HOME > FCAT EXPLORER PROGRAMS > 3rd GRADE READING > GENERAL INFORMATION: Galactic Library

Galactic Library: 3rd Grade Benchmarks is a program that helps students prepare for the FCAT. The program provides FCAT-like reading passages and practice questions that students can use to practice the reading skills tested on the 3rd-grade FCAT.

Guided Learning to Strengthen Skills

Galactic Library features guided learning to reinforce and improve students' skills. After every practice question, students receive immediate instructional feedback. The feedback lets students know right away why an answer choice was right or wrong.

Adaptive Support

The Galactic Library is an adaptive program that adjusts the reading level and instructional support according to the student's reading ability. Students will begin working on content written on the 3rd grade level, with vocabulary and concepts that are appropriate for third graders. If students have trouble working at that level, they will be taken to materials on the second grade level, with vocabulary and concepts suitable for a second grader. As students work through the material, the program will provide more or less support depending on the student's success. As the student's success increases, he or she will be given more challenging passages and less support in an effort to get him or her back into the third grade level.

Support on both the second and third grade levels includes audio support (students will be able to hear each word in a passage pronounced) and embedded questions (questions that model the thought processes of good readers). As the student's success increases, less support will be offered.

The Galactic Library conveniently shows the grade level at which your child is working. Once your child has clicked Start Reading, you can see a small yellow planet in the lower left hand corner, below the blue frame. The number of moons orbiting around the planet tells you the grade level at which your child is working. If the planet has three moons, your child is working at the third grade reading level. If the planet has two moons, your child is working at the second grade reading level.

3rd grade reading level icon

2nd grade reading level icon

Types of Practice Questions with Guided Learning

On the FCAT, 3rd graders have only multiple choice questions.

Multiple Choice (MC)

• Multiple-choice questions allow a student to choose from four possible answers.
• If a student selects the correct answer, the student receives instructional feedback telling the student why the selected answer is correct. The feedback helps the student recognize and answer similar questions in the future.
• If students respond incorrectly, they receive a hint that guides them toward the correct answer. In some cases, students will be taken to highlighted portions of the passage that will help them find the correct answer.
• If the student responds incorrectly a second time, the program fully explains the solution.

  Special Features

• A built-in glossary helps students increase their vocabulary by learning new words from the reading passages. To access the glossary, students can click any of the blue-type glossary words in the reading passages. Students can see a definition of the selected word, hear the word pronounced, and review Spanish and Haitian-Creole translations of the word.
• High-interest topics make the reading passages fun for students to read. The topics support subject matter from all areas of the Sunshine State Standards, such as social studies, science, and the arts.
• Colorful illustrations appear every few pages in each passage. These frames emphasize key points in the passage and help keep students' interest.
• Vocabulary Exercises before each passage help students learn about key words before reading. These exercises pre-teach key concepts and increase the students' vocabulary. At set intervals, students will work with additional sets of these words again, in vocabulary activities that reinforce student learning.
• Embedded Questions appear when students have been unsuccessful on a set of three passages. These questions are designed to increase comprehension as students read a passage. The goal is to help students think about and process information as they read.
• The Explorer's Report allows students to see their performance on the practice questions. The report may be sorted by performance for the current day, week, or year.
• The Challenge List provides each student with a list of links to the practice problems that the student has answered incorrectly. Students can use the Challenge List to further practice the skills that are more difficult for them.