State Assessment Prep already?

image by gcouros

It's that time of year again, state assessment prep....I hate this time of year and I know you do too but it's part of teaching (hopefully not forever). However, like the quote above states, you've got to change up how you are doing something if you want different results. That made we want to share some tips I have had success with over the years when preparing my students for the state assessment.  I hope they help you out too.

I recommend starting by reviewing the KCA tutorial with students, best way to do this is giving them practice CETE tests via the TestBuilder throughout the year. If you haven't started doing that, it's never too late.

·          

     Test prep strategies:

o   Scanning Practice 

o   Critical Reader

·         Reading Activities:

o  Time for Kids Article & the highlighter tool in Word

o   Review questions from stories in TFK with the Quiz document

o   Labette County Resources by Grade level  then subject 

o   Reading Comprehension activities 

o   Reading Matrix Comprehension Beginner Practice

o   Reading Matrix Comprehension Intermediate Practice

o   Reading Matrix Comprehension Advanced Practice
Reading online text

§  Story with Questions

§  Reading text online

§  Story (Grade 5) with Questions

o   Reading Lessons 

o   Fact/Opinion

o   Drawing Conclusions

o   Main Idea 

o   Author’s Purpose

§  matching game 

§  Author"s Purpose & Point of View Practice

o   Activity Search based on Content Area  
o   Practice Assessment, 4th grade
    Sequence Assessment  

·         Math Activities:

o   Great site to practice reading math problems online 

o   Basic Calculator practice site http://www.math.com/students/calculators/source/basic.htm

o   Labette County Resources by Grade level then subject 

o   Math Operations practice

o   Practice Assessment
   4^th grade
  3-5th grade

o   Brain Teasers
    3^rd grade

     4th grade 
    5^th grade 

o   Online tools

Illuminations Math tools

Graph Creator

3^rd grade 

4th grade

5^th grade 

o   Math games based on Kansas standards
Math Lessons

A Little Embarrassed, But Still Sharing Cool Tools

I am a little embarrassed that I haven't posted a blog until now but I do have a great excuse, her name is Maeve Elizabeth Gridley and she came into this wonderful world on Oct. 13th. We just love her and enjoy being her parents, we count our blessings every day.

Ok, enough about that lets get down to business. I have several tools I want to share with you:

Tempinbox is a site that allows you to create a temporary email address to help you avoid spam but I am suggesting that my teachers use it as a way to create student accounts that the teacher can manage for those web2.0 tools that make you have an email address to use them.

 OpenClipArt is a site that is full of free clip art for anyone to use anywhere free of copyright rules. YEAH! I love this site for my teachers and their students to use without having to worry about copyright violations.

Stixy is a site similar to WallWisher that allows you to create an online spot for collaboration. I have seen teachers use this site to share web resources with students, as well as photos and documents. You don't have to have an account to post to a stixy page but you do need one to create a stixy.

Googlios is another tool from Google (hope that is a little obvious due to the name) I am sharing it with apprehension because I haven't use it yet. It is Googles version of a digital portfolio, and I think it has potential but I am not sure that it's worth the work at the elementary level. Here are some examples of college students using it.

Hope you found at least one tool you hadn't heard of before and can use in your classroom tomorrow.