Author: TCR Staff

Teaching Tips

Standardized Test-Taking Tips & Strategies: Part II – Test-Taking Skills

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Every student in your class needs good test-taking skills, and almost all of them will need to be taught these skills. Even fluent readers and extremely logical students will fare better on standardized tests if they are taught a few simple skills for taking tests.

Test-Taking Skills

  • The ability to follow complicated and sometimes confusing directions: Teach students to break down the directions and translate them into easy, understandable words.
  • The ability to scale back what they know and concentrate on just what is asked and is contained in the text: Show them how to restrict their responses. Question students on the answers when doing practice exercises and have them show where they found the answer in the text.
  • The ability to rule out confusing distracters in multiple choice answers: Teach students to look for key words and match up the information from the text.
  • The ability to maintain concentration during boring and tedious repetition: Use practice time to practice this and reward students for maintaining concentration. Explain to students why they are practicing and why their concentration is important for the day of the test.

Test-Taking Environment
There are also environmental elements that you can practice with throughout the year in order for your students to become more accustomed to them for the testing period.

  • If your desks are pushed together, have students move them apart so they will be accustomed to the feel on test-taking day.
  • Put a “Testing—Do Not Disturb” sign on the door.
  • Require “test etiquette” when practicing: no talking, active listening, and following directions.
  • Provide a strip of construction paper for each student to use as a marker.
  • Establish a routine for replacing broken pencils. Give each student two sharpened pencils and have a back-up supply ready. Tell students they will need to raise their broken pencil in their hand, and you will give them a new one. One thing students should not worry about is the teacher’s reaction to a broken pencil.
  • Read the instructions during practice sessions as you would when giving a standardized test so they grow accustomed to your test-giving voice.
  • As a teacher, you probably realize that what is practiced daily is what is best learned. All of these practices work well to help students improve their scores.
Teaching Tips

Standardized Test-Taking Tips & Strategies: Part I – Introduction

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Standardized tests have not only been the subject of intense controversy among educators, but also the cause of much teeth-gnashing among students. And it’s understandable. If individuals are unique and learning styles and ways of understanding varied, how then can a standardized test accurately measure what a student knows?

There is a story of a first grade teacher, who held up a red apple to her class of 30 eager students and asked, “What color is this apple?” Twenty-nine of the students replied, “It’s red,” while one brave soul countered, “It’s red and white.” “Oh,” the teacher responded, “I don’t see any white,” to which the student replied, “That’s because you have to bite it!”

A cautionary tale to be sure and one that demonstrates that there are multiple ways in which to know and that they can all potentially be correct. For this reason, it’s critical that both educators and students understand what standardized tests seek to measure and the best strategies to prepare for and take these kinds of tests.

The vast majority of standardized tests that students encounter during their academic careers, including the California Achievement Test, the Iowa Test, and the Stanford Achievement Test are norm-referenced tests. Norm-referenced tests compare and rank students in a particular grade with other students in that same grade. By doing this, educators can get a quick snapshot of where their students stand and to what extent their scores deviate from the average or the norm.

The content contained on standardized tests is aligned with statewide curriculum standards and vice versa. If a skill set appears in your content standards, it is reasonable to expect that it may appear on a standardized test. To put it another way, you will never find this on a fourth grade standardized test:

(4x – 2×2 – 7xy) + (2×2 + 5xy)

. . . and if you do, it probably means that you are having a nightmare! (By the way, the answer is
4x – 2xy.) However, this is a different story:

63
x 59
_____

And the reason is clear. The addition and subtraction of polynomials is not part of the fourth grade core content for math, while the multiplication of two-digit numbers is.

It is imperative that students understand how standardized tests are scored, what they measure and the kinds of material they will encounter. By sharing this behind-the-scenes aspect of standardized tests with your students you will help to empower them by demystifying the tests themselves, and reducing the high anxiety often associated with them.

Standardized tests can be effective measurement tools. Over the years great steps have been taken to improve standardized testing; for instance, paying particular attention to bias in order to create tests that are not only more equitable, but also to provide students with an array of strategies that they can use in test-taking situations.

The next few upcoming posts will be aimed at helping educators and students prepare for standardized tests by providing general information on test-taking strategies, tips on stress and anxiety reduction, and recommended resources for successful test-taking, so stay tuned!

Teaching Tips

School Year Lesson Reminder Binders

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Reminder Binders

Sometimes we wonder where the school year goes. Time seems to fly. Teachers start to think, “Are the children even aware of all they have learned and experienced by January, or even June for that matter?” To aid their memory, have a reminder binder to browse through throughout the year and especially at the end of the year. It is fun and triggers a lot of memories.

There are several ways of implementing a reminder binder.

1. At the end of each week or day, pick one or two students who will be responsible for choosing one particular event, activity, or lesson. Have them write a brief description and illustrate it. These are then filed in one main binder titled “The Reminder Binder.” They should share with the class their choice when they finish.

2. At the end of each month, students brainstorm the month’s important events, activities, and lessons. Try to get at least one per student. Write them on the whiteboard. Each student picks one and describes and illustrates it in “The Reminder Binder.” Students who finish early can do a second one. This repeats monthly. Both ways get students thinking about what they have learned and experienced, either daily, weekly, or monthly. At the end of the school year, it is exciting to go back and remember all the great learning that took place.

Behavior Management

Tips for Encouraging Good Student Behavior

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Red Pen Reversal
Teachers often use a red pen to mark answers that are incorrect. Instead of using a red pen to check all wrong answers, use a red pen to check all right answers! Write “okay” on all correct answers. Leave answers that are wrong untouched. This is another silent message to students to go back and correct the wrong answers. They know, without you saying, that the problems are wrong, and they know which problems to correct. Be sure to use a red pen or pencil. Students have learned to associate red marks with the word, “wrong.” Using a red mark for the right answers is a way of using reverse psychology on them.

Tattle-Box
Tattling can be a big problem in a classroom. This type of behavior usually occurs when a student is trying to gain teacher attention. Students can tattle for the following reasons:

  • to get others in trouble
  • to hopefully get an award
  • to gain attention
  • to feel superior over others

Try using a tattle box. Cover a shoebox with paper. Label it, “The Tattle Box.” When a student tries to tattle, have the students write the problem down on paper and drop it in the box. Be sure to keep paper and pencil handy beside the box and be sure to read the papers!

Another tactic to curb tattling is when a student comes to tattle, ask a question: “Is it in or out?” In other words, you are asking the student “Are you tattling to get someone in trouble or out of trouble?” Only listen to those who say “out of trouble.” Students catch on quickly that you are not going to listen to their negative tattling.

Sticker Praise
Mark extra good work with a smiley sticker and watch the smiles on students’ faces. It is simple, but it works. Stickers with words of encouragement are also great for rewarding and motivating good work.