Hi there, I am just reading a perfect book on exactly this topic. "Put Thinking to the Test" by Lori L. Conrad, Missy Matthews, Cheryl Zimmerman and Patrick A. Allen. The forward is written by Ellin Oliver Keene which should tell you a quality book is to follow. The book talks about treating tests as a specific genre just as Pauline suggested in the post below. Here is a quote from the book to give you an idea:
"Strategic, active, flexible thinking occurs as learners make specific decisions to understand - especially when they negotiate the particular demands imposed by high-stakes, standardized tests." Pauline has hit the nail on the head. It does not mean you need to abandon the great teaching you are doing now but just to teach children ways to apply the strategies they are learning in a testing context. In Ellin's words "children can gradually learn to think like effective test takers - throughout the year." Another book you might like to read is "Strategies That Work" by Harvey and Goudvis. They have a chapter on teaching testing as a genre and how to apply the comprehension strategies we know readers need to use. This is an all round excellent book on teaching comprehension strategies. And just an observation about being data driven - this is not such a bad thing as long as the data is used strategically!! We need to use data (although of course not just testing) to tell us what our individual students already know and to tell us about their next step. If you are doing this, talk to your administrators about how you are using the data to inform your teaching. For Reader's Workshop to be successful, you need to be able to identify the needs of each of your students and work from there (especially comprehension strategies). I can't stress enough how important this is in developing your students' skills. How wonderful that other teachers are noticing that your students are engaged and forming a reading community! Now take it the next step and really find out what each of your students need to learn and go from there. Keep strong! Lynette Sent from my iPad On 24/02/2012, at 8:19 PM, Pauline K Nagle <pknagle...@gmail.com> wrote: > I would suggest teaching test taking as a genre, a type of reading that has > a specific structure and way to comprehend it. Lucy Calkins has a good > book about this, but I can't recall the name. I will find the title and > send it to you. I think students need to learn how to tackle the text and > how to handle the type of questions, and this must be taught as a skill set > and practiced. But it does not need to take over your reader's workshop or > reading instruction. You just need to teach how the comprehension skills > they use in their independent reading texts can be applied on an excerpt > and how the questions are asked. > > On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 6:58 PM, evelia cadet <cadeteve...@hotmail.com>wrote: > >> >> >> >> >> As I have said before, this is the first year I am following the Reader's >> Workshop model. My district does not follow/support reader's workshop. I >> am lucky to have the freedom in my school to use any teaching structure I >> want. Out of almost 70 teachers, only 2 teachers in my school are doing >> reader's workshop. We are trying to convert the other teachers in our >> campus. They are noticing how our students are engaged in reading and are >> forming a reading community that is extending outside the classroom. >> However, people in my school are data driven (specifically standardized >> testing data), and they will not consider any instructional method, unless >> there is tangible evidence they drive results (standardized state testing). >> Ok, this was just the introduction, here is my concern. My students >> seemed to be enjoying reading and they are showing evidence of >> understanding/applying the comprehension strategies/skills we are working >> on in class. Nevertheless, when they take one of those practice test we >> are required to give, everything seems to go downhills. It is like they >> are unable to transfer what we are learning with authentic literature to >> the context of the test. I honestly don't know what to do. I know there >> are people in my school, including some in the administration, waiting to >> see what impact reader's workshop has on test results. Any ideas or >> advices. HELP!!!!!! Thank you. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Mosaic mailing list >> Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org >> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >> http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org >> >> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
