Sunday, October 27, 2013

A Peek at My Week {10-27-13}

Welcome back to another addition of A Peek at My Week!  I don't know about you, but these weekly Peeks seem to come around so quickly!  Seriously, where does the time go?  (I've been told it has something to do with getting older, but I'm SURE that can't be it! :)
This week, we are starting to prepare for that dreaded time of year -- the state test.  Booo.....  It makes absolutely no sense to me why we give our test in the fall, versus in the spring, since the only thing it is really measuring is how much the kids forgot over the summer.  
But I digress...

I feel there is not much that can be done to prepare, aside from review how to fill in circles and erase completely.  I think over-practicing stresses the kids out even more and will backfire on you on test day.  

However, one area we can work on is the writing prompt.  Because I teach writing in a more unstructured writing workshop format, it is important that students get some practice writing to a prompt in a set amount of time (30 minutes).

So we will spend this week doing some controlled writing responses, but also looking at the writing samples from the DPI website that show actual samples of student writing and how it was scored.  By having the students reflect on what worked and what didn't in these samples, hopefully they can apply some of that to their writing.  Wish us luck!


8 comments:

  1. Good luck to all of your students on the state testing this week. I agree with you about too much practice stressing them out. There is definitely a fine line between preparing students the best we can and overdoing it.

    Have a great week!

    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth
    Follow me on Bloglovin

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  2. Good luck with the testing! Have a great week!
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

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  3. I will never complain about our testing being in March instead of May again...I can't believe you do your tests in the fall! Yikes! Good luck to all your little ones!

    Hunter's Teaching Tales
    Find me on Facebook

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  4. I can't believe you test sooooo early! Do you have any testing at the end of the year? Good luck to your students! (At least you won't have a lot of papers to grade!)
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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  5. Bless you all with testing this EARLY! Found your blog through the linky and joined up!

    Keri
    Enchanted Kinder Garden

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  6. Good luck to your students on their tests! Is that it for the year? No spring time tests? I'm *almost*envious! I feel like we spend the entire year getting ready for tests. :(

    Sarah
    MissKinBK

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  7. That is early for testing! Preparing them for the timed prompt is so important! My are always so shocked when there is a "time" set for their writing.

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  8. There is nothing I loathe more than state testing. Ugh...if we had to do it in the Fall I'd for sure being having heart palpatations right now. GOOD LUCK!
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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