Preparing for High-Stakes Standardized
Testing Lamson Lam
This is the first of several articles that will focus on the
steps that a teacher can take to prepare their fourth grade
class for the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) test
in February and the New York State Math test in April.
November Through the Lens of Test
Preparation
November is an important month in the test
preparation process. You will have your first
round of parent teacher conferences, and there are only 3
months left before the ELA. You should be starting to
feel a sense of urgency about the upcoming test but your children
should not.
Preparing Parents -- Parent/Teacher
Conferences
Take advantage
of Parent - Teacher Conferences to discuss students' progress
in approaching the standards and being prepared for the ELA.
Although some parents may not be as interested in standards
and may not fully understand their significance, they will
understand it when you talk about their child's progress in
terms of being prepared for a high-stakes test that determines
promotion and middle school admission.
- Preparation: Be prepared
for parents. Have work samples, scores and homework
and attendance records ready.
- Questions: I like
to begin by asking questions, " what have you noticed about
your child and their work in fourth grade this year?" (How
do you think your son/daughter is doing, do you have any
specific concerns, etc.)
- Data: Then I show
all the data that I have prepared, highlighting strengths
first, followed by areas to improve and/ or appropriate
goals.
- I mention the test
(dates, stakes, last year's scores and how they can help
at home.)
Preparing Yourself
Familiarize yourself with the ELA
By now you should have a pretty solid
idea of how well your children read and write. You
should know all your children's reading levels and be aware
of some of their strengths and weaknesses as readers and
writers.
You should also be familiar with the
test itself. If you haven't already, you should have
paged through a version of the ELA. Ask your testing
coordinator or principal to see old or sample copies of
the ELA (online
sample test). My testing coordinator has
copies of last year's test and has made them available for
me to see and use for practice. Try to look through
a sample test with another teacher who has experience teaching
fourth grade, she can help you to identify all of the different
components of the ELA.
Identify
"At Risk" Students
Try to identify the children who you believe are "At-Risk"
of failing the ELA. This is my criteria for "At-Risk"
Status:
- Students who are
holdovers because they failed the ELA last year
- Students who failed
their reading test last year with either a 1 or a 2.
- Students who are
reading below grade level as determined by any assessment
tool.
Make sure these kids are always on your
radar and plan an aggressive intervention plan to meet their
needs. Since these tests are high-stakes for your principal
as well, she will be happy to provide extra support to the
students in your class who need it most. Some examples
of the intervention plans I already have in place:
- One of my students
"John," who got a 1 on his test in 3rd grade
really struggles with fluency. I have him reading
Kindergarten texts with a Kindergarten buddy to improve
his fluency.
- "John,"and some of
my other low scorers from last year, are pulled out by the
reading recovery teacher for "easier" test prep practice
work (currently third grade level work) for one period a
day.
Preparing The Children
Reading
Your children should be reading
and enjoying a variety of genre. They should realize
that they are reading for a purpose. In my class,
I have been reading fictional texts out loud and encouraging
them to choose mostly fiction for their independent reading,
but I have also been introducing them to non-fiction in
guided (small group) reading and in social studies.
They should be able to recognize the elements of a story
in fictional text (characters, setting problem and solution)
and they should be able to recognize the features of non-fiction
texts (headings, captions, fact boxes, graphs, etc.) and
utilize these features to support their comprehension.
They should be able to state main ideas, discuss themes,
recall details and answer text-based questions using details
from the text in their answers.
Writing
Your students should enjoy
writing and be writing for real purposes (example:
Thanksgiving writing activity).
By now they should have had an extended experience writing
in one particular genre. I started with personal narrative/memoir
in October. (They usually are asked to write a narrative
piece on the ELA). In November, we will be studying
note-taking (another integral part of the ELA) and report
writing in connection with our Native American Social Studies
curriculum.
Specific, Isolated Test Preparation
vs. Meaningful Curriculum-Based Test Preparation
You
will have to make test preparation decisions based on your
own education philosophy and the policy of your principal
and staff developers. My advice is to begin exposing
your students to a few isolated test preparation activities
in November. If I am teaching them strategies on identifying
sequence and we work on it together within our natural curriculum,
I will assign and then review this strategy with them in a
specific test preparation booklet. One or two such activities
a week in school and at home won't harm them and it will get
them used to seeing test- like texts and test-like questions
and it will help them to bridge the gap between what they
are doing in class and what they will be asked to do on a
test.
Best
of luck!
Email
me with any questions about Test Preparation, Family Involvement
or Teaching Fourth Grade.
-Lamson |