Testing season is nigh. With the pressure to perform well, how do you maintain engaging, authentic literacy instruction? Follow up/clarifying questions also encouraged.
I think this is one of the biggest edu-myths: that if we teach to the test, then students will perform well. I like Kelly Gallagher's (?) idea of treating test-taking as a genre. For example, teachers could design comprehension assessments that might resemble a test item. Otherwise, the best test prep is still high-quality, challenging literacy instruction that guides students to think deeply about text.
The point that I want to make here is that we cannot allow "engaging, authentic literacy instruction" to become the sacrificial lamb of our test taking reality. It's not going away and so we use it as an OPPORTUNITY in small moments (or big in the case of studying actual poems on tests) to promote even more "engaging, authentic literacy instruction." It's not an either/or proposition if we are very wise and it can be a big win for kids because we could even look at those test strategies and ponder "If WE had written this test what question would WE consider to be important. What thinking do we use when we shift our thinking to test taking and how can we learn the strategies that will help us. Tests aren't going away so let's USE them for forces of good (not evil)
Another way to get the benefit from viewing tests through the lens of thinking is to take advantage of a very sad reality. Many poets such as Sara Holbrook have said that they found their poem on a test and couldn't even answer the question on their own work. How amazing would it be to interview them about that thinking and discuss the poem from that lens. While it would better to have access to the actual test question, it would be very telling for them to understand that real life thinking and test thinking do not always converge. Then we could teach them the thinking for making that flip to what test takers might be looking for. Here was the message I got from Sara: "I hate that my work is being used to torture kids.” I think it's something we have got to be aware of and lean into.
I'm sorry that I couldn't join last night but I wanted to share something that I often do with kids. The bottom line is, tests aren't going away. We could invest small bits of time by using teachable moments to DIP IN to teaching the thinking around test taking. For example AFTER we engage in an experience and do the meaningful work, on occasion I might choose to do a five minute 'test wiseness' lesson (no more than that). I say, "Sometimes this story/idea might become a test question that might look like this. If you were asked to respond to this question, what would be your answer and what thinking would help you to arrive at that response?" Test wiseness lessons require VERY little time and yet allow us to transfer the important thinking that kids need to understand without sacrificing what actually matters.
Here's a couple strategies I used that were authentic reading instruction leading to deep thinking and enhancing reading skills: 1) questions-first strategy with discussion and charting "what we know" and "what we wonder," then reading the short, grade-level text together. This led to awesome conversations and the kids LOVED the short stories we used from a book called SHOCKS! and others in the series. 2) I found that the state test sometimes used real books by real authors (and then butchered them into questions and answers the authors never intended, but that's a post for another day!) I went through all the released tests and found on Amazon the books, poems, etc. that looked interesting that my kids would read. I convinced my principal that this would be the most authentic "test prep" use of those released tests, and she purchased 6 of each. I let the kids choose their own book clubs and they read through the real books together, and discussed questions about the text. ALL students did both of these activities with the grade-level texts and discussions, and all students enjoyed it. All students also happened to do really well on the tests. This, to me, is authentic instruction that incorporates "test-prep" work.
I think this is one of the biggest edu-myths: that if we teach to the test, then students will perform well. I like Kelly Gallagher's (?) idea of treating test-taking as a genre. For example, teachers could design comprehension assessments that might resemble a test item. Otherwise, the best test prep is still high-quality, challenging literacy instruction that guides students to think deeply about text.
The point that I want to make here is that we cannot allow "engaging, authentic literacy instruction" to become the sacrificial lamb of our test taking reality. It's not going away and so we use it as an OPPORTUNITY in small moments (or big in the case of studying actual poems on tests) to promote even more "engaging, authentic literacy instruction." It's not an either/or proposition if we are very wise and it can be a big win for kids because we could even look at those test strategies and ponder "If WE had written this test what question would WE consider to be important. What thinking do we use when we shift our thinking to test taking and how can we learn the strategies that will help us. Tests aren't going away so let's USE them for forces of good (not evil)
What types of assessments have you created or observed being implemented that honor both authenticity and prepare students to be successful on tests?
Another way to get the benefit from viewing tests through the lens of thinking is to take advantage of a very sad reality. Many poets such as Sara Holbrook have said that they found their poem on a test and couldn't even answer the question on their own work. How amazing would it be to interview them about that thinking and discuss the poem from that lens. While it would better to have access to the actual test question, it would be very telling for them to understand that real life thinking and test thinking do not always converge. Then we could teach them the thinking for making that flip to what test takers might be looking for. Here was the message I got from Sara: "I hate that my work is being used to torture kids.” I think it's something we have got to be aware of and lean into.
I'm sorry that I couldn't join last night but I wanted to share something that I often do with kids. The bottom line is, tests aren't going away. We could invest small bits of time by using teachable moments to DIP IN to teaching the thinking around test taking. For example AFTER we engage in an experience and do the meaningful work, on occasion I might choose to do a five minute 'test wiseness' lesson (no more than that). I say, "Sometimes this story/idea might become a test question that might look like this. If you were asked to respond to this question, what would be your answer and what thinking would help you to arrive at that response?" Test wiseness lessons require VERY little time and yet allow us to transfer the important thinking that kids need to understand without sacrificing what actually matters.
Here's a couple strategies I used that were authentic reading instruction leading to deep thinking and enhancing reading skills: 1) questions-first strategy with discussion and charting "what we know" and "what we wonder," then reading the short, grade-level text together. This led to awesome conversations and the kids LOVED the short stories we used from a book called SHOCKS! and others in the series. 2) I found that the state test sometimes used real books by real authors (and then butchered them into questions and answers the authors never intended, but that's a post for another day!) I went through all the released tests and found on Amazon the books, poems, etc. that looked interesting that my kids would read. I convinced my principal that this would be the most authentic "test prep" use of those released tests, and she purchased 6 of each. I let the kids choose their own book clubs and they read through the real books together, and discussed questions about the text. ALL students did both of these activities with the grade-level texts and discussions, and all students enjoyed it. All students also happened to do really well on the tests. This, to me, is authentic instruction that incorporates "test-prep" work.