Sunday, May 1, 2011

Surviving Standardized Testing


Another year of standardized testing has just finished! It's tough on kids. It's tough on teachers. What do you do to make it less overwhelming? Here are some of the things I tried this year:

  • We did 3 weeks of review and hit topics that aren't covered or barely covered by the curriculum our district mandates.
  • We had 2 days when we switched with other teachers, so kids had a variety of review activities.
  • Kids made affirming posters to hand down the hallway.
  • I covered poster in our classroom with affirmation posters I made.
  • I wrote everyone a personal note of belief in their abilities to succeed.
  • Kids arrived on the first day of testing to new pencils, erasers, sharpeners, mints and bubblegum. Along with a note explaining the importance and meaning of each. (i.e the 4 leaf clover was all the luck they needed!)
  • To sweeten the week we took extra recess, popsicles, and no "real" homework.



I'm excited to get back to getting ourselves ready to move on to 5th grade. In our district that's a particularly big deal because fifth grade is at the middle school.

How do you survive standardized testing?

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