Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers. For the month of March we are challenging ourselves to write a Slice A Day
Our state
testing begins Monday. In fifth grade in Illinois we have six tests – three
sessions of reading, three sessions of math. This marks my fourteenth year
administering the ISAT tests. What I’ve noticed over the years is this – the
more I teach, the more I trust myself, the less “test prep” I do.
I’ve
always thought it is a bit asinine that this test is supposedly testing all of
the standards for a given grade and yet is administered three months before the
end of the school year. In my early years of teaching, that would make me
panic. Not anymore.
This year
the state also decided:
· To raise all cut-off scores. If a
200 might have been a “meets” for previous years, this year it might be a 220.
· To add new material in November
that needed to be taught by March.
· To change the format of the final
reading test.
In those early years this might have caused me to lose sleep, but not any longer.
I am willing to take one week a year – the week before tests – and teach a mini “unit” on standardized testing. We talk about the types of questions you might find on these tests. Go over some tests taking tips. We look over the practice tests that the state hands out and examine the variety of passages and questions. And we look at our reading extended response.
None of
these lessons are exciting or ground breaking. My favorite part of the week?
Today. Today I met with every child I teach. We looked over their last practice
extended response. Sitting side by side on the carpet in my room – leaning
against our picture book shelf – we poured over their writing. Three hours of
my day was spent analyzing writing. With each child I was able to point out how
their writing has improved – not only this week but since the start of the
year. We talked about the passages we had read – a non-fiction passage about
bees and a poem about bees as well. The kids shared their thoughts about the
upcoming test. Some whispered that they were nervous. I quickly reassured them.
Several times our conference about writing morphed into a reading conference,
as they just “had” to share what had just happened in the book they were
reading.
As I sat
with one of my last students, hip to hip, leg next to leg, they pointed out how
their foot was at the same spot as mine, that they had grown several inches
that year, I paused. I looked up at these big fifth grade bodies splayed across
our room, and I nodded. Yes, they have all grown, in more ways than one.
