A Peek at My Week - Last Week Before Testing

The last week before STAAR testing is finally here.  That means the last week of staying later than usual for after school tutorials - yay!  That's a definite positive, although a negative of this week is that we were supposed to have Friday off.  But Houston actually had 2 ice days this winter, and we have to make them both up.  Oh well, that means one extra day to review before testing, right? :)

For this week, I am actually really excited about a product I found on TPT to help review for the reading test.

It's made by Teacher Trap, and it is one of my favorite things I've ever bought on TPT.  It is really going to help kids analyze the structure of the Reading test and its questions.  I also love the last couple activities that will be like a last minute "pep talk" for my kids.  As you can tell from the cover, one of the activities involves using the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" and comparing it to being a good test taker.  Such a simple idea, but something I had never thought of before - genius!

Along with activities from this unit, I also plan on continuing to review some of the skills that show up on the test the most - summarizing, context clues, and making inferences.  One new product I found for context clues is this one by Logical Lex:

I already blogged about some of the other products I'm using to review the other skills {here}.

I've also already written a lot about how we're reviewing for the Math STAAR using a math scrimmage game.  You can read more about that {here}.  It is hands down the most motivational math test review I've ever done with a class.  They absolutely love it!  

And what I'm most excited for this week is the fun testing dress code our school is implementing based on information I found at Connections Academy Blog.  Tomorrow is PJ day to remind students to get a good night's sleep the nights before testing.  I found these cute and comfy PJ's from Target this weekend that I'll be lounging around in during test prep tomorrow!

I'm linking this post up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for A Peek at my Week.

I'm off to make my salad lunches for the week (I make all 5 salads on Sunday) and watch the MTV Movie Awards.  Love a lazy Sunday!

Peek at my Week - 2 Weeks Until State Testing!

I am linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to share what I have planned for this week...with only 2 weeks to go until Texas state testing for my 4th graders, I needed to have a solid plan for every minute!

In Math, I started by creating a plan for Whole Group and Small Group review based on which objectives my students need more practice with.  Click the link to view a google doc showing how I organized my Whole Group and Small Groups review.

Math STAAR Review Groups

In the mornings, the whole class will participate in our Math Scrimmage competition that I blogged about HERE yesterday.  In the afternoons, I will use the information on the google doc to review a skill with the whole class.  Then, I will work with a couple small groups on their targeted objectives while the other kids either do fact practice, a spiral review worksheet, or STAAR task cards.  This time will be a Math Workshop, with students assigned to what they are supposed to work on.  The task cards they will be using are these by Gina Kennedy:

For Reading, I only had 9 kids fail the practice Released STAAR test we took a couple months ago.  So my main small group focus is going to be on them during the next couple of weeks.  I plan on doing a short whole group review every day.  One resource I will use during this time is these Paired Reading Selection cards by Rosie's Resources:

I will also review summarizing with the task cards from my Summarizing unit:

Then, in small groups with the 9 students who failed the benchmark, I will use various short passages with questions and task cards.  I plan on meeting with 2 groups per day (5 students in one group and 4 in the other) every day for the next two weeks.  Here are some of the task cards I plan on using:

  

So, as you can see, I have a LOT of small group time planned for this week.  Last chance to get as many students as possible over the "Passing" line for the big test!  If you teach a testing grade, how do you plan out your last couple weeks before the big day(s)?  Link up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings to share...I'd LOVE to see what others are doing!

Spark Student Motivation: Math Scrimmage

Yay!!! My class has one state test (Writing) down!  In Texas, 4th graders have a 2-day, 4-hours-each-day Writing test, and I am sooo relieved it is done.  I am also SO proud of my students because I heard from their test monitors that they were working very hard the whole time.  Nothing makes me prouder as their teacher :) *Happy Dance!!*

So that's one sigh of relief.  BUT, before I get too excited, there are still the state Reading and Math tests to prepare for...which are coming up fast in only 2 weeks!  How is a teacher supposed to keep her students motivated to work hard after just having a 2-day testing marathon?  Well, I have an answer for that, so I'm linking up with Head Over Heels for Teaching for her linky Spark Student Motivation Saturdays.

In order to prepare for the state Math test, everyone knows that a lot of spiral review is good.  But how good is it if the students aren't trying their hardest or aren't paying attention?  Enter....Math Scrimmage! Math Scrimmage is a way of turning spiral review into a group competition.  Luckily, my class is already divided into groups: Giraffes, Zebras, Crocodiles, Toucans, Lions, and Anacondas.  So I made a class chart that looks like this:

Included on the chart are places to put scores for daily scrimmages and homework, and a weekly "Game" (quiz).  The scrimmages are 10-question worksheets with review problems.  The homework includes 4 questions each night.  And the Game is a 10-question quiz with review from the whole week.  Every day, I grade students' homework and quizzes immediately and tally up the average scores for each group.  And here's one of my favorite parts: If a student doesn't show their work on any or all of the problems, they lose 10 points for their team.  However, if a student gets a 100%, they earn 10 extra points!  The winning team at the end of the week gets a special prize from me, as well as from our Dean of Instruction.  I also gave prizes to the 2nd and 3rd place teams.  I'd be happy to explain any more of the details if you have questions, but that's the gist of it.  

The important thing is, I have NEVER seen a class so motivated to show their work, take their time, and do Math review worksheets!  We did the scrimmage 2 weeks ago, but not this week because of the Writing test.  But on Thursday, after the testing was over, my students were already asking when we could do Math Scrimmage again.  When I said we'd get back to it this coming week, they literally cheered!  So needless to say, I am feeling confident that these next 2 weeks before the Math test are going to be extremely productive.

I also transferred the same idea to Reading practice.  When the kids take a reading quiz, I calculate the groups' average scores to determine a winning group.  This idea can be used for any subject.  Thank you to our school's Math Interventionist, who found this Scrimmage idea!  

On a side note, I am offering my Spring Summarizing Sort (Grades 2-4) over at my store today for FREE!  Its normal cost is $4.  Head to my Facebook page for the link if interested :)  Ladybug's Teacher Lounge

Have a fabulous Saturday!  I, for one, will finally be getting my taxes done...woohoo....!