School-Based SAT Preparation
This workshop provides teachers with activities and materials to design a school-based SAT preparation course. Participants will be able to customize strategies to motivate, prepare, and empower students of all levels to achieve personal success of the SAT. The workshop brings to life material in The Official SAT Teacher's Guide™.
Participants will learn:
- About the SAT format and question types on the mathematics, critical reading, and writing sections
- How to plan and conduct their preparation sessions according to student and class needs
- How to effectively bring print and online SAT Readiness Program™ resources into the classroom
Participants will be separated during the second half of the workshop to focus on English or math content areas.
General Themes
- Understanding the SAT
- Familiarizing students with the question types and their directions
- Helping students practice for the writing section and understand how the essay will be scored
- Using approaches to answering questions in all three sections—critical reading, mathematics, and writing—that will help the students be more comfortable and confident in taking the test
- Reviewing concepts that students have learned in the classroom that are covered on the test
- Helping students become more comfortable with taking a high-stakes test
Workshop Goals
- Help teachers create an SAT preparation program that can be quickly implemented in the classroom
- Help teachers understand the different course outline options and understand how to customize the outlines to meet the needs of an individual class
- Familiarize teachers with the free and low-cost resources that the College Board offers schools to help students prepare for the SAT
- Help teachers understand how to use the suite of products effectively within their SAT preparation course
Agenda
- Introductions and Preliminary Activity
- Overview of the SAT
- The SAT Readiness Program
- Course Options
- Study Calendar
Lunch
Breakout Session: Mathematics
- Overview of the Mathematics Section
- Direction for the Mathematics Questions
- Approaches to Mathematics Questions
- Activity: Rule of Four
Lesson 1: Squaring and Cubing
Helps students understand the operations of numbers by using a visual approach and gives students practice in strengthening their foundation in number operations
Lesson 2: Solving Equations with Graphs and Algebra
Helps students understand how to solve an equation quickly, effectively, and efficiently and gives students an opportunity to improve their skills with the graphing calculator
Lesson 3: Solving Equations That Use Unfamiliar Symbols
Helps students increase their understanding of functions and algebraic methods by using visual and tactile approaches
Breakout Session: English
- Overview of the Critical Reading and Writing Sections
- Directions to the Critical Reading and Writing Sections
- Approaches to the Critical Reading Section and Approaches to the Multiple-Choice Questions About Writing
Lesson 1: Improving Reading Comprehension and How to Draw Inferences
Helps students identify the key ideas in a passage, familiarizes them with the paired-passages reading questions on the SAT, and helps students develop the ability to draw inferences
Lesson 2: Coordination and Subordination
Reviews the concepts of coordinate conjunctions and improves students' understanding of coordinators, as well as teaches them how to write with greater complexity
Lesson 3: The Essay
Familiarizes your students with the SAT Scoring Guide and how essays are scored on the SAT