How to balance standardized tests with teaching creatively…In-service Workshop for EPR 688Ms. Gail Harper YeildingMs. Rachel Rives

A-Z Brainstorm(teach testing vocabulary)

Complete on your handout.

Assessment

Benchmark

Check your answers

Dialogue

Efficiency

… Zilch to fear

4 Guiding Questions…(Turn and Talk)

1) How are we as educators supposed to respond effectively and creatively to the pressures of standardized testing?    

2) Is there a standardized test that can be all together fair?  

3) What would performance and portfolio assessments replacing standardized tests look like?

4.) How can teachers motivate students to do their best work when testing?

Preparing your students for testing

After School Tutoring

1-1 instruction that targets specific skills

Study groups

Test taking tips

Build up their confidence

Discuss the make up and reason for the test and it’s importance

Build up to the test, incentives or parties

Preparation for day of: effective plan, healthy breakfast, plenty of sleep, short exercise or stretching

Test Taking Tips For Students

The video below has a good amount of test taking tips that will help improve the scores of your students. They will also be more excited to hear the information from people their own age.

Teacher Tube- Testing Tips

Time Issues?

• How do teachers fit in the time to accomplish all the material that needs to be covered throughout the year along with making sure they have covered all testing material?

Dealing with Time

Teachers can create more innovative lessons to incorporate more elements of their curriculum

Use more differentiated lessons where students are practicing multiple skills

Use more outside resources

Collaborate with your colleagues

Practice testing skills while working with other materials that need to be covered throughout the year

Teaching to the test?!?

Often the pressures of testing cause some teachers to “water down” the curriculum in a belief that they are helping the students as well as protecting their careers.

This is absolutely not needed if we are doing our jobs!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: “In a sense exceptional teachers teach to the test without even

realizing it. Excellent teachers satisfy the requirements of state assessments without spoon-feeding the content.”

Longo, C. (2010). Fostering Creativity or Teaching to the Test? Implications of State Testing on the Delivery of Science Instruction. Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and

Ideas, 83(2), 54-57. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Fair Testing for all?

What makes a fair test?

-culturally appropriate

-respectful of all circumstances and abilities

-gives students the opportunity to show what they know

-clear directions and expectations

Consider the following articles:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-07-no-child_x.htm

http://www.fairtest.org/arn/caseagainst.html

What accommodations do you use for students during

testing?

Small room vs. large room

Read-to groups or 1-1

Re-test opportunities

Report test irregularities

No time constraint

Translations for English Learners

More Accommodations…

Provide special acoustics

Allow frequent breaks during testing

Administer the test in several sessions, specifying the duration of each day’s session

Increase size of answer spaces

Provide on-task/ focusing prompts

Highlight key words or phrases in directions and provide cues

Limiting Test Anxiety

Acknowledge that it exists and ask students to describe it

Speak positively about the test

Teach test taking skills and help students apply these skills

Take practice tests

More On Limiting Test Anxiety…

Reward effort and gains in testing

Allow for time to stretch/moment of silence/ self-talk before starting the test

Make sure all students have adequate resources (pencils, scratch paper, calculators when appropriate, etc.)

Follow up with data-driven instruction

Performance Assessments

Performance assessments are alternatives to standardized testing with a specific outcome from the student.

ETS defines these as, “A test in which the test taker actually demonstrates the skills the test is intended to measure by doing real-world tasks that require those skills, rather than by answering questions asking how to do them. Typically, those tasks involve actions other than marking a space on an answer sheet or clicking a button on a computer screen. A pencil-and-paper test can be a performance assessment, but only if the skills to be measured can be done, in a real-world context, with a pencil and paper.

Resource for implementation:

http://performanceassessment.org

Portfolio Assessments

A portfolio assessment allows the students to display and present their learning as an assessment.

Defined by ETS as, “A systematic collection of materials selected to demonstrate a person's level of knowledge, skill or ability in a particular area. Portfolios can include written documents (written by the person being evaluated or by others), photos, drawings, audio or video recordings and other media. Often the types of documents and other media to be provided are specified in detail.”

Here’s an idea of what they look like:

Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sihIwdjGY0o

Additional Resources…

AHSGE and SAT prep: Full exams, practice game, and video tutorials for specific skills http://usatestprep.com

University of Kansas’ Strategies Lab: PIRATES and many other ways to build esteem for testing http://www.kucrl.org/sim/strategies.shtml

Study Skills, test taking and many other tips for students and parents : http://www.testtakingtips.com

Ways to limit test anxiety: http://kidshealth.org/teen/school_jobs/school/testing_tips.html

Any others?