Go Make a Difference
Tonight’s post is just a little reminder. Your story matters. Your teaching matters. Take a minute and remember why you joined the profession in the first place. Do you remember? I do. I… Continue reading
Category Archive: standardized tests
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Talking with Taylor Mali + a Giveaway
On a tough day in the classroom, all of us have turned to Taylor Mali‘s poem “What Teachers Make” for some solace. Last month Taylor published a book, What Teachers Make: In Praise… Continue reading
Writing Territories + Test Prompt Writing
One of the causes of anxiety regarding the writing prompt, is the unknown. We don’t know what genre students will be asked to write. We don’t know the topic. Test situations are stressful… Continue reading
Releasing Teachers’ Individual Performance Assessments Does Nothing to Strengthen Teaching
Last Friday New York City released the individual performance assessments for 18,000 elementary and middle school teachers in New York City. While teachers have long known how they’ve been “ranked” based on their… Continue reading
“Test Prep”
This post has been marinating in my mind for awhile now. I made myself promise it to you last week to make sure I would actually write it. I need to write it.… Continue reading
Remember This…
I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming standardized test. I have a whole post percolating about it, but because it’s late and I’m completely worn out — in six schools, with seven… Continue reading
Common Core + Students’ Needs
Much of my time this school year has been devoted to studying Common Core Standards, as well as keeping up with the ever-changing discussion about the PARCC assessment. I’ve been thinking about the… Continue reading
How do you know?
Often when I’m working with teachers, I get the question: How do you know? This can be in response to a number of things: minilesson ideas, conference teaching points, share sessions, anchor charts,… Continue reading
Standardized Writing Prompts
In Indiana, many students will be taking the state writing test next week. So I’ve been thinking about what is most important for our young writers to know prior to taking the standardized… Continue reading
Where are we running?
“Race to Nowhere” is a documentary that has been talked about, but has not been widely advertised like “Waiting for Superman” was earlier this year. From what I’ve heard, “Race to Nowhere” is… Continue reading
An Education Reform Article Worth Reading
Everywhere I turn these days, I seem to be faced with another article about education reform. From Time Magazine to The New York Times, it seems everyone is covering education a lot more… Continue reading
Best Practices and Tests CAN Go Together
This week’s guest blog post is written by Lynnelle Snowbarger who is in her tenth year of teaching fifth grade in the Jenks Public Schools. A frequent participant in the Slice of Life… Continue reading
Standardized Testing + Workshop
Today I administered “The Sequel” of Indiana’s standardized test to a small group of sixth graders. This portion was all multiple choice. Last month was the first round of the test where students… Continue reading
More on Standardized Testing.
Have you read the comments to this post? If not, you should scroll through. You’ll find a slew of emotions. It is well worth checking out — especially Ryan’s comment, where he shares… Continue reading
The Most Important Thing about Taking a Standardized Test
So check this little conversation from Saturday morning. It’s starring my second grade daughter and me: H: So, Mom, are you impressed by my test scores? Me: What? H: Those are my NWEA… Continue reading
Teacher Compensation & Standardized Test Scores
Last week I began reading Steven L. Layne’s Igniting a Passion for Reading: Successful Strategies for Building Lifetime Readers (2009). By the time I finished page five, I had a highlighter and a… Continue reading
Do You Ever Wonder If Kids Have Time to Wonder Anymore?
This past summer Pam Munoz Ryan, author of two of my favorite read aloud books (i.e., Becoming Naomi Leon and Esperanza Rising) spoke at the TCRWP Writing Institute. Her speech, “Reading to Write,… Continue reading
Testing Demands and Writing Workshop
Literacy Spark asked: Do you have to deal with testing in writing…if not how would you deal with? I’m trying to teach it as an immersion genre, like everything else but I’m meeting… Continue reading
Better Written Responses
As some of you know, one of my colleagues and I put the finishing touches on a p.d. we’re doing, later this week, yesterday afternoon. One of the things we spent some time… Continue reading
Students and Standardized Tests
MOteacher’s comment on Ruth’s post last night reminded me of those demoralized kids and the children I used to spend countless hours preparing for City and State Tests. MOteacher wrote: “Once talk of… Continue reading