How to prepare for standardized testing
Right about now, teachers are strategizing on how to prepare their students for the upcoming standardized testing.
Some of you may have a plan in place already. While others are beginning to ponder what to do. You may be discussing it in your department or grade -level meetings.
If you have already been incorporating differentiation for your students throughout the year, you are already ahead of the game. When it comes to preparing for the upcoming standardized tests you may be ready. If you’d like more information on differentiation strategies, I wrote an article about it. It is here: 12 Reliable Differentiation Strategies for Teachers
I can offer some ideas here that may add to your conversations as you prepare.
Preparing students for standardized assessments
The first thing you want to do for your students is to create a positive environment. Also, you need to work on a
General Test Prep Strategies
There are a few tried and true test prep strategies that teachers have been using for many years. Some may or may not work now that many assessments are Common Core based. One such strategy is that of item elimination for obvious incorrect items.
In the past I would explicitly teach my students to eliminate obviously incorrect answer choices. We would discuss why they were obviously incorrect. And teach how eliminating them gives you a greater chance of marking the one that is correct.
This may not work for Common Core if the instructions are asking students to mark all answers that can be correct. The examiners often put two or more correct items for these types of questions.
Another strategy to teach students is to search for key terms within the question or test item. These key terms might provide clues toward the correct answer. These key terms may be tricky and therefore, you need to teach students about that also. For example, the question may say which of the following choices is NOT correct.
More Test Prep Strategies
Another strategy that will help your students is to teach them to analyze the questions. They need to be taught how to figure out what the question is asking them to do. This is especially important for math questions where students need to move through three or four steps before they get the answer. I would specifically model for my students how to break apart a math question into all the parts that you are being asked to do.
If you teach third grade, and it is their first year testing, I would do these types of math questions for at least a week so they get used to searching for the multiple steps involved in finding the answers.
Next, I discuss the test periods and how they are structured this year. During this discussion, I bring up self-pacing as a strategy. During this discussion we talk about skipping a question and moving on in order to get through the entire section during the allotted time period.
I believe that most students are tested online now. I would suggest that they jot down (they are usually allowed some scratch paper) the item number that they skipped in order to go back and work on it at the end if time allows.
IF THE FORMAT OF THE COMPUTER TEST DOES NOT ALLOW STUDENTS TO GO BACK TO PREVIOUS PAGES IN THAT SECTION, THEN YOU WILL NOT TEACH THIS TO STUDENTS.
This might be a good place to offer you my FREE 101 Teacher Tips. You can download it for FREE by completing the form here.
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MORE INFO TO HELP STUDENTS PREPARE FOR STANARDIZED TESTING.
Teaching younger students to navigate through a reading passage will take a bit of instruction. By about 5th grade they are already used to the format and will just need a quick reminder to read through CAREFULLY and search for the answer to what is being asked in the question.
If you teach third grade and this is their first year testing, you need to explicitly teach how to navigate through the reading passage section of the test. You will want to show them how to scan through the questions listed after the passage to understand what they are reading to find; what they are searching for.
My best suggestion for this is to teach this daily for at least a week so that students have it cemented in their memories. Ask them, “What do we need to do first when we reach this portion of the test?” With the answer being, skim through the questions after the passage first.
(NOTE, CHECK AHEAD OF TIME TO MAKE SURE THE TEST FORMAT ALLOWS STUDENTS TO LOOK AT THE QUESTIONS PRIOR TO READING THE PASSAGE).
Practice Tests – to help you Prepare for Standardized Testing
My opinion of practice tests might be quite different than yours. I liked to use them as a teaching tool, with the idea being to teach students the format of the test and not necessarily the content (although you do discuss the content as you work together).
I would work together through most of the practice test. For some sections, I would have students complete a small section at the end on their own but then we would always go over it together right then and there.
During this practice test review, you have the perfect opportunity to MODEL THINKING ALOUD! No matter what grade you teach, modeling thinking aloud is an excellent strategy. Be sure you tell your students, “This is what you need to be thinking during this part of the test.”
Review and Reteach
This is also the time when classes need to review and reteach. If it has been over two months since students learned a particular skill (for example geometry or shapes) then you need to have a spiral review time. If it’s been a while since you taught and learned about persuasive writing, then “time to review.”
You can also carve out time to hold small review sessions for certain students who didn’t master a certain standard or topic when you were teaching it previously. For example, you can contact parents and have four students stay for 30 additional minutes each afternoon for a week (Monday-Thursday; don’t do Friday).
Then you would give these students some intense reteaching of the skill they didn’t get before. Then continue this format with other students and other skills if time allows.
You can also work with a small group during recess or lunch or carve out time while the rest of the class is doing an independent assignment.
There is an excellent article by another education blogger from the TEACHER TRAP. It is “Standardized Test Prep Tips” and you can access it here. She offers some useful tips also.
A discussion about guessing
I want to discuss guessing for a second. You might want to discuss this skill with your class (if the test format allows for this). Some things to tell students are;
- if you are guessing, jot down the item number so you can go back to it if you have extra time.
- if you are guessing, use the process of elimination first (discussed earlier).
- if you are guessing, take a few seconds to really think about what the question is asking, because the answer might come to you.
- show your students why it is better to guess than to leave the item blank.
That is about everything I can think of (for now) on how to prepare for standardized testing. If more comes to me later, I will add it in too.
Good luck to you! Let me know if any of these tips helped you out.
Until Next Time,
Your Teacher Buddy
