One thing I do is to teach students to score their own assessments and other students. We bench- mark the questions ( which I write using test stems). Students practice this through out the year. Also they serve as pre and post assessments for the TLA we are practicing. The students scores went up and many passed the WASL .......(our state assessment) Zoe
-----Original Message----- From: Heather Poland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades. <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 8:55 pm Subject: Re: [LIT] Standardized reading tests + reading workshop What works really well is going over some released test questions and eaching them HOW to answer the questions. A lot of it has to do with the anguage of the test. For example, a lot of students don't know that when it ays "choose the best answer" that does NOT mean the answer you LIKE the est. There is a question that says, "Choose the title that is the best" and ids often just pick the one they like. So teaching the language really elps. QAR (Question Answer Relationship) is another technique that helps not only ith standardized tests, but ANY comprehension questions. And it really does elp. I used it in the clinic last semester (I'm getting my reading pecialist credential) and it really helped the student I was working with. t is important to teach this one correctly - you have to teach the tegories first, then practice with a few and build on it, but it is really owerful. On 8/21/07, Maggie Dillier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I am not sure what I've decided! Some responses were helpful - i.e., while teaching a strategy like making connections, work in a test-type question at the end of the minilesson - but my personal Achilles heel is not having a year-long framework. I just start improvising and waste too much time! I would be very afraid of not teaching all the types of questions completely. Does anyone else have fresh insight into authentic, non-boring test prep? ~Maggie 5th/TX On 8/21/07, Melinda Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I teach 5th LA/SS in TX, too....I am having the same questions!!!! What > have you decided? > > Melinda Hawkins > 5th Grade ELA/SS > McCulloch Intermediate School > Highland Park ISD > (214) 780-2325 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >>> "Maggie Dillier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 07/21/07 16:13 PM >>> > Hi all, > I am thinking about how to best prepare my kids for the state reading test > this year. I don't want to do a very traditional, "here are the 12 types > of > questions and I'll cram passages down your throat for 12 weeks" approach - > I'd like to make it as authentic and workshop-esque as possible. > > Does any recommend *A Teacher's Guide to Standardized Reading Tests*: > *Knowledge > is Power*< > http://www.amazon.com/Teachers-Guide-Standardized-Reading-Tests/dp/032500000X/ref=sr_1_1/102-8169924-2470553?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185051526&sr=8-1 > >by > Lucy Calkins et al.? A review says it is strategies-based, but there > isn't much more information about it. I did read *Test Talk: Integrating > Test Preparation into the Reading Workshop *on the Stenhouse website, but > it > was too general for my taste. I'd like to figure out, very > specifically, when and how to integrate these lessons. Anyone have ideas > or > know the Calkins book? > > Thank you! > ~Maggie > 5th/TX > > -- > Maggie Dillier > > -- > Maggie Dillier > > "If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood > and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the > endless immensity of the sea." (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive -- Heather "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of an. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments all; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; ew races build others. But in the world of books are olumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet ive on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were ritten, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men enturies dead." --Clarence Day "While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little ood evidence exists that there's any educational substance ehind the accountability and testing movement." Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose unding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase unding. " Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate ______________________________________________ he Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
