Exam / Class: SAT Writing
Instructional Goals:
- To help student improve their score on the Writing/English section of the SAT
- Develop strategies which provide success on time management of the SAT Writing/English Exam
- Provide students with knowledge of common types of questions on the SAT Writing/English
Each Area at a Glance:
1. Introduction to SAT Writing and Language
2. Content
3. Writing and Language Techniques
4. Parts of speech
5. Verbs
6. Pronouns
7. Clauses
8. Other Topics
9. Fragments
10. Run Ons
11. Modifiers
12. Parallelism
13. Commas
14. Apostrophes
15.Other Punctuation
16. Expression of Ideas
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.
Content Instruction: Content
Writing and Language Techniques
Parts of Speech Verbs Pronouns
Other Topics Clauses Fragments Run Ons Modifiers
Parallelism Commas
Apostrophes
Other Punctuation
Expression of Ideas
Test Strategies
I. Timing
II. Content Domains
III. Content
IV. Writing and Language Techniques
A. Focus on the whole sentence
B. Focus on the paragraph
C. Read the whole passage.
D. Read all the choices.
E. Eliminate and Guess.
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.
Classroom Examples:
Use the blue print in the textbook as a bank for classroom examples and descriptions of examples. Some examples will specify the printable handouts for students provided through the resource bank.
Usage/Mechanics: Grammar and Usage (This section is long. Try not to get bogged down in it.)
I. I. Verbs
A. Form Chart – Hand Out – ENG-1
B. Agreement Examples
C. Prepositional Phrases
D. Multiple Subjects and Multiple Verbs
E. Tense
F. Perfect Verbs
G. Would
H. Class Exercise – Hand Out – ENG-2
I. Irregular Verbs and Past Participles – Table Hand Out – ENG-3
1. Include Another Way to Look at it for Past, Present and Participle
J. Active vs. Passive
K. Verb Summary – Hand Out – ENG-4
II. Pronouns
A. Pronoun Examples
B. Agreement
C. Vague Pronouns
D. Mystery Pronouns
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.
Classroom Examples: (cont’d)
E. Generic Pronoun Shift
F. Noun Agreement
G. Class Exercise – Hand Out – ENG-5
H. Subject and Object
I. Reflexive Pronouns
J. Contraction and Possessive Pronouns
K. Class Exercise – Hand Out – ENG-6
L. Verb Agreement
M. Who vs. Whom
N. Who’s Vs. Whose
O. Class Exercise – Hand Out – ENG-7
P. Pronoun Chart – Hand Out – ENG-8
Q. Pronoun Summary – Hand Out – ENG-9
III. Other Topics
A. Adjectives
B. Adverbs
D. Comparatives and Superlatives
E. More on Prepositional Phrases
F. More Commonly Confused Words – Table Hand Out – ENG-10
G. Conventions of Usage Summary – Hand Out – ENG-11
Usage/Mechanics: Sentence Structure
I. Clauses
A. Independent Clauses
B. Dependent Clauses
C. Relative Clauses – Table Hand Out – ENG-12
D. Modifiers
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.
Classroom Examples: (cont’d) II. Fragments
A. Fixing a Fragment
1. Change the Verb
2. Remove a Connector
3. Join Another Sentence
4. Another Way to Look At It
III. Run On Sentences
A. Fixing a Run On
1. Use a Period
2. Add a Conjunction
3. Change One Clause
4. Another Way to Look at It
IV. Modifiers
A. Dangling Modifiers
B. Modifiers at the End of Sentence
C. Prepositional Phrase Placement
D. Parallelism
E. Sentence Structure Summary – Hand out – ENG-13
Standard English Conventions
I. Commas
A. When Can I Use a Comma
1. Between independent clauses joined with a conjunction
2. Around Parenthetical Phrases
3. Between Items of a List with Three or More Items
4. Between Coordinate Adjectives
B. When Should I Not Use a Comma
1. Between the subject and verb or between the verb and object
2. Before Infinitives
3. Around Prepositional Phrases
4. In a two-part list (Compound or Conjunction)
5. With a that Clause
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.
Classroom Examples: (cont’d)
6. With a Restrictive Clause of Modifiers
II. Apostrophes
A. Possession
B. Contractions
C. Pronouns – Table Hand Out – ENG-14
III. Other Punctuation Marks
A. Semicolon
B. Colon
C. Dash
IV. Sentence Final Marks
A. Period
B. Question Mark
C. Exclamation Mark
D. Interrobang
E. Punctuation Summary – Hand Out – ENG-15
Expression of Ideas
I. Effective Language Use
A. Be Concise
1. Redundancy
2. Wordiness
B. Be Specific
1. Vague Pronouns
C. Choose the Right Word
1. Tone
II. Organization
A. Transition Words
1. Transition Words Table – Hand Out – ENG-16
B. Transition Sentences
C. Introductions and Conclusions
D. Sentence Order
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.
Classroom Examples: (cont’d) III. Development
A. Does it Fill the Writer’s Goals
B. Should You Add It
C. Irrelevant Details
D. What Would the Essay Lose
E. Rhetorical Skills Summary – Hand Out – ENG-17
Key Resources:
Assessment:
Use links to Guide students to Practice Drills, Practice Tests and Benchmark Tests
- The Ultimate Guide to the SAT Writing – Capstone E-Textbook
- Baseline Test – SAT Test 1
- Digital SAT Verb Drill
- Digital SAT Pronoun Drill
- Digital SAT Fragment Drill
- Digital SAT Run On Drill
- Digital SAT Comma Drill
- Parallelism Drill
- Digital SAT Standard English Conventions Drill I – Random Draw
- Digital SAT Standard English Conventions Drill II - Usage
- Digital SAT Standard English Conventions Drill III Punctuation Drill
- Digital SAT Standard English Conventions Drill IV – Sentence Structure
Special Instructions
Teacher Notes are scattered through the e-textbook (in blue and marked) and are provided to assist teacher with additional information which may be relevant in helping students understand the concepts more clearly.
This curriculum map is the property of Capstone College and Career Advising LLC and may not be reproduced, duplicated or distributed without the express written consent of Capstone College and Career Advising.