Testing Stress

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Testing Stress
By Curious

Hello-

I understand your stress with testing. We have it here in MA as well. I am not too familiar with the NY tests, but I imagine that they are in line with your state goals and objectives. If you don't have a copy
of your district grade level goals and objectives for each subject area, you may want to get a hold of the states. The district usually has ones that are stream lined from the states.
I kind of have two mind frames about state testing. If your instruction is matched to the state goals and objectives, and the test is based on the state goals and objectives, than you should be fine and

not need to "teach to the test."

But realistically, you need to prepare your kids to be better test takers. It would be really helpful if you had an idea of what each test looks like and what type of formats they use. Are they multiple choice, short answer, open response. . . a combination of many? I have released test questions that help me have a better idea of what kind of format the state test uses. Try checking out the NY DOE website so that you can see if their are any released test items that may help you.

What do you do with these materials once you have them? Well, we have a communication (language) arts test at fourth grade. One portion of the test is where students read a passage and respond to a question. Weekly, my students respond in a journal to a generic question based on their at home reading. I use the rubric that is used for scoring the state tests when scoring their response. We focus on using evidence from the story to support their response. This is one way I am preparing them for the test, while teaching them good writing skills and critical reading.

Another test we have is in Math. Using the released test items, I look to see which ones match our units of instruction. For example, we just finished a geometry unit that focused on properties of polygons, specifically classifying quadrilaterals. There happens to be a released test question (three parts) on classifying polygons. Although my students have learned about polygons, I don't think they would be successful at applying this knowledge after looking at this test question that, quite frankly is a lot of reading (good for my strong readers, not my weak ones, and this is a MATH test). So I may look at the format of this test question and develop a similar one to teach students the skills of identifying key information, choosing an appropriate problem solving strategy, implementing that strategy and showing thier work to illustrate their thinking, and identifying a correct solution. Then working on carrying the answer from part a to part b. . . etc. Maybe you could get a hold of sample questions and pull out the ones that match your units of instruction.

I don't have all the answers, and the only advice I can give you is that you don't have to be perfect this year. Do what is manageable for you and take each year as a learning experience. Try to match your instruction to the state goals and objectives and find ways that naturally fit to bring in items that will prepare them for this stressful test. I am sure it as stressful for your kiddos as it is for you!

I hope these ideas help and am looking forward to the ideas of you and others to make this aspect of teaching easier!

Curious