Third Quarter has ended! We're rounding the corner of the School Year and heading into the Infamous Fourth Quarter! Scary and exciting in the same breath!! If you're reading this and wondering if there's still time to jump into Whole Brain Teaching, I have three words for you...YES! YES! YES! It is Never too late to start! There are some great videos in the Video Library at www.wholebrainteaching.com to help you, or send me questions also.
Test Prep and Test Simulation are very important for your class. Students need to know content, but they also need to understand how to solve! Test questions come in a variety of forms, so being able to read a variety of Directions and Test Vocabulary is a crucial element of test taking strategies. Prove It!, #506 in the Video Library mentioned above has some excellent suggestions you can use to help your students recognize Kinds of questions and strategies to solve. If you're using the Super Improvers Wall, use it to encourage good testing habits during your practice testing sessions. For example, give the students a goal for that session such as simply bubbling neatly. "I really like how neatly Mary is filling in her bubbles today." Then put a star on her card. They may not have the strong interest in that State Test, but they do want those stars on that Wall! The simple step of completing the test neatly "Slows" the student down in order to avoid careless mistakes. You're looking for visible effort by your students that they are using testing strategies to analyze each question and answer carefully during practice sessions. Then you give them that star! Practicing the strategies helps students use them more automatically during THE TEST when you have to step back and "Let them go!" Telling your students to "Do your best!" is not nearly as helpful as saying it and knowing they have a "back pocket" full of testing strategies they can choose from! Help them fill those pockets!!
