Dear Parents and Students,

We are working hard in class to prepare for the FCAT.  FCAT Reading will be taken on March 11, 2008.  As that deadline quickly approaches, students should be reviewing and practicing at home to prepare.

It's time to review our strategies and work, work, work. At home, I suggest that you are reading magazine articles of high interest and being sure to put those strategies into place as you read:

• Do not skip over unfamiliar vocabulary.

• Ask yourself what the main idea is as you read along.

• Think about the author's purpose, point of view (motivation) for writing a specific angle of an article.

• Compare and Contrast two elements from the article.

• Find Cause and Effect relationships within the article.

• Be sure you understand the sequence of events.

• Ask yourself how pictures and graphs relate and expand the information in the article.

Review Vocabulary at Vocabulary Strategies.