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Ideas for Progress: English, Range 13–15

To enhance their skills in each English-related strand, students who score in the 13–15 score range on the ACT® college readiness assessment may benefit from activities that encourage them to do the following:

Score Range 13–15
Production of Writing Topic Development in Terms of Purpose and Focus
  • revise drafts to ensure that each word and phrase is necessary to the purpose of the essay
  • read aloud and analyze model essays in small groups to determine each essay’s main idea and how it met its goal
Organization, Unity, and Cohesion
  • order and reorder a paragraph’s sentences, discussing in small groups which order works best and why
  • read model essays aloud, discussing the strengths of the conclusions
Knowledge of Language Knowledge of Language
  • discuss what makes some writing “wordy” and the difference between repetition for emphasis and repetition that is redundant
  • try out different words in a draft; discuss the words’ connotations and effect on the draft’s style and tone
Conventions of Standard English Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation Sentence Structure and Formation
  • check for sentence fragments by reading drafts aloud
  • scan writing for verbs, correcting glaring shifts in verb tense or voice
Usage Conventions
  • revise writing to correct basic grammar errors
  • reread drafts to ensure that there are no unnecessary pronoun shifts, (e.g., between one and I)
Punctuation Conventions
  • compile examples of overused commas and work with a peer to develop several different ways to correct the errors
  • practice using correct punctuation in simple sentences (e.g., “He ran, jumped, and swam.”)