EOCT Study Guide

1
EOCT Study Guide
2
EOCT AT A GLANCE

• All questions are multiple choice
• Each section of the American Literature EOCT
  contains 40 questions there are 2 sections with
  a total of 80 questions combined
• Each EOCT has two sections and students are given
  60 minutes per section
• A students EOCT score is averaged as 15 of
  his/her final grade

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Preparing for the EOCT

• Know your study skills habits
• Practice good time management skills by setting
  realistic goals, studying for reasonable amounts
  of time, establishing a routine and studying the
  most challenging things first.
• Be organized- establish a study area with minimal
  distractions and gather materials in advance.
• Actively participate while studying, it makes the
  information stick with you. Create sample test
  questions, ask yourself questions or rewrite the
  information.

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Test-taking Strategies

• Start now- dont wait until the last minute to
  prepare for the test.
• Prepare a little each day by practicing the
  skills that will be measured by the EOCT.
• Determine what skills you need to master and
  focus on those skills.

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The day before the EOCT

• Review the general test-taking strategies
• Get a good nights sleep- most people need at
  least 8 hours
• Dont drastically alter your routine- if you go
  to bed too early, you might lie in bed and focus
  on the test.
• Relax!

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The morning of the EOCT

• Eat a good breakfast! Peanut butter, meat and
  eggs are good choices.
• Dress in layers to make certain you will not be
  too hot or cold during the test.
• Arrive on time for the test. You do not want to
  be rushed and anxious.

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TOP TEN EOCT STRATEGIES

• Focus on the test
• Budget your time
• Take a quick break if you feel tired
• Use positive self-talk
• Mark in your test booklet
• Read the entire question and answers
• Use what you know

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TOP TEN (Cont.)

• Use content specific strategies to answer the
  questions
• Think logically
• Check your answers- go back and check your work
  when you are finished!

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Content Domains on EOCT

• Reading and American Literature
• Reading Across the Curriculum/Listening, Speaking
  and Viewing
• Writing
• Conventions

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Studying the Content Domains

• Reading passages Domains 1 and 2 will be based
  on informational and literary passages.
• Informational passages (nonfiction) will share
  knowledge and convey messages. Examples include
  letters, biographical accounts, etc.
• Literary passages (fiction) will tell a story or
  express an idea. Examples include short stories,
  novels, poetry, etc.

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Content Doman 1Reading and American Literature

• EOCT Review 11th Grade

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Standard 1

• Identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the
  structures and characteristics of American
  fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama and
  provide evidence from the work to support
  understanding.

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Passages

• You will be presented with a selection from the
  following types of passages
• Essay
• Official documents
• Biography/Autobiography
• Expository (informational)
• Narrative (fiction/nonfiction)
• Speech
• Poem
• Drama

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Literary Devices Terms to KNOW

• Alliteration
• Flashback
• Foreshadowing
• Hyperbole
• Irony
• Metaphor (regular/extended)
• Onomatopoeia
• Paradox

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Literary Devices Terms to KNOW

• Personification
• Pun
• Refrain
• Repetition
• Simile
• Symbol
• Tone
• Understatement

16
Fiction Terms to KNOW

• Chronological story is arranged in order of
  time from beginning to end
• Epistolary Novel novel written in the form of
  letters, journals, diary entries, letters etc.
• Frame Narrative a story told within in a story
• In medias res Latin for in the middle of
  things the novel begins with a significant
  moment, this style uses flashbacks to fill in the
  details

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Influences on American Literature

• You will be asked to relate American Literature
  to the following
• Historical setting
• Other works of fiction or nonfiction
• Greek/Roman myths roots of literature

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Sample Question

• What quote by Henry David Thoreau BEST reflects
  transcendentalist ideals?
• It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
• Beware of all enterprises that require new
  clothes.
• On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful
  souls, it is always morning.
• Read the best books first, or you may not have a
  chance to read them at all.

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Answer

• C. On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful
  souls, it is always morning.
• Explanation Transcendentalists believed in the
  unity of all things, the innate goodness of
  humans, and the divinity found in nature.

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Sample Question

• Which statement BEST describes a main difference
  between journals and diaries?
• A journal is more likely than a diary to be
  published.
• A journal mostly contains secret thoughts and
  feelings.
• A diary mostly records a specific event or period
  of time.
• A diary is more formal and carefully written than
  a journal.

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Answer

• A. A journal is more likely than a diary to be
  published.
• Explanation The other answers confuse the two
  genres. A is the only choice that correctly
  describes a main difference between journals and
  diaries. Because they are less private, journals
  are more likely to be shared with others.

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Poetry Terms to KNOW

• Rhyme
• End Rhyme
• Internal Rhyme
• Slant Rhyme
• Consonance
• Assonance
• Rhyme Scheme
• Fixed form
• Free form
• Blank verse

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Poetry Terms to KNOW

• Subject matter
• Narrative tells a story
• Ballad narrative poem, folk origin, intended to
  be sung
• Lyric expresses a persons thoughts or feelings

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Figurative Language Terms to KNOW

• These types of figurative language are often
  found in poetry, but can be found in many genres
  of literature.
• Allusion
• Conceit
• Metonymy
• Synecdoche

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Drama Terms to KNOW

• Tragedy
• Comedy
• Political drama
• Modern drams
• Theatre of the Absurd
• Dramatic conventions
• Fourth Wall
• Expressionism
• Minimalism
• Dramatic Irony
• Stage directions

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Standard 2

• Identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of
  theme in a work of American Literature and
  provides evidence from the work to support
  understanding.

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Terms and Idea to KNOW

• Terms
• Main idea
• Theme
• Universal theme
• Big Ideas
• American individualism
• American dream
• Cultural diversity
• Tolerance

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Native American Period, pre-1620-1840

• Based on oral tradition of songs and stories
• Focuses on
• The natural world
• The sacred world
• Importance of land and place

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Colonial Period, 1620-1750

• Focuses on Lives of Puritans
• Moral and religious attitudes
• Historical events
• Daily life
• Political unrest

• Major Authors
• William Bradford
• Anne Bradstreet
• Jonathan Edwards
• Benjamin Franklin

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Revolutionary Period, 1750-1815

• Major Authors
• Thomas Paine
• Benjamin Franklin
• Thomas Franklin

• Focuses on
• Intellect
• Age of Reason/Enlightenment
• Justification of the American Revolution
• Nationalism
• Patriotism

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Romanticism and Transcendentalism, 1800-1855

• Focuses on
• 1) Reason and rational thought
• Individualism
• Nature
• Imagination
• Emotions

• Major Authors
• Washington Irving
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Edgar Allen Poe
• Walt Whitman
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau

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Realism, 1850-1900

• Focuses on
• Realities of life
• Human frailty
• Regional cultures

• Major Authors
• Mark Twain
• Ambrose Pierce
• Emily Dickinson
• Stephen Crane
• Willa Cather

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Naturalism, 1880-1940

• Focuses on
• Viewing life as a set of natural laws to be
  discovered
• Characters studied by their relations to their
  surroundings (luck, heredity, environment)

• Major Authors
• Jack London
• Theodore Dreiser
• James T. Farrell
• Frank Norris

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Modern Period, 1900-1950

• Focuses on
• Disillusionment with old ways
• Themes of alienation
• Experiments with new techniques
• Irony, symbolism, understatement
• Harlem Renaissance

• Major authors
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• T.S. Eliot
• Ernest Hemingway
• Langston Hughes
• Zora Neale Hurston

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Possible Questions on Literary Periods

• Which detail from the passage informs the reader
  of the time period?
• The poem is characteristic of which period in
  American Literature
• Which characteristics of the Modern Period are
  found both in the story and the poem?

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Identifying Style Devices

• Example of style device
• Toneoverall sense of authors
• attitude toward the subject matter

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What are the tones in the following excerpts?
The woman trudged through the heavy snow,
struggling against the wind, her face shielded by
a thick gray scarf. She kept her face down, her
eyelids nearly closed, dark slits in a pale white
face. Her shoulders sagged as if laden with a
heavy burden, yet her arms were empty.
The woman danced across the snow, her feet barely
leaving prints, her arms lifted upward,
embracing the wind. She flung back her head and
tossed her red hat into the air, lifting her face
into the driving snow and allowing the snowflakes
to caress her skin.
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Identifying New Vocabulary

• Questions for this standard will ask you to
  understand and acquire new vocabulary terms that
  are appropriate fro high school students.

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Identifying New Vocabulary, contd.

• Be familiar with the following terms
• Idioms phrases or expressions peculiar to a
  particular language
• Example A person who looks like the cat who
  swallowed a canary is satisfied with something
  that has happened. She has not literally
  swallowed a canary.

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Identifying New Vocabulary, contd.

• Cognates words that have the same origin or are
  related in some way to words in other languages
• Example of Cognates
• NightEnglish
• NocheSpanish
• NuitFrench

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Identifying New Vocabulary, contd.

• Denotationdictionary definition of a word
• Connotationmeaning or idea associated with a
  word
• Examples of denotation and connotation
• Laugh and giggle have similar denotations
  however, the word giggle has youthful
  connotations. We associate giggle with children
  and not adults.

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Content Domain IIVocabulary
Your answers to the questions will help show how
well you can perform on the following
standards Acquire new vocabulary in each
content area and use it correctly Establish a
context for information acquired by reading
across subject areas Evaluate the messages and
effects of mass media
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Read the following selection and try to figure
out what the word truncated means.

• Everyone could tell it had once been a huge
  tree. The roots at its base were as large as a
  grown person. When the tree died, someone had
  used a
• chainsaw to cut away most of the tree. All that
  was left was a truncated stump of wood. The stump
  made a picnic table that could seat eight people
  around it comfortably

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• As it is used in this Paragraph , the word
  truncated most nearly means
• A modified
• B added
• C shortened
• D replaced

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STRATEGY BOX

• Use the Words Around It
• When you are faced with an unknown word, go back
  to the passage. Start reading two sentences
  before the word appears, and continue reading for
  two sentences afterwards. If that doesnt give
  you enough clues, look elsewhere in the passage.
  By reading the context in which the word appears,
  you may be able to make an educated guess

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How a word is used in a sentence can also
determine its meaning. If the context of the word
changes, the meaning of the word can also change.
This change can be very basic, such as a word
being used as a noun in one sentence and a verb
in the next. Set as a noun That is a lovely set
of dinner plates. Set as a verb Please set the
books down on the table.
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• However, a change in meaning can be subtler. Look
  at the word shrieked in the next two sentences,
  and notice how the meaning of the word changes
  slightly.
• Sentence 1 Theres a monster in the house! the
  woman shrieked.
• Sentence 2 I just won 65 million dollars! the
  woman shrieked.

In the first sentence, the woman shrieks out of
fear. In the second sentence, the shriek is one
of extreme excitement and happiness. The context
of the sentence has determined whether the shriek
is good or bad.
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Items written for this standard will ask you to
relate common human experiences to a given text.

• For example, a sample passage might be an excerpt
  from Sandra Cisneros The Houseo n Mango Street,
  which describes the coming of age of Esperanza, a
  young Hispanic girl trying to find her place in
  the Chicago neighborhood in which she lives.
  Thepassage might describe the incident when
  Esperanza tries to eat in the same eatery as the
  children who go to her school but who dont live
  in her poor neighborhood. She discovers that she
  is not welcomed there and this makes her feel
  ashamed. A reader need not be a young Hispanic
  girl growing up in the barrios of Chicago to
  identify with Esperanzas feelings of hurt.

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Which life experience would MOST improve a
readers ability to identify with the main
character in the passage? A discrimination B
misfortune C failure D disappointment
A reader who has experienced any sort of
discrimination could identify with the character
in this story .Choice A is correct. It is the
life experience most closely related to this
excerpt.
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STRATEGY BOX

• Empathize
• Good readers usually try to understand the
  characters better by empathizing, or
• identifying with their thoughts and feelings.
  Empathizing with the characters helps
• stories come alive, and it gives readers more
  insight into the motivations of the
• characters and how they influence each other

51
Context is also helpful in identifying the
meaning of words that are being used indifferent
subjects. For example, in science class the word
revolution refers to a planets complete turn
around the Sun. In social studies class, a
revolution is a complete upheaval in government
or society. The context of the passage will help
you decide which meaning is appropriate in the
passage.
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STRATEGY BOX

• Plug It In
• To answer questions for this standard, look at
  the answer choices. Does one seem
• the most likely? Try plugging it in the
  sentence to replace the word in the
• question. Does the word from the answer choice
  make sense in the sentence?
• If so, it is probably the correct answer. If
  not, try plugging in another answer choice.

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What is Mass Media?
Radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and
Web sites are all different channels through
which Americans can receive information. Taken
together, all these different modes of
communicationtelevision, radio, newsprint, etc.
are often referred to as mass media.
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Common Modes of Rhetoric
1. Narration. Narrative writing tells a story.
This story can be true (like a firsthand account
in a magazine article) or completely made up (a
short story with talking dragons). Narrative
writing usually has a story with a plot, a
climax, and a resolution of events in the
story.
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2. Description
As its name suggests, descriptive writing uses
language to describe a person, place, or thing.
Descriptive writing is often filled with
colorful, precise language, since the goal of
good descriptive writing is to make a person,
place, or thing come alive in the mind of a
reader. A character sketcha picture of a person
captured in wordsis one example of descriptive
writing.
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3. Persuasion
. .
Persuasive writing is designed to influence the
readers thoughts in someway. Politicians use
persuasive speeches to convince voters to cast
their ballots for them. Editorials in local
newspapers are written to convince readers that
one particular viewpoint is better than the
other.
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4. Exposition
Expository writing is used to provide
information on a topic or to explain something. A
common encyclopedia entry is a good example of
expository writing.
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Types of ArgumentsArguments facts or
assertions offered as proof that something is true

• Argument by authority relies on statements from
  authority figures, experts, or professionals to
  convince you of something.
• Argument by emotion appeals to your feelings.
• Argument by logic is an appeal to reason and
  evidence to convince you of something.

59
Match the following examples to the appropriate
type of argument

• Relief organizations showing pictures of people
  in very unfortunate situations to move you to
  donate money to their organizations
• B. People who have used our product have lost
  weight. You want to lose weight. If you buy this
  product, you will lose weight.
• C. An advertisement claiming that three out of
  four dentists agree that this toothpaste is the
  best

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American Literature EOCT Review

• Content Domain III
• Writing

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What does the EOCT cover?

• Organize a writing sample
• Demonstrate ability to convey information and
  ideas from primary and secondary sources
• Use research and technology to support writing
• Use the writing process to develop, revise, and
  evaluate writing

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The Test

• Apply knowledge about grammar, usage, and style
  to create an organized writing sample that
• Engages the reader
• Maintains a coherent focus
• Signals closure
• Tested on a variety of passages
• Letters, reports, essays, journals, and newspaper
  articles

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Finding the Main Idea

• Thesis or Main idea primary message of a piece
  of writing
• Main idea can be found
• In title
• The thesis statement
• The conclusion
• Subordinate, or supporting ideas can be found
• Topic sentence of each paragraph
• Body paragraphs

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Every Paper Needs Evidence!

• Evidence will support the main and subordinate
  ideas
• Evidence might include
• Ancedotes
• Descriptions
• Facts
• Statistics

65
EOCT Questions

• Questions may look like these
• Which sentence does NOT fit with the main idea of
  the report?
• Which sentence is the BEST thesis for this
  passage?

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Organization

• Common ways to organize a passage include
• Chronological order
• Cause and effect
• Compare and contrast
• Asking and answering questions
• Writers choice in structure depends on the point
  they want to make.

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Nuts and Bolts of Effective Writing

• Good writers use precise language
• Use action verbs rather than passive voice
• Active voice subject of the sentence acts
• Ex. A man wearing jeans and a baseball cap
  robbed the bank and stole its money
• Passive voice subject of the sentence is acted
  upon buy the verb (look for by)
• Ex. Money was stolen from the bank by a man
  wearing jeans and a baseball hat.
• Questions on the EOCT
• Finding the best topic sentence, concluding
  sentence, identifying a sentence that is out of
  sequence, or one that is unrelated to the topic

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Choose the BEST Answer

• You will come across answers that are close
• KEEP READING!!!
• You need to find the BEST Answer
• Dont mark your final answer until you have read
  ALL of the answer choices!!!

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Demonstrate ability to convey information and
ideas from sources

• You will be asked to choose the best sentences
  to
• Engage the audience, develop a controlling idea,
  summarize a passage, provide detailed information
  in style and tone
• Passages will be
• Informational reports, articles, or essays
• Could be tested on rhetorical devices
• Repetition, analogy

70
Identify and Use Rhetorical Devices

• Parallelism
• repetition of similar parts of a sentence
• Ex I came, I saw, I conquered.
• Repetition
• Part of parallelism
• may repeat words or phrases throughout a literary
  piece
• Analogy
• Like a simile, compares two items
• Can be more extensive than a simile

71
Use Research and Technology to Support Writing

• Questions will test your ability to choose the
  best sources and methods for researching a topic
• Steps in the Research Process
• Deciding on a topic not too broad or too narrow
• Locate Primary and Secondary Sources
• Primary Source records of events by people who
  participated in or witnessed the events
• Ex English paper, authors work, personal
  interviews, and news paper accounts
• Secondary Source records of events by people
  who did not participate
• Ex textbook, literary reviews, and criticisms
• Paraphrasing Information putting the
  information you read and writing it in your own
  words

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Plagiarism

• Is taking someone elses words or ideas and
  presenting them as your own.
• Questions related to this topic might ask you to
  select the correct way to quote material from
  sources

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Organizing and Recording Information

• Recording information on note cards is a great
  way to keep information organized
• Anecdotal scripting term for recording the
  events in a literary work
• List or timeline of the events
• Annotated Bibliography
• Brief summary of the work include thesis main
  idea
• Evaluation of the work authors background
  knowledge
• Intended audience for whom is the book written?
• Evaluation of usefulness will it help with your
  research?
• Other systems of organization
• Outlines, mindmaps, charts, and graphs

74
Identifying and Analyzing Sources

• Questions will ask about appropriate sources for
  research and tests your ability to choose the
  best written or electronic source to use in
  researching a topic
• Reference Materials informative, nonfiction
  resources, like a dictionary, or electronic
  source (ie Galileo)
• Helpful to know the parts of a book and the
  function of each part

75
Documenting Your Sources

• Cite the source when you use information from
  another source
• Bibliography contains all the works you consulted
  during your research
• Works Cited only documents the works you have
  specifically referenced in your paper

76
Use the writing process to develop, revise, and
evaluate writing

• Questions will focus on recognizing the best
  revisions to poor writing
• Asked to rewrite awkwardly worded sentences,
  misplaced modifiers, and errors in sentence
  structure
• Steps in the writing process
• Prewriting gathering ideas, organizing thoughts
• Drafting creating the rough draft
• Revising and Editing making improvements
• Proofreading polishing the paper
• Publishing sharing your finished paper

77
Trust Yourself

• Dont be afraid to trust your ear and make an
  educated guess
• You can often hear a problem even if you cant
  explain exactly what is wrong with the sentence

78
Ability to Revise for Audiences and Purposes

• Understanding who the intended audience is will
  help you understand the purpose of the writing
• Understanding your audience also helps you use
  appropriate language
• Choose between formal and informal language
• Formal is grammatically precise, contains longer
  sentences
• Informal not always grammatically accurate, may
  use slang words or phrases

79
Who is your Audience?

• Consider the situation and audience
• The goal is to match the formality or the
  situation and audience with the formality of the
  writing
• Good writers adjust vocabulary, style, and tone
  to fit their intended audiences
• Questions will ask you to determine appropriate
  language for a particular audience

80
Study Ideas for the EOCT!

• Be able to recognize good writing and understand
  the importance of audience and purpose
• Practice researching a topic
• Find a variety of reference materials, review and
  compare their contents

81
Content Domain IV

• Conventions

82
Test Question will do the following

• Test your ability to demonstrate understanding
  and control of the rules of the English language.
• test your ability to apply conventions of
  Standard American English to formal manuscript
  requirements.

83
Demonstrate understanding of Standard American
English

• Topics you can expect to see
• Main and subordinate clauses
• Gerund, participle, and infinitive phrases
• Punctuation marks
• Verb tense consistency and agreement
• Proper placement of modifiers
• Precise word choice
• Spelling
• Parallel structure

84
A closer look at Phrases

• Gerund phrase combines a gerund with the object
  of the gerund or other modifiers. A gerund is a
  verb uses as a noun, with an ing ending.
• Participle phrase includes a participle and the
  object of the participle. A participle is a form
  of a verb but does not act as a verb it acts as
  an adjective, often ends in ing or ed.
• Infinitive phrase Includes an infinitive and any
  modifiers or complements. An infinitive is always
  a verb with to in front of it. It can serve as a
  noun, adjective, or adverb.

85
Example why are the wrong answers wrong?

• What is the correct way to write the following
  sentence
• Teresa studied for an hour, outlined her paper,
  and then had taking a break.
• Teresa studied for an hour, outlined her paper,
  and then takes a break.
• Teresa studied for an hour, outlined her paper,
  and then took a break.
• Teresa studied for an hour, outlined her paper,
  and then will take a break.

86
Parallelism

• The previous question also tested parallelism.
• Parallelism states that objects linked together
  have to be similar in tense and number.
• So studied, outlined and taking are not parallel
  taking should be took because all three verbs
  should be past tense.

87
Apply conventions of Standard American English to
Formal manuscript requirements

• This section will focus on how well you know
  formatting requirements for manuscripts.
• These questions may ask about things like
  pagination, spacing, and margins.