About ACT Instructional Mastery

Expert Advice and Excellent Resources for Preparing Your Student

How do you earn badges?

All participants who complete the 2-day program will earn a certificate of completion. All participants who complete the 2-day program and pass a 30-question end of course Knowledge Check will earn a certificate and digital badge of ACT Instructional Mastery in the subject area. Digital badges will be issued via Credly.

Course Descriptions

The ACT Instructional Mastery Reading course provides candidates with the information necessary to understand Reading test structure and content, identify and recommend Reading test strategies, and provide effective Reading test preparation instruction. This course is highly interactive and experiential. Participants will explore and examine different strategies applicable to students of different abilities and reading speeds. Exercises completed in this course allow candidates to know what it feels like to be a pressed-for-time student who needs to get a good score.

Includes:

  • Helping readers learn smart strategies to get more questions right more quickly and manage limited time effectively
  • Discovering which approaches work best for which types of student
  • Understanding Reading test Reporting Categories
  • Analyzing Reading test items to determine what is being measured
  • Practical, logical, and easy-to-understand approaches to each type of question
  • Examining ways to embed Reading test prep into high school curriculum

Why Take It?

  • Acquire practical skills to pass on to your students
  • Gain insights into the skills the test assesses and how you can help your students develop those skills
  • Become more effective in improving key skills required for  

The ACT Instructional Mastery Writing course provides participants with a set of techniques, exercises, and resources to strengthen ACT Writing test preparation, identify and recommend strategies, and understand test structure and content. This course offers a systematic and supportive process for helping students improve their writing skills and boost performance on the ACT Writing section.

Includes:

  • Understanding What the ACT Writing Test Requires of Students
  • Thorough Analysis and Application of the ACT Writing Rubric
  • Exploration of Many Strategies for Thesis Writing, Outlining, Evidence-generating, and Multiple Perspective engagement
  • Guidance on Writing Time Management and Revision Strategy

Why Take It?

  • Gain the skills to give your students a wide array of tactics and strategies for in a highly pressurized aspect of the ACT
  • Learn a well-defined, logical, systematic method for teaching students how to go from prompt to completion with as little stress as possible

The ACT Instructional Mastery English course provides candidates with the information necessary to facilitate effective preparation for the ACT English test, identify and recommend test-preparation and test-taking strategies, and understand test structure and content.

Includes:

  • English content from Career and College Readiness Standards (CCRS).
  • Item Analysis: What skills does each item measure?
  • Coaching skills and remediation for improving
  • English performance

Why Take It?

  • Know what ACT English is really looking for
    • What is typically tested
    • What is typically not tested
  • Learn how to thoroughly analyze student practice tests
  • Learn how to replace fear of the unknown with practical question-by-question techniques

The content of the ACT Instructional Mastery Math course provides candidates with the information necessary to provide effective ACT Math test preparation, identify and recommend test-taking strategies, and understand test structure and content. This course is focused on using a variety of techniques—applicable to different types and levels of student— to solve ACT math problems.

Includes:

  • Structure of the Math ACT Test
  • Initial Student Assessment
  • Skills, vocab, symbols, formulas, and real-life settings on the Math ACT
  • Using a Calculator
  • Practicing with Authentic Math ACT Tests
  • Tips and Memorizations

Why Take It?

  • Comprehensive review of math coaching techniques
  • Tools for teaching students of all levels
  • Understand how each aspect of ACT math can be integrated into the general math curriculum
  • Analyze Math test items and discern student misconceptions

The ACT Instructional Mastery Science course provides candidates with the information necessary to facilitate effective ACT Science test preparation, identify and recommend test-taking strategies, and understand test structure and content. This course is highly interactive and practical and provides an opportunity to share ideas and teaching techniques with colleagues.

Includes:

  • Teaching students how to:
    • Interpret
    • Analyze
    • Reason
    • Solve Problems
  • Interpretation of Data
  • Scientific Investigation
  • Evaluation of Models (Inferences and Experimental Results)

Why Take It?

  • Learn how to tackle the hardest aspects for students:
    • Reading speed
    • Time limits
  • Help students learn key skills:
    • Draw a conclusion based on data or identify data that support a conclusion
    • Compare competing interpretations of a data set and determine which is best supported by evidence and reason
    • Perform interpolations and extrapolations using data from a table or graph
    • Identify whether or not a cause-and-effect relationship exists between two variables
    • Interpret data presented in graphs and tables (including identifying trends, independent and dependent variables, and units and scales)
    • Recognize the origin of data presented in a graph or table
  • Proven strategies to maximize scoring at all levels

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