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STRATEGY
Prepare Your Class for Success on Standardized Tests
It is highly likely that your students will have to take at least one standardized test this year. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, school districts rely on standardized tests to assess not
only the performance of individual students but also the performance of schools and how well teachers are achieving the goals of the school district.
Because standardized tests have serious implications for everyone involved, the test administrators in your district will give teachers a great deal of information about the specific tests that students will have to take. Take this information seriously.
Teachers are often asked to sign an acknowledgment that they have received information about the particular tests that their students will be taking
When you sign such an acknowledgment, you are indicating that you understand the kind of help that you will be allowed to offer your students before and during the testing time.
In addition to taking a professional approach to administering standardized tests, you can help your students by teaching them skills that will be useful in taking standardized tests. The following tips can help you teach important test-taking skills.
- Teach students to take the time to listen as the test examiner reads the instructions even if they believe that they are familiar with the directions. They should also reread the instructions for themselves as they work through the test.
- When your students practice taking the test, show them how to pace themselves. Make sure they know where to find a clock at the testing site.
- Many mistakes happen because students do not read the questions carefully. Practice reading test items together and analyzing what information the answers require
- Students often become bogged down in a difficult reading passage and just skim the questions. Teach them to read the questions carefully first and then skim the passage, looking for the answers.
- When students have passages to read, teach them to underline the parts of the passage that are covered in the questions. They can also circle key words or write notes to themselves in the margins.
- Teach the process of elimination in regard to answer choices. Students should practice eliminating the answers that are obviously not correct until they arrive at a reasonable answer.
- Because marking a bubble sheet during a test can be stressful for many students, give your students lots of opportunities to practice marking their answers on a bubble sheet.
Excerpted from Section Nine, "Evaluate Your Students' Progress," of The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide, by Julia G. Thompson. Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Thank you, Julia G. Thompson and Jossey Bass, for contributing this month's strategies!
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