HSPA Language Arts Tutorial Cluster 4: Reading Narrative Text

Summary of Content to be Tested 

Students will be given 50 minutes for the Reading Narrative text portion of the HSPA.

Students will read a narrative passage and then respond to multiple-choice and open-ended questions to assess literal and inferential thinking. Questions will be based on those skills that critical readers use to understand, analyze, and assess texts.

For the purposes of this assessment, "narrative text" is defined as literature written primarily to tell a story. Good narrative literature, which establishes or develops a conflict, addresses common aspects of human existence. Because appropriate literature may contain unsettling or disturbing issues or events, text selected for the assessment will provide a positive resolution and affirm the dignity of the human spirit.

Students will be assessed on their ability to interpret and critique/analyze the content, meaning, and organization of texts. In the final section of the test, Extending Understanding of the Text, students will complete an open-ended writing project in which they apply and extend what they have read as they make decisions, solve problems, and create original works.

Students will:

• Recognize a theme or central idea.

• Recognize details that develop or support the main idea.

• Extrapolate information and/or follow directions.

• Paraphrase, retell, or interpret words, phrases, or sentences from the text.

• Recognize the original structure of the text.

• Recognize a purpose for reading.

• Make tentative predictions of meaning.

• Make judgments, form opinions, and draw conclusions from the text.

• Interpret textual conventions and literary elements.