ELA Common Core History Practice Questions

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - May 16th, 2013

If your child faces an upcoming ELA Common Core test, you’re probably curious about the best way to help them prepare for this important and comprehensive literacy examination. Since several subject areas are covered by the test, knowing where and how to begin can be confusing. Here, we’ll review the best ways to prepare and administer history practice questions for your child.

How to Choose Questions

If your child is in grades K through 5, the history and social studies portion of their tests will be integrated into English language comprehension. It will focus more on understanding what they read than on recollection of facts.

A great way to begin is to look through your child’s current history or social studies textbooks. Testing is administered each year at grade-specific levels, making their current textbooks an excellent basis for practice questions.

A page, paragraph, or sentence in a textbook is a question in and of itself. A simple method of choosing the best questions is to choose pieces of text which are structurally different. For example, you might choose one paragraph that states both facts and opinions, asking your child to identify the different tones. You could also select a statement and ask questions regarding its intent (statement, persuasion, or argument). Virtually any aspect of English reading, grammar, or interpretation is a good basis for a history practice question. Visiting https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/  will give you a breakdown of the history and social studies subject matter by field and grade level.

How to Administer Questions

Experts agree that a low-stress, relaxed atmosphere is best for practice testing to achieve optimal results. Putting too much pressure on your child or forcing them to practice for hours at a time is generally counterproductive. Instead of preparing your child, this type of forced practice instills anxiety, which can show up on the testing day and result in an abnormally low score that does not reflect your child’s true abilities.