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