ELA CAHSEE Preparation

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ELA CAHSEE Preparation

• We will work together and you will
• pass that test!

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Bart Simpson Promises.
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What should you know about the English Language
Arts section of the CAHSEE?
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What Exactly is on the CAHSEE?

• Approximately 72 multiple choice questions about
  reading and writing strategies
• One essay response question
• The nitty-gritty You have to be correct on a
  little more than half of the questions (including
  a passing essay score) in order to pass. You a
  have to have about a 70 to be marked
  Proficient on the test.

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Reading on the CAHSEE

• 7 Vocabulary Questions
• 18 Reading Comprehension Questions (read a
  passage and answer questions)
• 20 Literary Response Questions
• (read literature and answer questions)

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Literary Response and Analysis

• 20 Multiple Choice Questions
• These types of texts include
• Poetry
• Plays
• Fiction
• Essays
• The Literary Response and Analysis section of the
  CAHSEE asks you to read literature and answer
  questions about it.

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CAHSEE Writing

• 27 Multiple-Choice writing questions total
• 1 Essay Questions

There are three strands Writing Strategies
Writing Conventions Writing Applications
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CAHSEE Writing

• Writing Strategies
• 12 test questions that ask you to find and
  correct errors and choose better words and
  phrases. They are based on a rough draft of an
  essay or article. .
• In this section, you do not have to write any
  essays, but you have to answer multiple choice
  questions about editing and revising essays.
• Questions may begin, which sentence would best
  begin this essay or which of the following
  sentences do not fit well in the paragraph

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Writing Conventions

• 15 test questions that test your
• understanding of grammar
• and your knowledge in the
• mechanics of punctuation
• (e.g. semicolons, colons, ellipses, hyphens).
• You will also have to identify and use clauses
  and understand sentence construction (parallel
  structure, proper placement of modifiers, etc.).

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CAHSEE Writing
Writing Application On the writing portion of
the CAHSEE exam, you will be given a Writing
Task which is one essay question. You may be
asked to do one of the following Biographical
Narrative Response to Literature Expository
Essay Persuasive Essay Business Letter
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Biographical Narrative
Tells the story from the life of a real person.
Often, this type of CAHSEE essay question will
ask you to write about someone who is important
in your life.
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Response to Literature
You read a (literature) text and are asked to
respond (write an essay) based on a question
regarding that passage. This type of question
asks that you first comprehend the text, then
write about it.
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Expository Essay
Expository essays (also called compositions) are
most often nonfiction, meaning that it deals with
real people, things, events and places. The
question may ask you to write about an important
moment in history or technology, or a question
about school.
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Persuasive Essay
A persuasive essay (or composition) asks you to
defend a position or argue for your side of an
issue about which people disagree. A sample
question may ask you to write an essay for your
school paper in which you convince the readers of
the importance of volunteer hours as a graduation
requirement or a convincing essay about whether
or not there should be art and music in school.
The readers want you to think about the other
side of the argument and keep that in mind as you
defend your ideas
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Business Letter

• A Business Letter is a formal correspondence
  about a business related matter.
• When youre writing a business letter, your
  purpose may be
• to apply for a job
• to complain
• to request information
• Etc.