Try This to Boost Student Test Performance
Explain your classroom findings to teachers. Ask them to make the use of complete sentences a priority. To do this, it helps if teachers:
Post a notice to themselves somewhere in the room to require complete sentences. This means every sentence, every day. I simple printed sign on colored paper will catch the eye and remind them of their new behavior.
See a tally of complete versus incomplete sentences, just like the assessment you performed when you visited classrooms. Monitor classrooms again and leave the index card with tallies for the teacher to see how they are doing with this specific goal.
Involve students in listening for complete sentences. Teach them a non-verbal gesture they can use to signal when a peer doesn’t answer using complete sentences. It now becomes a fun challenge to avoid one-and two-word answers.
It’s not too late! Getting teachers to focus on this simple change as well as the others we will cover in this weekly 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!
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