Testing prep

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Home : 2004 : January : 29

Testing prep
By HEIDI

Although I'd never say I teach to the test, I will say that I started a grade 5 class part-way into the year much like you did and the pressure was immense! For math, our province sends out sample assessment questions (especially
the multiple choice, which kids aren't used to). We put the sample question on overhead transparencies (it took several sheets!) and I built in a review game at the start of each day's math time. I would put up a question (cover the rest) and ask students to think about it, but not holler out their answer. They were told to give a thumbs up if they thought it was A, show 2 fingers

for B, 3 fingers for C and 4 fingers for D. (I also did it with four different colours of construction paper - cut into small squares- so they could hold up BLUE for A, RED for B, etc.) I got the idea from the Survivor show. What is important though is that kids know they are not allowed to show me their answer until I ask them to. They all need think time and you know how some kids will come up with an answer right away while others are still reading the question... well this evens the playing field. You can see at a glance how many students got it right and if several are holding up the wrong answer, you can take a moment to do a quick review of the strategy for that particular question. I did 2 or 3 each day for a month before the assessment. The kids never got bored of it... although I thought they would!

In language arts, we know that writing a persuasive letter is generally on the assessment, so is writing a narrative. My kids practice those A LOT! Narrative structure was intorduced to them by looking at a novel we'd studied: it had an orientation at the start (meet the characetrs and find out about the place, the general timing of when the story is happening), then there are complications... things happen all the way through the story. SOme things are little complications that lead to a bigger complication, but there are always complications! Then there is a wrap up or conclusion to the story so we know how it turned out. We also talked about favourite movies and tried to identify the three parts of a narrative in the show. They can pick them out ina short story, on a sitcom, anywhere! We drilled the three elements of a narrative and my kids can tell them to you by heart now. Their writing has improved tremendously since that! Their stories are so much more interesting to read now.