Preparing students for the yearly statewide assessment is always stressful and not enjoyable for anyone involved, but great teachers always try to make the best of it.  We try to encourage students through games, prizes, pep rallies, etc...but it is definitely not an enjoyable time of the school year.  Proving to the state that our students are learning, even though we haven't finished all of the instruction for the year is how we do education these days. (Testing starts in March ~ with over 2 months of instruction time left in the year.) 

     I'm trying to model/demonstrate the new TEI (technology enhanced items) with my students during lab time even though our computers are old.  I put a smile on my face and keep trying to motivate and empower my students to feel at ease with all this testing. 
  
      Here are some links to help my parents and fellow teachers that follow my blog:

     Testing causes anxiety for students, teachers, and parents.  We all want our students to do well and excel on these standardized tests...but at what cost?  We test students in all content areas along with DIBELS (timed fluency, accuracy, and retell one minute assessments) and DAZE (timed comprehension cloze reading assessments).  Now we will be administering a more rigorous and extensive state-wide test in the state of Indiana. 
     I try to help encourage my students to feel confident and relaxed during all of this testing by practicing released items, so they have a since of what it will be like.
  

This summer started out with some needed R & R and some summer time fun...but I've also been very busy finishing the supplemental materials for our new reading series ~ Reading Wonders.  We survived the first year which was very challenging for our students and teachers, but the amazing and wonderful news is: OUR STANDARDIZED STATE TEST SCORES WERE AMAZING ACROSS THE ENTIRE TOWNSHIP.

We had concerned parents when reading test grades at the beginning of the year plummeted for classroom assessments, but we worked collaboratively with our grade level teams and found ways to support all learners.  We also decided to create ways for parents to become more involved.  Not all of our families have Internet access, so I created weekly reading bookmarks.

Students needed guided practice with the daily assignments, so I created the trifolds that were similar to what we used with our old series.  I also found that I wanted a weekly overview of all the tested vocabulary as well as enrichment vocabulary that my students would encounter in the text.  So I created those pages as well. 

I'm excited to share those with my fellow teachers who will be using this series next year.  All of these items are available at a very low price in my TeachersPayTeachers Store.  You can buy 10 homework bookmarks, 5 comprehension trifolds, 5 sets of vocabulary cards, and 5 weeks of vocabulary overviews for only $5.00.  You may also want to buy the entire semester or year as a bundle and save money.  The entire year is only $24 for all 6 units. 

Our parents loved the weekly homework bookmarks to help support and guide their child at home each week.  The comprehension trifolds were an awesome way to help build skills and have another way to record a quality assessment grade.  Hopefully you will find these useful in your classroom.

     I found this picture on Facebook about a month ago, and thought it would make a great writing prompt.  I began a Google search of additional images of super squirrels and found many more. I then began creating a slideshow of images, and a short story line began to develop.  I also found several cute squirrel videos in my Facebook news feed.  I began another Google search for YouTube videos of squirrels.  Putting all the elements together was a lot of fun.  I was sure I had created a lesson that would really inspired my kids to write for days and days. 
     I showed my "Super Squirrel" slideshow during ISTEP TESTING WEEK.  My students laughed and giggled and asked to see it again and again. 
     Finally, I asked students to plan their super squirrel writing.  The room was "a buzz" with excitement.  I encouraged them to share their ideas with a partner or small group...and ask for suggestions from their peers, if they were stuck on any part of their story.  The writing began the next day, and students wrote amazing stories.

YouTube Video Links to use with slideshow.

Besides the obvious recharging and relaxing those first few weeks of summer break, teachers spend time planning for the next school year. I've been working on new items to share with my colleagues and use in my classroom.  I'm always trying to find ways to improve my teaching and reach more students.  One of my biggest frustration has been students not mastering the same language skills year after year.  After teaching second grade for 16 years and moving to fourth grade, I noticed that students struggled to retain skills taught in previous years and even skills taught earlier in the semester.

     Most reading/language arts series introduce a new grammar/language skills every 2 weeks with little or no spiral review until the next school year.  I was determined to find or create a product that had a built in spiral review of language/grammar skills. This year was my first year to try out a "Weekly Language Review" with my students. I had my first “Ah Hah!” moment when 2 of my students said…. “Subjects and Predicts are easy!”. 

     Learning a new skill and successfully transferring that knowledge to long term memory requires a great deal of repetition.  This product provides many opportunities for review.  I used this product daily in my classroom as morning work.  I projected the page on the dry erase board and went over the answers with my class – Monday – Thursday.  We used the language skill pages from our reading series as well. This took about 30 minutes of our language arts block.  The rest of our language arts block was devoted to 6 Traits mini-lessons and writing time.  This Weekly Language Review also included many opportunities for students to improve their vocabulary by looking up words in the dictionary or thesaurus.  I wrote a grant for electronic dictionaries, so my students would want to look up all the new words they encounter in text and/or to improve their word choice by using the thesaurus button on the same device.

    I watched my students gain confidence with their writing and language arts skills week after week.  I was also excited to see them become resourceful (looking up words without being prompted) and retaining grammar skills taught from the beginning to end of the school year.

     I shared these results with my colleagues.  Now I've created a 2nd & 3rd grade version of the Weekly Language Review as well.  I've linked both versions below.  Next, I'll be working on a 5th grade version.