Very soon my students will be sitting for millions of hours to take a test that "proves their intelligence." Let's be real - you'd be hard pressed to find a teacher that agrees with standardized testing as a means to measure anything significant. Although we feel the dread and sadness around testing time. It is our reality right now, and we don't want students to fail because these scores are determining their eligibility for graduation and potentially your teaching abilities. This is what I tell my kids: it isn't right, but it's a reality. We will not allow this to get us down! Perseverance through something we don't want to do is an incredibly necessary skill to have in life.
I have been using the same resource for multiple years, and I find this incredibly helpful prior to testing. It's called AIR Test Bootcamp. Students go through all of the identified standards on the state test and review the vocab or skills, then they practice each skill. Finally, I assess how they did and they walk away with a list of areas that they will need to work through prior to the test. I will tell you that currently, my tested students are all College Prep students. Although that doesn't necessarily determine their scores, I do generally receive high scores. However, I still believe that a lot of that comes from the bootcamp we go through right before testing.
This year, I decided to switch it up a bit because my sophomores are ROWDY and want to move around all the time. They won't do well if we spend two weeks in full-on testing silence to practice. (Some of my previous groups have really benefited from that - you have to determine what will work for you.) Here's what I am doing:
1. Vocabulary Review Game: Reviewing the key terms all at once with a Tic-Tac-Toe game. What I do is have my students memorize the terms over a weekend. We reviewed them in class on Friday. Most of the terms students are very familiar with, so they won't need a ton of time to memorize them or get familiar. The game we will play does not require them to have the definitions exact, but they should still know what it is. The game we play is inspired by Staci's The Engaging Teacher's blog post. I break the kids into two teams. We choose one judge/reader from each time to read and check answers of the other team (so they don't cheat). I switch this role periodically so that all students participate. What they do is read the word, then if the person correctly defines the term, they get to put either an X or an O on the board. Click here to download my wordlist for free. Students can move their letters on each move to add a little excitement, or you can make them stay put. After a few rounds, I usually have them look over the words that they are getting wrong and strategize with their team. Usually, my students are screaming in competition while we play this! I personally love this because they are into it, but you might want to warn your neighbor before playing - or go to a quiet hallway.
2. Identify and Organize Effective Evidence: Abby at Write on With Mrs. G. mentioned this idea of students organizing evidence from best to least effective on Instagram, and my brain was firing with ideas. I'm not actually sure how her assignment turned out because I started mine immediately! I chose a practice test -- specifically an argumentative essay passage set and prompt because they struggle with this evidence this most. I went through the passage set and decided what evidence was "for" and "against" - then I color coded these (sort of!) I knew which color was the "best" for each of those two categories. (This is really up to the writer to decide which is best because it will all depend on how they explain the evidence, but I chose a top 3 that they should identify). First, each group received two thesis cards (both sides of the argument). Then, they decided which of the quotes best aligned with the thesis. They didn't know what I considered "for" and "against" because I wanted to see how their brains understood the material. Finally, they put them in order of best to least effective. Once they were done, I checked their answers and told them which one was "most correct" :) They love that (sarcasm!), but that is a testing phrase that they need to get used to. Finally, they used one of the top two quotes to integrate into a paragraph on either side of the argument. We reviewed this paragraph to make sure they had all necessary parts and rated the effectiveness of their explanation.
3. Essay Annotation "Scavenger Hunt": I believe that my students are strong in informational writing, so I wanted them to understand the amount that they need to write for a test like this. To do this, I show them a prompt and two graded examples. The difference between a 10 point and a 6 is quite visually shocking to them at first. That's important - sometimes you just have to give it to them straight! For this, they will identify different essay parts in a variety of annotations. Click here to download the slides I used. This shows their understanding of what these items are. We have to do all of this before they actually write a practice paragraph because if I need to review something, I will have to plan that. We will use this same annotation guide to mark a paragraph of a peer. They will use the paragraphs we wrote during step 2 (above). This way they can "grade" their peer's writing without focusing too much on the content.
4. Practice Tests: This is an unavoidable task in my opinion. Students need to be prepared for what they will encounter visually. If you do not already have a good platform to create a digital practice state test, I'd recommend using EdCite. This is an incredible resource for
any and all assessment, but especially AIR test prep. It is formatted almost identical to the AIR test, and it grades multiple choice for you! YAY! When you're on EdCite, you can search already made tests or make your own. The ones I use were already created and they use the released testing material from previous years. If you would like a super short visual on how to search and assign a test from the assessment library: click here! I only use EdCite for test prep because we use Schoology as our major LMS. You can also print paper tests from your state's education department website. I have pulled tests from Ohio and Florida. However, if your students are taking the test digitally, I see it as crucial that they practice digitally.
I know this isn't a fun part of the year for your students. I hope that I've given you a few more ideas on how to switch up your test prep. Once you are done with test prep, a nice thing to pass out to students is a sheet with everything they've mastered. Click here to download the checklist that I use. Happy testing!
Amanda