TESTING SEASON is upon us, and it is time to start reviewing and spiraling in all those objectives we've been covering in preparation for April. Are the students tired of doing the same thing? Are you tired? At this time of the year things are stressful and often repetitive for both teachers and students. At this of the year it seems like everyone is losing focus and drive, BUT this is the time we need it most. One of the hardest things for my students is prepping using EOC passages. They get bored easily. They don't want to read anymore. So how do we reel them back in? Below are some activities that we have done that both engage the kids and get them working while having fun.
ESCAPE ROOMS: While searching and stalking some amazing teachers on Instagram, I came upon the idea of ESCAPE ROOMS, and holy cow did they make a difference in the classroom. Every time we do an escape room, we have 100% participation. There is no better feeling as a teacher than knowing that your students are completely engaged and learning. The best thing is that they are learning and reviewing without knowing it. To them it’s competition and fun! The first time I did an escape room, a student high-fived me and said, “Good job, Mrs., this was so fun!” That little gem belongs in my hall of fame teaching reel. Even though escape rooms are time consuming to create, the payoff is huge! We are currently creating some EOC test prep materials to use with our kiddos before April testing. What better way to review and prepare than with something everybody loves!
STATIONS: Stations are a great way to chunk information into manageable size pieces that won’t overwhelm the kids. You can do stations that are based on genres with some test-based stems, objective/skill based (inference, essay, tone/mood, your lowest performing objectives), or test-taking strategies and review. Honestly, the possibilities are endless. This week we reviewed poetic devices with my favorite poem, Annabel Lee.
Gallery Walk: You can have the students participate in a gallery walk to practice skills. You can put examples of literature and have kids identify figurative language, literary devices, or you can have them answer test-based questions. This activity is low prep and a great way to engage the students. If that’s not enough, the kids get to move, and research shows that physical movement boosts academic learning, so that’s a win-win. I like to incorporate gallery walks when teaching the essay. I put up examples of essays, and I have the kids walk around, score them, and on a post-it, explain why it received that score. At the end, we discuss!
Incorporating at least one of these strategies will definitely help lessen the redundancy of test-prep, while still giving the students meaningful practice. **These strategies can also be utilized for novels and short stories.
