Practice the format of standardized reading assessments, combining passage reading with multiple skills in one sitting.
California students take a yearly reading test with passages and questions similar to what you have practiced all year: main idea, evidence, inference, vocabulary, and text structure, sometimes on paired passages. This week is a chance to practice that whole-test feeling on one passage.
Passage: Octopuses are famously clever for creatures without a backbone. In laboratory tests, octopuses have opened jars to reach food inside, and some have even learned to recognize different human faces. Scientists believe an octopus brain, spread partly through its arms, works very differently from a human brain, yet still solves problems in surprisingly smart ways.
Mastery looks like: They apply main idea, evidence, vocabulary, and inference skills together fluently within one timed-feeling passage.
Common stumbles: Rushing through without using text evidence to check answers; feeling anxious about the test format instead of trusting familiar skills.