Hello darlings! Amy here from That Teaching Spark! These past few weeks my fellow bloggers have been giving you as many ideas and resources we could think of to get you ready for your State Test. Check back through these previous posts for more ideas!
This post is ALL ABOUT THAT TECH! What ONLINE resources do you use to prepare your students for testing? Let me know in the comments!
Because most of us are required to do testing online, I decided to share the resources I use to prepare my students for the Missouri MAP Test. We use the SBAC but it is very similar to PARCC. I hope you can take away something NEW from this post!!
MODEL, MODEL, MODEL
I DO NOT send my students off to computers and make them take these test and then say to myself, "Oh yay! We practiced!" That is silly! One HUGE component of this testing "thing" is teaching them the tools and HOW to take it. I do a TON of modeling and I follow "I do, We do, You do," with them. That means, I have these programs projected and we work through a lot of it together. Then I beg borrow and steal (if necessary LOL) computers and students practice in partners, AND FINALLY they try it out for themselves. Since I don't have enough computers for them each to try at the same time, I set up Test Prep rotations.
Where do I get my resources?
Here ya go, you amazing teacher you!
1. PARCC Practice Tests in ELA and Math from Pearson
If you use PARCC, I'm sure you already use this to prep! For all of us nonPARCCers, this is really well done and very similar to the questions found in SBAC. There are three different tests for each.
2. Prodigy Play Math Prep
OMG! I am in LOVE with Prodigy even more because they have added TEST PREP for math! (Dear Prodigy, could you make an ELA version? Sincerely, Amy) If you haven't heard of Prodigy, your students are missing out! Watch this video to see how to use the TEST PREP!
This is what students see. They create little avatar wizards and then battle through lands that they unlock. They even earn pets that can have powers! They unlock and earn power ups by answering question correctly. You can assign the skills or have the game do it for you!
You can assign test prep for YOUR STATE!
This is the site we use to practice with in Missouri. You can log on using the username and password they provide. It contains math and ELA. Just click on the right hand side for summative and then choose Grade 3. You can then choose the subject. This will allow you to answer questions using the crazy methods they are expecting students to answer with, ie highlighting, clicking and dragging, selecting words in a paragraph, ordering sentences, and the crazy way they have to click to get to the next page of text.
4. Edcite.com ELA and Math online Practice
Edcite is a tech site that teachers can create their own online tests and quizzes. The tests and quizzes are then uploaded to an assignment library and all teachers can use them! Thank you to those teachers, because I have been using this in my rotations like crazy! There are video tutorials of how to set up your class and assign "assignments."
If the answers are multiple choice, it will grade it for you. Some have mixed in constructed response. If that is the case, I have students raise their hand when they are ready for me to grade it and I go read it right then.
Frontrowed is awesome and can be used free when you complete one assignment at a time. If you want to have more assignments or view the data, you have to pay. I still use this for practice just like I would a skill sheet that I'm not collecting. It is the best FREE thing I have found for ELA that is motivating for students because they can earn coins.
Want to see how I motivate my students for testing? Want lessons ideas, anchor charts, and activities to get ready for testing? Check out this blog post on my blog!
I hope you were able to take away at least ONE idea from this post! Good luck with your state testing and remember YOU are more than your students' scores!
Happy testing!
No comments
Post a Comment