice several of those strategies.
Maybe you are practicing taking timed tests. If you know that students are typically given 60 minutes on their reading tests, and the reading test includes six passages, then you can give your students 10 minutes to complete one of the passages.
Maybe you are working on narrowing down answer choices. Use the questions that come with the paired passages to practice figuring out which answers can be thrown out and which ones need to be seriously considered.
Maybe you are teaching your students how to quickly annotate a passage to help them be more successful in a testing situation. Use one of these paired passages to demonstrate how you might do that.
For more test-taking tips, check out this blog post!
The paired passages we have in the store are very similar to the passages that students may encounter during testing situations, making them great for you to use as you practice test-taking strategies.
Take a closer look at all the different paired passage topics we have available here!
Testing doesn’t have to be scary, and you can do a lot to prepare your students when you practice test-taking strategies with paired passages!