Keep Teaching

To do test prep or not to do test prep…to keep with my literacy routine or not…those are the questions on most teachers’ minds.  The good news is you don’t have to choose.  You can keep with your regular routine and teach test prep.  Just as you teach fiction, biography, and poetry as different genres, you can teach test taking as a genre, too.

Characteristics:  One of the first things to look at when teaching a new genre is the characteristics of it.   One approach to teaching this would be to make a chart with your students.  One heading could be “When Reading is Tested” and the other “When Reading is Real”.  Under the left hand side you and your students might come up with something like the following.

• Completed silently and independently
• Usually timed
• Stay in seat
• One correct answer only

The right hand side would be what reading looks like in your classroom.  For instance, you may encourage more than one answer if it can be supported.  This would go opposite of “one correct answer only”.

Vocabulary:  Any time you present a new unit of study, you introduce vocabulary particular to that study.  The same is true for test taking.  For example a question may ask about the theme or main idea of a passage.  Students need to know these words are interchangeable.  They need to know what is meant when a question asks for the author’s purpose or point of view.  What does “draw a conclusion” mean?  How about terms such as “metaphor, simile, compare/contrast, or best“?  When a vocabulary word is given in context, students need to know how to substitute each answer choice in place of the vocabulary word to see which makes the most sense in the sentence. Most of the vocabulary students will need to know is in each grade level’s standard course of study.  For the most part this is a review as you’ve been teaching these concepts all year.

Formats:  What seems like old hat testing formats to us may be unfamiliar to our students.  Make sure your students are familiar with:

• test materials: what will they look like and where answers go
• testing cues: When to “go on” and when to “stop”
• locating the questions: where they appear and if they will be in different places for different tests i.e. reading and math
• answering multiple choice questions:  mark out answers don’t think are correct
• reading:  It seems obvious, but students must read each word on a test page regardless of whether it looks important or not.  This includes directions, captions, footnotes, inset boxes, and map keys, and all answer choices.
• length of tests:  how long the testing will last each day; what the procedures are for asking questions and taking breaks;  what to do if finish test early

By teaching testing as a genre, students have the opportunity to learn the language and formats of tests they will be taking an apply it accordingly.  They can develop some test taking savvy and will be better prepared to show what they have learned-instead of worrying about being prepared!