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Testing

Fun Test Prep!

 

Are you ready for testing?!?! We are!
We have one more school day before the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) reading test. Over the past few weeks, we have been working oh so hard to get ready. We have reviewed in groups, in small group, in pairs, and independently. But, truth is, we are all sick of reading comprehension pages and practice assessments. (Can I get an AMEN?!) Sometimes they are just not fun to do. As teachers, we can change this attitude!
This year, my co-teacher incorporated many fun activities in order to keep our students engaged while continuing to practice using our strategies in the text and on test questions. I am sharing three of our favorites with you today! These “games” are extremely simple to make and will not break the bank. Many thanks to the Dollar Store! Plus, all of these activities can be saved for next year!
Students should read the passage(s) and answer all questions first, showing their evidence in the passage. All of these activities are to be done while REVIEWING the answers with students. The review can happen in small groups or whole group.
Ping Pong Balls & Cups
Place cups in front of a group of 4-6 students (clear cups work even better than these styrofoam ones!). Label the cups with the letters included in the answer choices. Give each student a ping pong ball (cotton balls will also work). As you go over each question, thinking aloud, have students bounce/place their ball in the corresponding cup. Announce the correct answer (Cue student cheering). Students hand all the ping pong balls back to each other and you start over on the next question.
***Yes, students may look around and follow their peers, but we make sure to let them know that we are looking for their own answers only! “Cheating does not help you in life.”….and that whole teacher spiel.
Our Rule:
We allow students to bounce their ping pong ball on the table, ONE TIME ONLY, trying to aim for their chosen answer cup. If the ball doesn’t make it in, they are to just place it in the cup. They follow this rule religiously. If they don’t follow this rule, we would have ping pong balls ALL over the place. Follow it, or don’t play. 🙂
Jenga

You will need a couple Jenga towers, unless you plan to do this whole group (then you only need one tower). We use about five in our classroom. You can borrow them from other teachers or grab them from Amazon.com. While students are completing a reading comprehension packet/review page place a Jenga tower in the middle of each group. As you go over each question, think aloud. Announce the correct answer. (Cue student cheering) Walk around with a pen and give students stars or checks beside the correct answer. When they get a star/check, they may take a Jenga block from the tower. If they do not answer correctly, they work through the question again. Continue through the rest of the questions, walking around to assess as you go. The goal is to see how many blocks you can successfully pull without knocking the tower down. If the tower falls, simply gather all the pieces and rebuild it.

I have also played this in small group with struggling students. We read the passage together and then went one by one through the questions. After they answered one question, I would check it. This provided immediate feedback to them. Plus, they were always excited to pull the blocks!
Fly Swatters
Each child will need a fly swatter. (We bought them at the dollar store, but here is another good deal from Walmart. These are reusable from year to year.) Students break their desk into fourths with dry erase markers and label with the answer choices. (Just use a clorox wipe to clean up!) As you go over the test questions, think aloud.
Say something like, “One, two, three — SWAT!” When you say that, students “swat” their answer. They must hold their fly swatter on the letter until you tell them to remove it. Walk around and assess student answers. Announce the correct answer (Cue student cheering), and then move on to the next question.
Our Rule:
If you mess around with the fly swatter (including but not limited to: hitting another person, lifting it up and changing your answer, swinging it like crazy in the air), you will loose the privilege of the fly swatter, and have to continue reviewing the questions the “normal” way.
 
Those are a few of our classroom favorites! These little games give students a reason to try their very best during our review. It also keeps review a little interesting on the teacher end, too! 

Happy Testing Season!

 

Filed Under: Literacy, Misc Tagged With: games, literacy, review, test prep, Testing

Testing Mania

As I look back on this week, I feel like my fun teacher spirit was dumped off in Timbuktu. We have tested EVERY day this week during our reading block. No small group. No center activities. No hands-on learning.

You see, the official countdown to THE BIG TEST began a few weeks ago. Our state test (Florida Standards Assessment, FSA) is in 22 days. So you may ask, “Why in the world are you testing now?”

In third grade, students are retained if they do not pass the FSA assessment. There are many other ways to promote to fourth grade, so it’s not black and white. Still, we have to follow the protocol. One important piece of the protocol is the Portfolio testing. This test consists of a series of passages and questions. We assess students on one passage each day. Then after like 2-3 weeks of testing all the different passages, we basically do an item analysis of each standard to see which ones they passed. If the student has “Mastered” all the standards with 70% accuracy, they can be promoted. If they don’t, we continue the process that the county provides (Summer School, alternative testing, etc.).

It is sad, really, to think about the amount of time the kids are staring at passages that are extremely too high for our struggling readers. They use all the strategies we’ve taught them. They reread, underline, number paragraphs, and show their evidence. But, let’s face it, some students do not pass.

Testing is not a horrible thing. It definitely gives me data that is valuable to my day to day life as a teacher. Testing shows me what my students are retaining and what needs to be retaught. But testing for so many days is another story.

I know there is nothing I can do to switch the system around immediately. Testing is not going to disappear. But, I do feel that there are many teachers out there who feel the same way. How are we suppose to teach and remediate skills when we have to test, test, test? Shouldn’t there be a happy medium?

…For now, I will keep plugging away. I will expose students to engaging activities that align with our standards. I will help them to master concepts and skills. And in 22 days, I will hand them a pack of paper, and urge them to do their best.

Because at the end of the day, they are 8 and 9 years old, and I will remember that each and every day.


Filed Under: Misc Tagged With: data, Testing

Pitbull, Earth Day, & Zumba…What a combo!

This week our 3-5th graders started FCAT testing. Each year, we begin FCAT week with a pep rally to relax the students (and make the teachers look crazy!). This year, K & 1st grade teams did an FCAT country version of Timber by Pitbull. We all dressed with bandanas and cowboy hats, but our wonderful Kindergarten team leader made a special appearance as Pitbull. He had the kids swoooooooning!

What more can I say? This is hilarious!
Today is Earth Day, and I was determined to find an effective activity that reviewed necessary skills with my firsties. Cue the key detail sort! I found a wonderful main idea and key detail craftivity for Earth Day that was a challenging, yet fun cooperative learning activity for the kids (Click here to check it out!). Each page had a main idea listed with an illustration. The kids had to look through the details and decide which detail described which main idea. It was tricky at first, but after a few minutes they got the hang of it. I enjoyed hearing them debate amongst each other, and use key words to find the correct main ideas. Tomorrow I will make them cute with some construction paper and display them. Can’t wait!
Because of FCAT, we cannot take recess at our normal time as it would distract the upper grades who are testing. So, I decided we needed a little fun in our lives! After lunch, the kids thought I was getting ready to start math. Little did they know…
ZUMBA KIDS TIME! Thank you, YouTube!
They LOVED it! A few of the kids even told me that they got cramps! Ha! Work it.
Have a great rest of the week!

Filed Under: Misc Tagged With: Assembly, Earth Day, Testing

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