Try This to Boost Student Test Performance
Explain your classroom findings to teachers and why this is such an important element of instruction. Then show them this simple three-part system to make it a regular part of their planning and teaching.
Step 1: Ask teachers to craft three or four ideal student responses beforehand that utilize the target nouns in academic-sounding sentences. Teachers often plan their questions, so this is just an extension of that. By having several “model” answers to serve as benchmarks, teachers will be more conscious of pushing students to craft these types of answers.
Step 2: At the outset of the lesson, the teacher and students review, pronounce and define the target nouns in the objective or standard. Teachers then instruct students that these are the words that must be used in their responses.
Step 3: Take two minutes at the end of the lesson or assignment to review the target nouns and assess whether they were utilized consistently by both teacher and students. This helps students to learn to review their work –another critical test-taking behavior.
It’s not too late! Getting teachers to focus on the simple changes we are detailing in this series have shown to make immediate improvements in student outcome data.
If you know that the students or teachers on your campus need a little extra Push! before the testing window opens, we offer on-site training and coaching support to schools like yours all over the United States.
If you want new results, teachers need new skills. The time is now!
