| |
The FCAT reading
test was designed to measure students' achievement in constructing
meaning from a wide variety of texts. Two general categories of passages
included on FCAT are informational texts and literary texts. Each FCAT
reading test consists of 2–3 literary passages and 4–5 informational
passages. The average number of words per passage is 900. Individual
passages may be as long as 700 words at grade 3 and 1700 words at grade
10.
Informational texts
includes subject area texts, diaries, magazine articles, essays,
newspaper articles, consumer materials, biographies, autobiographies,
advertisements, "how to" instructions, and editorials that are
grade-level appropriate. Literary texts includes short stories,
literary essays, poems, historical fiction, fables, folk-tales, plays,
and excerpts from novels.
The reading FCAT is
based upon individual Sunshine State Standard benchmarks and is reported
in four content clusters:
-
Cluster 1 - Words
and Phrases in Context
-
Cluster 2 - Main
Idea, Plot, and Purpose
-
Cluster 3 -
Comparisons and Cause/Effect
-
Cluster 4 -
Reference and Research
The reading
questions can involve three different types of responses: Multiple
Choice, Short Response, and Extended Response. The three different types
of questions are used to test students in a variety of different ways.
The questions range from quick and easy to long and challenging.
Approximately 15% of the questions on grades 4, 8, and 10 FCAT require
students to show their work, something that is usually not seen on a
standardized test.
 |
|