6th Grade ELAR Semester Assessment

An educated guess based on what you already read and prior knowledge

• Inference

• Author's Purpose

• Claim

• Theme

These are thoughtful notes/comments added to a text to increase understanding. Examples include highlighting, summarizing paragraphs, and using pre-writing strategies.

• Notes

• Annotations

• Inference

• Questions

What is textual evidence?

• A sentence that states the purpose of an essay; gives the author's claim and three reasons to support it

• Questions you find in prompts

• Clues in surrounding text that help the reader determine the meaning of an unknown word

• Quotes (or paraphrases) from text passages to support a position

What are clues in surrounding text that help the reader determine the meaning of an unknown word

• Claim

• Citations

• Context Clues

• Textual Evidence

Read the following prompt and answer the question.

                           Family Meals 

In the past, families routinely sat down together to eat dinner. But in recent decades, that comfortable tradition has fallen by the wayside. In 1900, 2 percent of meals were eaten outside of the home. By 2010, that figure had risen to 50 percent. Today, family members often go their own way at mealtimes and when they do sit down together, about three times a week, the meal often lasts less than twenty minutes and is spent eating a microwaved meal in front of a television. However, recent studies have shown that homecooked, family meals really matter. Family meals usually lead to the consumption of healthy food packed with nutrition, rather than an intake of empty calories. Other benefits include strengthening familial bonds and improving family communication.

Question: The reader can conclude from the information in the article that families - 

• need to find new recipes 

• will end up never eating together 

• need more mealtimes together

• will always find time for each other

Read the following sentence and then match the underlined word with the correct meanings.

Question: The drought in Northern India was unprecedented; something that had never happened before, so the people were not prepared.

• familiar

• unlucky

• never known before

• exciting

Jennifer stepped up to the line, drenched in sweat. Her pulse was racing as her teammates lined up in front of her, giving her encouraging nods and smiles. She hadn't practiced free throws as much as her coach had insisted that the team should. Her hands were shaking as she lifted the orange ball above her head, and her arms tensed as she got into shooting position. She gulped as she looked around at the crowd, then at the scoreboard, its glowing numerals showing "43-42," almost taunting her. Then, she closed her eyes hard, opening them just as the ball left her hands.

QUESTION: The reader can infer that -

• Jennifer does not like playing basketball.

• Jennifer's team is winning.

• Jennifer's shot will probably not go in.

• Jennifer has made many free throws before.

The New American Dream (1) With Fortnite being so popular many people have wished that they could play video games all day long. (2) Tyler Belvins is a 26 year old from Illinois. (3) He has done just that by becoming a streamer on the video platform Twitch. (4) Don’t know who I’m talking about? (5) You may know him better by the username Ninja and he is the owner of Twitch’s most-followed channel with over 4 million subscribers. (6) On Twitch, streamers make reveunue by having subscribers, being sponsored by companies such as those who make video games, donations, and running ads on their channel. (7) With all of those ways to get paid, Ninja is raking in over 500,000 dollars per month. (8) Let me do the math for you: Ninja makes over 6 million dollars a year from just playing video games! (9) Ninja takes this money and uses it for good by donating to charities and using his fame to raise money for causes. (10) Do you want to make playing video games your day job? (11) With all these skills and a little luck, you could be the next big name in streaming!

QUESTION: What change, if any, should be made in sentence 2?

• Change 26 year old to 26-year-old

• Add a comma after old

• Change year to years

• No change is needed

“I was excited because I found $10 in the street, but later that day I got a parking ticket for $20. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.” What device is being used here?

• Alliteration

• Idiom

• Metaphor

• Personification

“Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.” What figurative device is being used in the line by The Beatles?

• Metaphor

• Idiom

• Personification

• Alliteration