Middle School ELA State Standardized Test Review Forward Exam '24 BUNDLE NO PREP

This bundle of NO PREP Google Slides includes all five reviews for the middle school ELA sessions of standardized state tests, such as the Wisconsin Forward Exam. The topics are Hyphens—En Dashes—Em Dashes, Transition Words, Writing a Stellar Paragraph, Context Clues, and Analyzing for Tone & Mood. These digital resources are also sold separately. I used each resource with my virtual sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. They found them to be engaging and helpful lessons.

Part 1 of Test Prep Bundle: Hyphen and En Dash and Em Dash, Oh My!

NO PREP Google Slides are ready to use with middle schoolers to learn and practice hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. The mechanics of these types of punctuation can be confusing, so I made it simple and fun. My 6th, 7th, and 8th graders had never heard of the difference among these marks, and when I saw it was included on the DPI practice for the the new ELA version of the Wisconsin State Forward Exam, I used this resource with the students to better prepare them for the upcoming test. They reported that the slides made it clear and easy to understand. 

Part 2 of Test Prep Bundle: Using Transition Words

NO PREP Google Slides are ready to use with middle schoolers to improve their writing using transition words and prepare for standardized tests. After seeing that the new ELA session of the middle school Forward Exam has several questions about transition words, I used this digital lesson with my sixth, seventh, and eighth grade virtual students. They thought the topics of the sample paragraphs were fun (social media, basketball, ice cream, video games, music, hiking, water bottles,) and the slides were easy to understand. Students can type directly on the slides to practice adding in transitions, dragging the necessary commas, and eventually writing their own paragraph. There is a self-reflection slide that includes an editable grading rubric where students can grade themselves, and you don’t have to do anything! The answer key slides are also included. The learning targets are: understand the purposes of transition words, determine the correct transition words to use in your writing, and use transition words to improve the cohesion and flow of your writing.

Part 3 of Test Prep Bundle: Writing a Stellar Paragraph

NO PREP Google Slides are ready to use with middle schoolers to guide them through writing an excellent paragraph. This activity is also a good review for standardized tests. In this year’s State of Wisconsin Forward Exam ELA sessions, the test focuses on writing a good paragraph in middle school (rather than the previous TDA). Using engaging topics for middle school, this lesson guides the middle schoolers through the topic sentence, supporting details, transitions, and a concluding statement. The learning target is to write a clear and organized paragraph that introduces your topic, uses supportive and descriptive details, and includes a concluding statement. You could use this as independent work, small group work, or whole class instruction. I used this with my virtual sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. They found it helpful and used the self-reflection slide to grade themselves. The grading rubric is editable, and it helped the students go back and fix their work too. In the end, the students wrote stellar paragraphs! As they practice each part of the paragraph, they have practice where they type right on the slides. Answer keys are also included.

Part 4 of State Test Prep Bundle: Context Clues

NO PREP Google Slides are ready to use with middle school students to guide them through using context clues to infer the meaning of words and enhance their reading comprehension. I used this digital resource with my virtual sixth, seventh, and eighth graders as a review for the standardized State exam, in our case the Wisconsin Forward Exam. The examples and practice questions use an engaging topic for middle school students—video games. Students choose a synonym for the underlined word, just like they have to do on the new version of the State exam. When that mission is accomplished, the students take a very quick assessment using a short passage about social media. The slides include the answer key, so you may wish to make a copy of it and delete those slides before you share the presentation with students, unless you want them to check themselves. This lesson could be completed in one ELA class period, less than an hour.

Part 5 of State Test Prep Bundle: Tone & Mood

This NO PREP Google Slides lesson about tone and mood is ready to use with middle schoolers. I used it with my virtual sixth, seventh, and eighth graders as a review for our upcoming State standardized test, in our case the Wisconsin Forward Exam. The learning targets are: analyze an author’s writing to identify the tone and mood and apply your understanding of tone and mood to your own writing. The lesson goes through the difference between tone and mood and gives several examples of each. There are practice slides for mood and tone, as well as answer key slides. In the end, the students write their own paragraph creating a certain tone and mood. Also included is an enrichment slide for those ready to rewrite their previous paragraph to create the opposite tone and mood. My advanced, early-finisher students found this to be engaging while some students were still working on their initial paragraph. There are model slides of both the regular and the enrichment paragraphs. The lesson ends with a fun brain dump exit ticket.

I chose the main areas of the new version of the state test that I knew my middle schoolers needed to review. Enjoy!