It's not often I miss teaching 7th graders. There were a few times this week when that happened.
Monday and Tuesday- I gave my kids the 2015 Released test as a benchmark. Very few didn't finish within these 2 days and had to continue working during study skills.
Wednesday and Thursday- We went over the test. Every question. Not in as much excruciating detail as I would have liked, but as much as I could with the 2 days I had budgeted.
When all was said and done, I had a 32% pass rate (by the new standard progression passing % put into place this year). This percentage doesn't take into account the 13 (yes, 13!) special ed kids who, despite my greatest hopes, are not likely to pass.
It's alarming, yes. But it's something to go on. When calculated using last year's passing standard, 55% passed. Yes, that's 23% of my students who are within 3 questions of passing. Crazy.
Friday- Fresh off of my feelings of inadequacy and absolute defeat, I pulled out my best acronym creating game. I wanted the kids to have a useful, easy to remember strategy to have them approach these questions like a scientist. Here's what I came up with.
H- Highlight the question (and underline/circle/star key words)
A- read your Answer choices (all of them!, even if they don't yet make sense)
P- read the Paragraph (STAAR is fond of their paragraphs)
P- Paraphrase the question
I- Illustrate (or read over the pictures they give you)
E- Eliminate bad answer choices (opinion words, always, all , never, none)
R- Re-Read the question (and plug your answer back in to verify, kind of like in math)
I spent Friday doing practice problems with this method, and they LOVED IT. They felt so much better having a game plan, and I could see improvement already. I'm now excited to move forward and see them (hopefully) flourish.
Fingers crossed for a smooth 4-week review.
~Ms. Kat
Monday and Tuesday- I gave my kids the 2015 Released test as a benchmark. Very few didn't finish within these 2 days and had to continue working during study skills.
Wednesday and Thursday- We went over the test. Every question. Not in as much excruciating detail as I would have liked, but as much as I could with the 2 days I had budgeted.
When all was said and done, I had a 32% pass rate (by the new standard progression passing % put into place this year). This percentage doesn't take into account the 13 (yes, 13!) special ed kids who, despite my greatest hopes, are not likely to pass.
It's alarming, yes. But it's something to go on. When calculated using last year's passing standard, 55% passed. Yes, that's 23% of my students who are within 3 questions of passing. Crazy.
Friday- Fresh off of my feelings of inadequacy and absolute defeat, I pulled out my best acronym creating game. I wanted the kids to have a useful, easy to remember strategy to have them approach these questions like a scientist. Here's what I came up with.
H- Highlight the question (and underline/circle/star key words)
A- read your Answer choices (all of them!, even if they don't yet make sense)
P- read the Paragraph (STAAR is fond of their paragraphs)
P- Paraphrase the question
I- Illustrate (or read over the pictures they give you)
E- Eliminate bad answer choices (opinion words, always, all , never, none)
R- Re-Read the question (and plug your answer back in to verify, kind of like in math)
I spent Friday doing practice problems with this method, and they LOVED IT. They felt so much better having a game plan, and I could see improvement already. I'm now excited to move forward and see them (hopefully) flourish.
Fingers crossed for a smooth 4-week review.
~Ms. Kat
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