PSSA Finish Line Reading with Assessment Anchors

With the PSSA Finish Line Reading series, you can give students the instruction and practice they need to master the Pennsylvania Reading Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content and the Pennsylvania Academic Standards in Writing. Reading assessments (PSSA Reading Performance Indicator) and writing assessments (PSSA Writing Performance Indicator) are also available.

Each standard-specific lesson includes three parts:

Part 1: Introduction to the Skill
This part identifies the reading or writing skill for the lesson and explains what it is and how students will use it.

Part 2: Guided Practice (think-alongs)
Students will get more than just practice here - they'll get help. Each passage is followed by multiple-choice and/or open-ended questions that test comprehension. Students will learn how to examine answer choices as they decide on their answers.

Part 3: Test Yourself (independent practice)
Students will put their knowledge to the test, answering multiple-choice and open-ended questions on their own.

Every grade level provides a unit of writing instruction to prepare students for the PSSA Writing Assessment in grades 5, 8, and 11.

CONTENTS
Introduction to PSSA Finish Line Reading 5	4
Unit 1: Vocabulary	5
Lesson 1 Meaning of Vocabulary	6
Lesson 2 Word Recognition Skills	16
Unit 2: Comprehension and Reading Skills	27
Lesson 3 Inferences, Conclusions, and Generalizations	28
Lesson 4 Main Idea and Details	41
Lesson 5 Summarizing	55
Lesson 6 Genre	69
Unit 3: Understanding Fiction and Nonfiction	79
Lesson 7 Character, Setting, Plot, and Theme	80
Lesson 8 Making Connections	98
Lesson 9 Figurative Language	111
Lesson 10 Point of View	120
Lesson 11 Fact and Opinion	129
Lesson 12 Important and Unimportant Information	137
Lesson 13 Organizing Text	146
Unit 4: Writing	165
Lesson 14 Quality of Writing	166
Lesson 15 Writing Narrative Pieces	173
Lesson 16 Writing Informational Pieces	177
Lesson 17 Writing Persuasive Pieces	181

Comprehensive Teacher's Guides include:

• Reading and writing strategies
• Answer keys with sample writing responses
• Scoring rubrics
• Reproducible graphic organizers
• Correlations to the Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content

The PSSA test-prep program is also available for mathematics. Please click here for details.

Click on the View Sample button(s) below to view interior pages. These files can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Viewer.