Short Week, Big Test

Hey all! So this week has been a very short week for me. We had President's Day off, and then the "Snowpocolypse" hit Kansas. No school Thursday or Friday for me! While I know I will have to pay for the gift of time later, I am very thankful to be drinking my morning coffee at a much slower pace than normal today. Especially because the coffee goes well with the almond cookies I made yesterday. You can find them here. I added a 1/2 a stick of butter and an extra egg to the recipe, as I didn't want to make them "crisp" like the recipe describes. I also added extra almond flavoring....love that stuff.

Anyways....as I mentioned before, the time has been great, but also leaves me a bit timid for the upcoming week. Our students are beginning the Kansas State Reading Assessments next Tuesday, and it is always such a long week for them. I haven't been asked test any of my students that require accommodations, but most of the students I see do require some sort of accommodation/modified assessment. I think all educators can feel the pressure to put in their part in order to ensure that their students are set up for success with these tests.

Last year (my first year/CFY), I was a little unsure of how I could best help my students, until my IRT (Instructional Resource Teacher- like a mentor for first year teachers in the district....she is AMAZING! Shout out to Sarah!) gave me this handy little paper with the title "12 Powerful Words that Increase Test Scores and Help Close the Achievement Gap," which was adapted from the original by Larry Bell. Since a chunk of my students have vocabulary goals, I thought that targeting "test" words throughout the quarter would be a great way to boost their confidence when testing and increase their success. I think it's important to remember that sometimes the vocabulary of a question can be tricky for a student along with the content/vocabulary of a story. Words like predict, analyze, and except can be difficult. But, if you give students the tools to understand the question they may be able to use context along with other strategies to answer questions correctly.

So....the download of the day is a selection of the 12 words (plus a few add-ins) as flashcards. Now, I realize that typically these words are best taught by actually engaging the students in activities and linking to previous knowledge, but I wanted something to use in addition to those activities as a quick review. I hope you find them useful! What are some ways that you have found boost your student's success and confidence during assessments?

Test Vocabulary Flashcards

I'm Lovin' It!

There are two things I'm loving this week: 1) It's conferences...which means an extra day off  (although the time is definitely earned) and 2) It's Valentine's week!

I've always felt that the store bought valentines just don't get enough use or appreciation. We all know how much time it takes to fill them out and stuff them with candy, and then they are most likely thrown away. Sad! So, I thought I would try and get a little more use out of them by incorporating them in to activities. Here's what I came up with:

Articulation: Students find their sound in a photo or written phrase on the Valentine and write it in a heart

Expressive Language: Students describe a Valentine using the template as a guide for the Expanding Expression Tool. For students with descriptive language goals who are not using the EET program, we just played "Go Fish" and asked for cards by describing them.

Language/Vocabulary: Students find new or unfamiliar words/phrases (vocabulary/figurative language) on a Valentine and fill in the template.

Perspective Taking: Students pick out a Valentine and determine an appropriate person to send it to.

I picked out some Transformers, Madagascar and animal Valentines to use in my room. So far the variety has helped me to please quite a few kiddos. The packet is attached for you to try out! Leave a comment and let me know what you are doing in your rooms to celebrate this week!

I'm Lovin' It- Valentines Packet

Clipart from Scrappin Doodles

Friendship Jeopardy Game

As you saw in my previous post, I have a few students I target social skills with. While I do spend time discussing and teaching the skills/strategies, I also love to give my students a chance to practice these skills. You can work on social skills by playing almost any game, but I wanted something more specific for them. Therefore, I created the Friendship Jeopardy game. Now, most of my students didn't really know what Jeopardy was, so I had to talk to them about game having categories and that each question is assigned a dollar value. Even though they had never seen the game show, they were hooked once I told them they could earn pretend money! Who wouldn't be?!?!

The game is attached for you to use and try in your rooms. To make the game podiums, I glued the squares on the first two pages of the attachment to small, manilla envelopes. Once the envelopes were laminated, it allowed the students to write/sign their names and track their money by using a dry erase marker. It was great to work on some math skills, too! To play the game, I laid the money on the table under the category labels. When you're playing it, I encourage you to ask a few follow-up questions to your students (i.e., "What might this person think about you if you said that?", "How might that make you feel?")....I never let mine get away with a short answer! I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think!

Game download: Friendship Jeopardy