Thank's for the heads up on the TEST TALK book. It is on its way to me as I
write this. I am very interested in it after all the good comments I have read.
I thought I would share some ideas about test prep that I used in the past
that brought good results. I am currently at a middle school but a few years
back I was the reading resource teacher at an elementary school and we had low
scores on the Wisconsin Third Grade Reading Test. My principal wanted a test
prep program and there weren't many resources at the time. I came up with a
format that worked well and we saw a rise in scores (not totally do to test
prep though, I sure). Here are some of the components that I think made it
work. I think you'll see they are just good teaching principals, too. We
started with the prep right in the Fall of the year, the test was given in
March. I met once a month in each class room and team taught with the
classroom teacher. The lesson would be about an hour in length. Each lesson
was built around one strategy. This was an introduction and then the teachers
would reinforce the strategy throughout the year. The strategy would be
everything from managing stress to how to be careful of distracters in the test
choices. We would review the strategies we discussed previously and then
introduce the new one. The teacher and I would have a conversation that
modeled our thinking when we ourselves took a test emphasizing the strategy.
We would then have a piece of reading, authentic text (a real book or story)
and have some questions that were in the same format as the test they would be
taking. Students would read the story and we would practice the strategy and
they would finish the questions. One of the important parts was that students
were given feedback about how they did using the strategy right away and they
graphed the results themselves to keep track of their own progress. We would
discuss with individual students about how the strategy worked for them, so
they were able to debrief and reflect on the process. Because we stretched it
through the year it just became part of the routine. Most the strategies
transferred to other situations so they weren't wasting the student's time and
could transfer to other learning. Modeling, practice, feedback,
self-monitoring, and reflection is what made it work, I think.
Kay Kuenzl-Stenerson
Literacy Coach
Merrill Middle School
When you're finished changing, you're finished.
Benjamin Franklin
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Sent: Thu 4/3/2008 11:00 AM
To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org
Subject: Mosaic Digest, Vol 20, Issue 3
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Today's Topics:
1. TEST talk (Kelli Thexton)
2. Re: Test Talk (Keith Mack)
3. Re: Test Talk (Ljackson)
4. Re: TEST Talk (corrected title) (Ljackson)
5. Re: Text Talk? (Ljackson)
6. Re: Text Talk? (Susan Cronk)
7. Re: NWEA MAP (Paula)
8. Re: NWEA MAP (Paula)
9. Re: Text Talk? (Laura Cannon)
10. Re: NWEA MAP (Paula)
11. Re: Test Talk ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
12. Re: NWEA MAP (Zey, Melissa)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 11:10:52 -0600
From: "Kelli Thexton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [MOSAIC] TEST talk
To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Ooops!
My mistake! The book I read was TEST talk, not Text Talk! Sorry
for the confusion with the Isabell Beck book, Bringing Words to
Life, which talk about Text Talk!
Kelli
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:41:54 -0700
From: "Keith Mack" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Test Talk
To: "'Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group'"
<mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
It'd be interesting to hear some "post test" data and anecdotal evidence
from those of you that have read or are going to use this book.
Of course everyone's concerned about the scores and AYP, but I often think
some of the "attitudinal" (ahem, "soft") data would be very interesting.
Are kids able to deal better with stress of testing?
Do strategies from the book help students "attack" content better?
What are teachers seeing in their classrooms that is different?
Keith Mack
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.literacyworkshop.org <http://www.literacyworkshop.org/>
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 12:14:12 -0600
From: Ljackson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Test Talk
To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED], Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension
Strategies Email Group" <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
You will have to give us a year to answer that question. I do know this. In
one of our very troubled schools (where data just can't get less friendly), the
3-6 staff and I developed a very different 3-week test genre unit (prior to
having this book in hand). Through a series of mini lessons, we talked about
different kinds of testing, what a standardized test is, how test data is used
and who it matters to. We also examined different test questions to see if we
could find clues as to the kind of thinking that might be required of students
(literal, synthesis, inferential, etc.). We used a sample vocabulary question
as shared reading and demonstrated daily strategies to use to support our
thinking about unfamiliar words, along with the old standby of process of
elimination and when all else fails, guess. We are just in the testing window
and here is what has been observed. Less flippancy, no refusals and what
appears to be a more concerted effort with the testing. Only time will tell...
Lori Jackson
District Literacy Coach and Mentor
Todd County School District
Box 87
Mission SD 5755
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