As I try to plan out for the last two months of school, I just noticed that I will essentially lose another week of school due to CSTs (California's annual high stakes test to measure academic progress in almost every grade level but 12th).
As I try to impress upon my students the importance of doing well, I notice that they have not applied themselves seriously to many of the tests that they have received over the last two weeks. When I asked why, I was told "Oh, teacher, vacation is coming---ha ha." My response was to laugh a bit and then try to bring the back on task. I told that these upcoming tests mean a lot to the school and that I have full confidence in their being able to make me proud of them.
Since I refuse to give up and leave things to chance, I have been pulling out old textbook practice quizzes to show them how they navigate unfamiliar academic territory with a little creativity in analyzing the question stem properly. As they got into this approach, they started to see that earning a good score was within reach. That earned them a candy:)
Will my efforts pay off in 2 weeks? Heaven knows.
Any suggestions out there?
Denise
Idea for next year:
ReplyDeleteI will set up a Hot Chalk account just for banking test questions. (www.hotchalk.com). This will eliminate the need to keep looking for new practice questions for these tests and since the students will receive the tests via the internet (with their own access codes), it might underscore the seriousness of truly applying themselves in such testing situations. We'll see:)
Denise