Gr: 9 ELA Sample FAST Practice BUNDLE with ANNOTATIONS from flfast.org

Using the 9th Grade Sample Released FAST Assessment from the flfast.org website, apply the FREE SPADE test taking procedure to assist students with the metacognitive thinking needed as a test taking strategy to assist their performance.

SPADE is a free resource developed in Miami-Dade County Public Schools based off various professional developments regarding Close Reading compiled by District ELA Specialists. S standards for Survey, P is preview, A is annotate the text while reading, D is to dissect the question, and E is to gather the evidence to answer the question. After explicitly teaching this to the students through a color coded system, apply it to any passage read, especially the closer to testing season it gets.

What is in this bundle is the blank Grade 9 Sample ELA Assessment download from the flfast.org site FREE. Have the students read and record their answers as a first read in a testing situation. Remember it's not a full length test but a sample. You might choose to collect and score or have the students record their answers on a post it note and collect just the post it notes to score. Then use the 9th Grade Sample Passage as an instructional tool by applying the SPADE procedure and thinking through the steps together for those that did or perhaps did not.

Included in this bundle, are an example of TEACHER'S ANNOTATED NOTES and answers... a little bit of a head start in planning for you which might give you some insights into the thinking you might use as the text is reviewed following the SPADE procedure with the students. Feel free to add to them. As part of the review, remember to take your students to the actual website to work the sample online assessment. You would be surprised, even through they have taken PM1, or PM2, or maybe even PM3... how many students are NOT aware of the different digital tool available to them or how to use them.

This is a great resource to help guide your students towards thinking metacognitively and get them over the hump into 3 or higher land on ELA FAST!