This is a list of ten things teachers can do to help their students perform well on high stakes tests. As testing becomes more important, the preparation is crucial.
It seems that lawmakers believe that testing is the magic bullet to fix education. Unfortunately, this means that students are tested repeatedly. Schools, teachers and principals are held accountable for those scores. So, teachers need to do their best to have their students be successful on these high stakes tests.
To prepare for the stress and the tests, here are ten suggestions and ideas:
- Know content standards and create lessons that relate to them
- Pretest students early to find out what they already know and understand
- Cover all standards, but focus on the ones where students struggle
- Practice test taking with old tests; it helps for students to be familiar with test language and format
- Use “drill and kill” practice some, but find other ways for students to learn standards as well
- Do quarterly assessments to see where students need assistance
- Create a word wall of difficult words that are used on the test; each week a couple of new words can be introduced
- Find creative ways to motivate students, such as games and interesting projects for review
- Talk to students about importance of tests; however, students should not become overly stressed about them
- Give peppermint candy, drinks, and breakfast food on day of test. This gives students energy, and they can help relax students
The main thing is to keep a positive attitude about the test. If the teacher has a good attitude then the students will too.
