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Winning Strategies for Test Taking

Winning Strategies for Test Taking. Linda Denstaedt - ldenstaedt@ameritech.net Judy Cova Kelly - cova9701@yahoo.com IRA – November 30, 2009. WHAT? Sensible test preparation Effective test preparation Engaging test preparation HOW? Gamers use Cheat Codes

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Winning Strategies for Test Taking

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  1. Winning Strategies for Test Taking Linda Denstaedt - ldenstaedt@ameritech.net Judy Cova Kelly - cova9701@yahoo.com IRA – November 30, 2009

  2. WHAT? Sensible test preparation Effective test preparation Engaging test preparation HOW? Gamers use Cheat Codes We coach students with Game Strategies WHY? Incorporate best practice teaching Tests are gatekeepers No reason this cannot be fun

  3. “The way to grow students who have test-sense, is to explicitly teach them the skills, procedures, strategies and processes that good test takers use. Only through explicit instruction will students own and be able to transfer necessary skills to the test taking situation.” From: Winning Strategies for Test-Taking. Corwin Press. March 2009. Linda Denstaedt, Judy Kelly, Kathleen Kryza Teaching Students How to Think: Test Sense

  4. Studying Characteristics of a Genre How texts work Explicit lessons defining elements of a genre Inquiry based or direct teaching

  5. How does a Nonfiction Feature Article Work? Identify and name one text feature or text structure in this article that will most likely be in another article. Why do feature article writers use this structure or element? How does it help a reader?

  6. Examining Article Features

  7. Test Preparation as a Genre Study

  8. What We Know About Tests Tests sometimes crowd many words on a page. Questions always follow the selections. Multiple choice test questions are sometimes written in very formal English. Multiple-choice test questions may ask about a similar concept in different ways. Multiple-choice test questions sometimes include distracters that draw attention away from the correct answer. From: Winning Strategies for Test-Taking. Corwin Press. March 2009.

  9. Examining Test Features

  10. Deciding What Needs to be Taught and How to Teach It

  11. Dense textTHE AMAZING MORPHOBUTTERFLIES FLICKER FROM FLOWER TO FLOWER IN YOUR BACKYARD. YOU’VE SEEN THEM SETTLE ONTO A BROAD BLOOM, SIPPING THE SWEET NECTAR. YOU’RE SEEN THEM SO OFTEN THEY DON’T SEEM SPECIAL AT ALL. HOWEVER ONE BUTTERFLY IS VERY SPECIAL. THIS SPECIAL BUTTERFLY IS THE FAMOUS BLUE MORPHO.AMAZING BLUEThe Morpho butterfly is an iridescent blue. It is so brilliant in the sun that pilots can see groups of Morphos flying over the forests in South America.Their bright blue color is caused by the fruit caterpillars eat. Thousands of tiny overlapping scales create the iridescent blue, which makes them easy to spot. The brilliant color makes them attractive to the opposite sex, but it also attracts predators.BLENDING INTO THE TREESMorphos can hide from predators simply by closing their wings. The back of their wings is brown and bronze-colored. These colors help the Morpho blend into the leaves.

  12. Reading Graphics Read the title. Read the labels and the key. Look at the specific information in the graph. Ask yourself “What is the graph showing me about this information? How is it related? From: Winning Strategies for Test-Taking. Corwin Press. March 2009.

  13. Reading Questions about Graphics Does the question ask for information that can be lifted directly off the graphic? or Does the question require an interpretation of the data given?

  14. Game Strategies for Answering Multiple Choice Questions Understanding What the Question is Asking Understanding Questions that Have “Almost Right Answers” Understanding Questions that Use Facts from the Text as Wrong Answer Choices From: Winning Strategies for Test-Taking. Corwin Press. March 2009.

  15. Understanding What the Question is Asking Two Issues: • Multiple choice test questions are sometimes written in very formal English. • Sometimes test questions ask for similar information in different ways.

  16. Formal: What is the central idea of this selection? Informal: What was our reading about? Multiple choice test questions are sometimes written in very formal English.

  17. Sometimes test questions ask for similar information in differentways. Main Idea Questions What was the selection mainly about? What was the selection mostly about? Which sentence BEST tells what the story is about? Which one of the following is one central idea of this selection? From: Winning Strategies for Test-Taking. Corwin Press. March 2009.

  18. Author’s Purpose Questions The author mainly wrote this selection to… Why did the author include conversation in this selection? Why did the author place a break in the text about halfway through the selection? The central purpose of this selection is to provide… Sometimes test questions ask for similar information in different ways. From: Winning Strategies for Test-Taking. Corwin Press. March 2009.

  19. Understanding Questions that Have “Almost Right Answers” Understanding Questions that Use Facts from the Text as Wrong Answer Choices

  20. Conclusion How can you make test preparation sensible, effective, engaging?

  21. Analyze Your State TestAsk Yourself… What types of questions are on your test? Multiple Choice, Constructed Response or Writing on Demand What thinking, reading and writing strategies do students use to access the test? How do you limit the content and test strategies you review?

  22. Great strategies we are teaching kids as we teach test-taking • How to read carefully • How to stay engaged with challenging text • How to make the best choice from a range of • possibilities • How to quickly pull together ideas cohesively Life Skills Connection

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