St. Peter’s Catholic Secondary School

Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test“Striving Toward Success”

Assembly

Let’s Make Sure You Have all Your Ducks in a Row!

AGENDA:1. Test Details

2. Day Schedule

3. Test Overview

4. Preparation Schedule

5. Interesting Data

6. Graduation Requirements

7. After School Literacy Course

8. Questions?

Graduation Requirements:30 Credits

40 Community service hours

Pass the OSSLT

*Each student MUST pass the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test to

graduate with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

Test Details:

DATE: Mar. 30, 2017TIME: 8:00am DURATION: 2-1/2 hours LOCATION: TBA

Day Schedule: Thursday, March 30, 2017

07:55 – 08:00 Homeroom (attendance)08:00 – 08:05 Distribution of Materials08:05 – 08:10 Instructions 08:10 – 09:25 Booklet 1 (75 minutes)09:25 – 09:40 Snack Break (upstairs)09:40 – 10:55 Booklet 2 (75 minutes)10:55 – 11:00 Questionnaire11:00 – 11:40 Common Lunch

Day Schedule Continued…

11:45 - 12:15 Period 1

12:20 - 12:50 Period 2

12:55 - 1:25 Period 3

1:30 - 2:00 Period 4

Test Overview: 1. Assessment Components

2. Reading Section

3. Writing Section

4. Scoring

Assessment Components:

39 Multiple Choice Questions

6 Open-Response Short Writing Tasks

2 Long Writing Tasks

Reading SectionFive Reading Selections:

1. Informational Text

2. Real-Life Narrative

3. Graphic Text (i.e. brochure, diagram, or map)

4. Dialogue

5. News Report

After the Reading…

Multiple choice questions (vocabulary recognition and comprehension)

Open-response questions (short answer and summarizing)

Response Expectations:

six lines each for short answer

complete sentences necessary

clarity, organization, spelling, grammar, and punctuation will be assessed

scored with rubrics

Writing SectionThree Writing Tasks:

1. Short Writing Task (one paragraph)- six line personal response to a question or statement (topic sentence, reasons/personal experience, closing sentence)

2. Long Writing Task (one page)

- News Report (5 W’s and How, lead paragraph, use at least two quotations, based on a picture and headline)

3. Long Writing Task (two pages)

- Opinion Piece (minimum of 5 paragraphs – intro, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion)

Each student receives one combined score for Reading and

Writing.

You need a score of 300 to pass.

This translates to obtaining about 70% on the test.

Preparation Schedule For Practice in Gr. 10 Classes:

DATES FOCUSTues Feb 21

Period 1

Reading: Information Paragraph

Wed Feb 22

Period 2

Reading: Real-Life Narrative

Thurs Feb 23

Period 3

Reading: Graphic Text

Fri Feb 24

Period 4

Reading: Dialogue

Mon Feb 27

Period 1

Writing: Short Writing Tasks

Review of Language Conventions + Grammar

Tues Feb 28

Period 2

Writing: Series of Paragraphs Expressing an Opinion

Wed Mar 1

Period 3

Reading: News Report

Thurs Mar 2

Period 4

Writing: News Report

What do I do if I am absent?

If you miss a class due to absence, make sure you get your booklet from your teacher the next day. Complete the task and then bring it to Mrs. Ifill in the Learning Commons on your lunch and she will mark it for you and give

you suggestions for improvement, if needed.

Make sure you receive all eight (8) booklets from your teachers! You must remember to ask for

them!

Prepare to Succeed Now!

Time is of the essence!

Our School’s Past Results

2012 – 2013 84% passed

2013 – 2014 82% passed

2014 – 2015 84% passed

2015 – 2016 80% passed

This demonstrates that our school fallsin line with the provincial average in pass rates.

What happens if I don’t pass?

It’s not the end of the world!!!

You will retake the test next year in your Gr. 11 year. It may be in the best interest of the

student to not rewrite the test and instead be enrolled in the OLC4O in their Gr. 12 year.

If you fail the test a second time you will then automatically be enrolled in the Gr. 12

OLC4O course in your Gr. 12 year.

After School Literacy Preparation Course:

• OSSLT literacy preparation course after school *Dates and location to be announced

• Practice all of the OSSLT tasks, go over the answers, get a break, ask questions, treats!!!

• It is proven that students who take the course have a 92% success rate of passing the OSSLT

• See Ms. Heran for more details.

Literacy Lunches

Extra Practice booklets will be availablein the Student Support Centre Room 170

and in the Learning Commons.

You may go there on your lunch to get extra support with tasks that you find most challenging every day

beginning Feb. 13th.

Questions?