(Click here for the Elementary/Intermediate 2011 ELA Exam)

(Click here for Past Years 3-5 ELA Tests)

(Click here for Past Years 6-8 ELA Tests)

In this section, you will find material to support teachers and students as they prepare for the ELA exam in May. Of course, good instruction in reading and writing, with large blocks of time for working independently on their reading and writing, is what students need most.

These materials, therefore, will be most helpful to teachers as they plan some extended day or Saturday Academies, or possibly some small group work in the month before the test. They in no way are intended to replace the crucial reading instruction and reading time of reading workshop. In reading workshop it's critical that students continue to have sustained opportunities to read fiction and nonfiction.

In science and social studies they should also be getting instruction in nonfiction reading and opportunities to practice this instruction on diverse texts. Reading aloud short narrative and non-narrative texts and teaching students to know what they should be listening for and expecting to talk and write about, can also happen in ELA, science, and social studies.

The Project recommends that teachers stay focused on reading and reading instruction. It makes sense, as well, that teachers understand the tasks of the tests so that they can see how good reading and writing instruction will prepare their students for the tests. As they do begin some explicit test prep, it's important to use materials that do, in fact, match the tasks of the test.