NWEH Blog 5: HSA Practice Continued

This week's HSA INDICATORS: September 19-25: Do the online exercises for indicators 1.1.4 and 1.2.2 (DON'T FORGET WE'RE BEHIND SCHEDULED, SO THE DATES ARE NOT CORRECT!!! THIS IS DUE ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11)

Online HSA Practice Schedule:

This week you'll CONTINUE your online HSA review course. The instructions for completing this are REPEATED below.   They are the same from last week.  If you already know how to do this, you can ignore them!  If you still need the instructions, follow the steps and you'll get your weekly homework credit. It's that simple! It will take you about fifteen minutes or so to complete each indicator review.

For this homework assignment you'll get to practice answering HSA-style questions. The sytem will tell you what you get right and wrong, and you'll have a chance to correct yourself and learn from your mistakes. We'll go over all of this material in class, but this give you an opportunity to get more practice in at home!

Each week leading up to the HSA Benchmark in late October you'll have to complete test questions for two separate indicators. The schedule is spelled out below. Aditionally, your blog reponse for the next five weeks will be centered around your work on this HSA review website.

Here are the three questions you'll have to answer every week in the comments section of this blog:

1. What concepts/ideas did you learn about when you studied the two HSA indicators for this week's homework?

Example Response: This week I worked on questions that dealt with ___________________________ (indicators 1.1.4 and 1.2.2). In these questions I learned how to...

2. What was easy/difficult for you in these questions? How did you do on each indictor? Did you score over or under 50% (i.e. 5/10)? Be specific!

Example Response: I found these questions very easy because I am a strong reader. I was able to use the reading strategies I learned in ninth grade and the strategies we're working on with Mr. Sabath to answer all of these questions. Some of the passages were a bit long, but I know I have to get used to reading on these tests. The poetry was also a bit tricky, so I'd like to get more practice reading poetry in this class with you, Mr. Sabath! Despite this, I got 90% of all the questions right for each indicator, so I think I'm ready for these kind of questions. (Or, I got less than 50% right on these questions, so I need extra practice with these kinds of questions that will appear on the HSA).

3. What is your opinion of this online test prep site? Why do you like it? Why don't you like it? Be specific!

Example Reponse: I love this site because it gives me a chance to practice my test-taking strategies.

Homework Schedule for First Quarter indicators:

September 12-18: Do the online exercises for indicators 1.1.1 and 1.1.2

September 19-25: Do the online exercises for indicators 1.1.4 and 1.2.2

September 26 –October 2: Do the online exercises for indicators 1.2.3 and 2.1.1

October 3 – 9: Do the online exercises for indicators 2.1.4 and 2.2.1

October 10 – 16: Do the online exercise for indicators 3.1.3 and 3.1.4

Online HSA Practice Directions:

High School Assessment Online Practice

Step 1: Go to http://apps.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/hsaprep/

Step 2: Enter your email address and name. Use this every time because the system will keep track of your progress.

Step 3: Pull down the subject tab to English. Choose the“By Indicator” test type that you are working on for the week.

Step 4: For each indicator, print out your results and return this data to class to get your homework grade for each week. Optionally, you can copy and paste your results into an email and send them from your PGCPS Gmail account to peter.sabath@pgcps.org. IF YOU DO THIS, PLEASE LIST YOUR NAME AND CLASS PERIOD IN THE SUBJECT LINE (eg. 2A, 2B, 3A, or 3B). If you don’t have a printer, bring in a letter from a parent stating this and use the charts attached (or create your own charts) to keep track of the questions you get right and wrong.Write down the indicator at the top of each chart and for each question put a check (or X) in the correct column if you get it right or in the incorrect column if you get it wrong.

As it is the first quarter, now you only have to focus on the first quarter indicators below as you prepare for your first quarter HSA Benchmark Exam during the last week of this quarter (October 17-26).

Overview of indicators for each quarter:

First Quarter Indicators: 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.4, 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 2.1.1, 2.1.4, 2.2.1, 3.1.3, 3.1.4

Second Quarter Indicators: 1.1.3, 1.2.1, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.3.5, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.2.5, 3.1.6,

3.1.8

Third and Fourth Quarter Indicators: 1.3.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.3, 3.1.1, 3.2.2, 3.3.1, 3.3.2,

4.1.1, 4.2.1, 4.3.1