OAT: Grade 4 Overview

A month or so ago I posted a neat little document that Cleveland Heights schools posted on their website that was an item analysis of all released test questions from the OAT. I took the results of their count and put into a chart format that shows what items the state tends to test more than others. There is an old saying..."what is most important is what is measured". You can use this document to help you "predict" where future emphasis on the test may be based on past emphasis. Reading Process is the most tested standard in that category they seem to test summarizing and responding to questions. They have never tested self-monitoring. I'm not even sure what a self-monitoring item would look like. More than half of the Vocabulary standard is context clues. There are plenty of opportunities in any text we read to model that important skill for children. Character analysis seems to be the most important of Literary Text while main ideas and summarizing are most important for Informational Text. Hopefully you can put this information to work and get the most bang for your buck. These skills will not only help your children perform better on the test, but also become better readers. Isn't it great when they all align like that.