Help Students Prepare for State Testing with a Simulation Day (EP 30)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Elementary Math Chat!

Well, we are officially in the month of March, which means I’m sure you have one thing on your mind besides spring break, of course, and that is state testing. It really does creep up on you, doesn’t it? I remember coming back from spring break and immediately having to go into full test prep mode. I’m sure you’re probably in a similar state of mind. So, I am dedicating the entire month of March to helping you prepare for state testing.

This week, I’ll share what I did in the really early stages of test prep. Next week, I’ll share what I did the week before state testing. The following week, I’ll share what I did on the last day of test prep, and spoiler alert, it’s a Glow Day, and I will give you all the details about that. And then the final episode in this series is about what you can do on the days after state testing.

Let’s get started with the beginning stages of test prep. The first week of April was when I would plan a test simulation day, and this was kind of like a trial run. The purpose of this day was for one to get out their jitters because they’re always a little nervous in the beginning. It was also a chance for them to ask all the questions that they had about state testing, like how long am I going to have for each test, and how many questions are going to be on the test. It also gave them a chance to practice taking a test.

The most important thing though, was it gave me data, and that way I knew what I needed to focus on in the weeks ahead. So, even though I still had a few lessons left to teach at this point, I did find it helpful to get this test a few weeks in advance.

Now, if you don’t currently do some sort of practice test, I would make sure to plan on doing this because you know, even though they are used to taking tests, state testing is a whole different ballgame. There are rules that apply to state testing that don’t necessarily apply to your classroom tests, and this will give you a chance to address all of that.

So, the first thing I did on this test simulation day was to discuss these special rules. And it’s funny, when I was looking back at my slides, I just had all of these things listed like don’t do this, don’t do this, you can’t do this. So, I went back through these and reworded them into much friendlier terms, and I turned them into a fun little PowerPoint presentation. You guys can download this for free as both an editable PowerPoint presentation and as printable PDF posters. And so now these rules are worded like you can’t do this, so do this instead.

For example, one of the rules is you can’t get out of your seat during the test. So, instead, raise your hand and I’ll bring you what you need. This one also reminds them to use the restroom during breaks because they won’t be able to get up during the test.

Another special rule says that you can’t draw or doodle on your scratch paper when finished. That was just my personal rule, not really a state rule. Instead, spend your time checking over any questions that you flagged as difficult. I really tried to encourage them to do this. But you know, some would prefer to just stare at the clock rather than going back through the test. That used to bother me, but I realized over the years, some students just need to be done when they’re done, and that’s okay.

Maybe they’re afraid they’ll second guess themselves and change an answer that was correct to be incorrect. Or maybe it’s a coping strategy. It’s like they’re saving up their energy to be able to complete multiple tests in one day. As long as they answered every question and I felt like they gave their personal best throughout the test, I learned to just let it go and not get upset if they didn’t go back and check their answers. I may have been just a little disappointed, but I couldn’t be upset.

After I finished going through these special rules, we then went through all of the what-if scenarios, you know, what if their pencil breaks? What if they feel sick? What if they have to use the restroom during the test? What if they can’t stop coughing? What if there are only a few minutes left and they have a lot of questions they haven’t answered? What if they realize they accidentally skipped a question when they bubbled their answers?

These are things that can often happen during your state test, and you want them to know exactly what they should do if something like this happens. So, that’s what we did. We went through each situation, and we talked about what they should do if something like that happened. Of course, they had their own what-if questions and so I answered those as well, and then we moved on to reviewing test-taking strategies.

My focus was mainly on multiple-choice questions because I knew the test was all going to be multiple-choice, and those can be tricky. Sometimes I think it’s easier to write in the correct answer instead of going through and selecting the correct answer.

I’ll do a quick run-through of the five strategies that I reviewed that day, and the first one I’m sure you’ve heard of it is slash the trash. It’s just a fun way of saying eliminate wrong answers. This one is especially important if they are unsure of their answer and also as they work through multiple-select questions.

My second strategy was to help them if they ever got stuck. Sometimes a question might be worded differently than they’re used to, or they don’t understand what the problem is asking. So, in those cases, I always told them to use what you do know, to figure out what you don’t know, especially when it was a word problem.

For these, I found it helpful to model my thinking out loud. So, let’s say I’m the student and I’m struggling with a multiplicative comparison problem about the weight of cats versus dogs. This would be my thought process.

Okay, I read the problem, but I’m not sure if I should multiply or divide, and both answers are listed as choices. I see the word times, and that usually does mean multiply. But if I multiply these two numbers, that means the cat would be 500 pounds, and that doesn’t make sense. If I divide the numbers, then the cat would weigh five pounds, and that makes much more sense. So, I think I need to use division.

So, that’s a good example of how they can use what they do know about the story and about the weight of cats to figure out what they don’t know, which is what operation to choose.

If that didn’t work, and it had been a few minutes, then I just told them to take their best guess and move on. That is hard for some of them. Some of them want to sit there and try to figure it out, but it’s better for them to get one question wrong than to not finish the test and get all of those unanswered questions wrong.

So, I always reminded them not to spend too much time on one question. Just take your best guess and move on.

And then the third thing to do when you’re stuck, and this is important, put a little question mark by the ones you are unsure of. This is so helpful because chances are they’ll finish early and they’ll have time to go back and revisit those questions. It’s not always practical to think that they’re going to have time to go back through every single question, and that’s just not necessary. But they can go back and revisit the ones that had a question mark on them.

So, if they get stuck, take your best guess and move on. But put a little question mark by it so you can come back to it if you have time.

The third strategy I reviewed is probably the most important one, and this one is to be aware of distractors. When the imposter game was popular a few years ago, we had a little fun with it and we called the distractors imposters because they were trying to look like the correct answer. They thought that was kind of fun.

We had talked about distractors before, and they knew what they were, but I reminded them that every single multiple-choice question will have a distractor. I even took this a step further and we practiced coming up with distractors. So, for example, if the problem was 1/4 + 2/4, what would be a good distractor? Well, you know, 3/8 is going to be on there, because that would be adding the numerators and adding the denominators.

Or if the problem was 2 x 3/5, a common distractor would be 5/5. Again, these are really tricky because they’re common mistakes, so it’s really important for them to read every single answer choice before they select their final answer. Even when they feel confident because I think distractors can make students feel confident. They trick them into feeling this way.

The fourth strategy I reviewed that day was to show your work. So many of them try and use mental math because they think it’s easier or quicker. But what they don’t realize is that this often takes longer than just writing it down. Plus, it’s so easy to lose track of your thinking when you’re trying to solve it mentally, so it’s best just to use either the scratch paper or the test booklet to work out the problem.

The fifth strategy I reviewed that day was when they were finished, I wanted them to go back to the questions that they marked with the question mark, because they flagged those as being difficult, and rework those problems if necessary.

Once they went through all of those questions, then I just had them double-check that their bubbles matched up with what they circled on the test. If they circled D in their test packet, then they should be bubbling in D. If they circled C they should be bubbling in C. So, those are the things I recommended that they do when they were finished.

These discussions were my whole group lesson for the day, and I’d say it took a good 30 to 35 minutes to get through them. After that, it was time for them to apply everything we discussed and take their practice test.

Now, this practice test was one that my district provided, and it was a really similar format to the state test. It had a bubble sheet. It was broken down into three different sub-parts. It had the stop and go symbols at the bottom. They were able to use a calculator on one section, and I also gave them scratch paper and paper rulers just like they would have on the actual day. I didn’t want there to be any surprises, so I tried to make this feel as real as possible.

The most important thing I did that day was to time them. I wanted them to have a true understanding of how much time they would have. For most of them, this was not an issue. They were used to working pretty quickly. But for others who felt like they had all the time in the world, they did not finish this practice test when the time was up.

Now, I did let them finish because I wanted their data, but this was a good learning experience for them to realize that they can’t zone out, and they can’t take too much time on one question. They have to keep going or else they may not finish, and it’s okay to make these mistakes on the practice test as long as you learn from them. That’s the whole point of doing a practice test. So, I never made them feel bad about not finishing, but I wanted them to be prepared so it wouldn’t happen again.

So, in the end, this test simulation day helped calm their nerves. It helped prepare them for what the test and what the setting would be like. It gave me the opportunity to review important reminders and strategies specific to state testing. Probably the most important thing was it gave me a sense of who and what I needed to focus on for the weeks to come, and that is where I will pick up next week.

In part two, I will tell you exactly what I did the week before state testing, and how I use the data from this practice test to help me plan out my whole group lessons, my small group activities, and even what would be on their choice boards. So, make sure you tune in next week for part two.

But, before I let you go, I’ve got a really great Teaching Tip of the Week to share.

Today I want to share with you guys my go-to time-filler. It’s really a simple game where they try to guess the word that is written on the board behind them. So, I always call it the “Guess My Word Game.”

The person who’s trying to guess the word stands up in front of the room, and they have to make sure that their back is facing the board, so they can’t see the word. From there, you just pick a word to write on the board, and then the guessing game begins. It does make it a little easier for them to guess if you pick a theme, so I recommend that you do so; maybe a holiday theme, or a subject, or a seasonal theme.

So, let’s say the theme is summer, and the word written on the board is baseball. The rest of the students who can see the word baseball try to think of a one-word clue that would help their friend guess the word. But it has to be one word, and it can’t be part of the word, like it can’t be base in this example.

Let’s say Johnny is the person standing up trying to guess the word. He then calls on one student at a time to give him a clue about the word baseball. So, let’s say that it’s Brianne who gives Johnny the clue that helps him get the word baseball. Breanne then gets to take his place and tries to guess the next word, and now Johnny gets to write the word on the board for the next round, and this cycle continues for as long as you have time to play.

The first time you try this you might want to write the words yourself, and then after they see how it works, you can have them create their own words. But usually, when I first started this, I would be the one writing the words each time, so that’s just something to consider.

What I really love about this game, and I know you will too, is it is quiet, and they are so engaged. They will beg you to play this again and again. So, hopefully, this comes in handy when you need a good time filler.

Well, that is all for today’s episode. Thank you so much for being here. Have an awesome week, and I will see you next Tuesday for part two of our test prep series.