Book excerpt: Preparation for the 2015-2016 PSSA English Language Arts Tests! This practice book will prepare students for the PSSA English Language Arts tests. It will develop all the skills that students need and provide ongoing practice with the types of questions and tasks found on the real state tests. Just like the real assessments, it includes tasks covering reading, writing, and language. Developed to Match the PSSA Tests - Covers all the skills assessed on the PSSA tests - Includes sets covering reading, writing, and language - Provides extensive reading comprehension practice for both literary and informational texts - Contains writing tasks for informative/explanatory essays, opinion pieces, and narratives - Prepares students for the text-dependent analysis questions - Strong focus on key features including close reading, using evidence from text, and analyzing and evaluating texts - Full answer key lists the Pennsylvania Core Standard assessed by each question Provides Ongoing Skill Development and Practice - Convenient practice sets allow for ongoing skill development - Flexible format allows practice sets to be completed to suit any schedule - Gives students ongoing practice with both reading and writing tasks - Format allows for review after each set to provide feedback and promote improvement Key Benefits of this Book - Builds confidence by helping students prepare before taking the real tests - Develops all the English Language Arts skills that students need - Provides experience answering all types of questions and completing all types of tasks - Reduces test anxiety by allowing low-stress practice - More rigorous tasks encourage deeper understanding and more advanced thinking - Detailed answer key allows for student work to be reviewed and improved on