I live in Texas, and although I am teaching second grade, I am starting to teach test strategies for the TAKS reading next week. I will probably be teaching 5th grade next year, and I honestly don't know how to teach test strategies! I'm not sure even what they are! What resources do you suggest I look at/for? What strategies do you teach? Is there anything online that I would find helpful? Thanks!
Here are some of the strategies I use: Word Webs: Used for vocabulary questions. Students make a web with the underlined word in the middle. Then they write words that came around the underlined word in the passage on the web. The students use the words on their web to help them figure out the word. I also tell the students to go back and put the answer choice they picked into the sentence. Does that word make sense in the sentence? Get The Gist: This is used for questions about main idea. In 10 words or less, students write a GTG for the passage. We work on this a lot when we do our daily read alouds of picture books. I've also used it when reading a chapter book. We write the GTG of each chapter. BME: This is used for summary. After students read the passage they need to write a BME-BI for the story (Beginning, Middle, End, Big Idea-theme). This is another thing we work on with read alouds. We write a summary for the book and then break the summary into the BME. The students do this immediately after reading the passage (before they even see the summary question.) When students get to the summary question, they review their BME and then search for the best answer choice. Students look for the answer that has a BME in that order. If it is missing a part, in the wrong order, or has false information that choice gets eliminated. I also have the students write the theme of the passage because these questions often appear in the test. Again, we do this with read-alouds! Cover the Answers: This is working VERY WELL for me! I have the students cover the answer choices and write down their thinking and what they think the correct answer is before they look at the answer choices. In my tutoring groups I have even blocked out the answer choices on their answer sheets before I copy them, so that it forces the students to come up with their own answers, then after we write our answers, we look at the answer choices and find the correct choice. The students have learned that almost all the time they have the correct answer before they even look at the answer choices. I like doing this strategy because a lot of the time, students let the answer choices confuse them! This proves to the students that they do know the answers! I teach my test strategies through authentic instruction. I don't believe in giving students daily TAKS passages. It's February and we've done 2 benchmark exams (as required by district) which were TAKS released tests and maybe 3 other passages this year....and thats it! I believe you can accomplish a lot of what they need to be successful during your reading workshop time. I teach a lot strategies using read alouds, and reading mini-lessons, I also give my students independent reading time everyday. They have to develop stamina in order to do well on the test. Hope this is helpful!!!
I'm currently tutoring 5th grade students for the reading TAKS. The state provided the district funds for TAKS Reading Coach books so we have to use those. Though I do incorporate a lot of the strategies that TXTCHR suggested. As far as other strategies, I use these: Read title and questions Highlite key words in questions Read through story twice Answer questions, underlining where they found the answer in the passage. They also put a check if they feel good about their answer and a ? if they are unsure.
I don't know much about the TAKS, but here is what I do with my students. Teach your children how to analyze the test. The different types of questions they can encounter in reading passages: asking for explicit information (straight from the text/on the page), implicit information (implied by the text/between the lines), and analysis (between the pages). Familiarize them with a variety of reading genres: folktales, nonfiction, persuasive, letter writing, fictional narratives) Also, have them find the line in the text that points to the correct answer for a question. Have them lightly underline it. They can go back and erase it. I hope this helps a bit with the reading portion at least.
We talk about test taking strategies before every big exam in my class. Here are the basic things I cover: On the night before a big test, go to bed early so that you can feel rested when you wake up. In the morning of a big test, wake up early and give yourself plenty of time to get ready. Be sure to eat a good breakfast so that you aren't hungry during the test. When you're just about to take a big test, make sure that you have sharpened pencils and a good eraser. Be sure you're in your seat and ready to go when you're supposed to be. During the test, there's a lot to do. First, read the directions and then read them again. If you don't understand what you're supposed to do, ask the teacher. Slow down and take your time. Don't be afraid to skip hard questions; you can come back to them when you're done with the easy ones. When you aren't sure about an answer, see if you can cross out answers that you know are wrong. Look for clues elsewhere on the test. Check your work. If you need to make changes to a Scantron, erase your mark completely.
In math, of course, one teaches kids estimation so that they can get a sense of the range within which the correct answer falls. The nearest equivalent to that in other domains would be two key questions: "Does this make sense?" and "How do I know?"
Also, if you are going to teach math strategies, suggest they draw a picture to represent what the question is asking (if it applies).
Florida has an awesome website with lessons to focus on specific skills that are also tested on TAKS; lots of intermediate teachers at my school have started using their resources as centers. www.fcrr.org On all TAKS tests, I expect my students to read through the question and underline important words & information. For reading, my students know that there are typically two answers that are easy to eliminate if you've read carefully and two that are possible answers. They may know what the right answer is, but they have to prove it by finding evidence in the text. Some students underline proof in the text and write the paragraph number next to their answer, while others correct the answer choices so they match the text. I don't care which they do as long as they provide proof. That's a general strategy, but there are others like the BME one mentioned above, writing clue words for vocabulary, distinguishing main idea/details, etc. For math, I try to get all of my students to check their work using an alternate strategy (inverse operation, draw a picture, etc). I agree with TXTCHR in using authentic instruction as much as possible, but some schools make you do a lot more test practice throughout the year. There are lots of TAKS practice resources available, but for now you may just want to go to the TEA website and check out some released tests just to get an idea of what the passages & questions look like.
