Preparing Psychologically: "Why are we doing this, anyway?"

-Have a class meeting about WHY students have to take so many tests.  Ask what is a test, anyway, and why do teachers give so many of them?  Take their ideas first, and guide students to understand that the community and government want to make sure that kids are learning and that kids and teachers are all doing what they need to do.   Explain that the when people see areas in which kids don’t do well, the teachers will know there is a problem and can help kids do better.

-Set a purpose for test-taking.   I tell my kids that the test scores will be published on the internet, in the newspapers, etc. for the community to see.  I stress that we want the community to know how hard we have worked and be proud of us, so we want to do our best on the test to show how much we know.  We also discuss how it is important to do our best work on every task that is given to us in life, to have the satisfaction of a job well done. More often than not, a student will often bring this point up, making a much bigger impact than if I had.

-Put the test in perspective.  At the beginning of the year, I show my kids a poster I made (based on an idea I found somewhere on the ‘net a few years ago- if you know whose idea this was, please let me know so I can credit them).  The poster has 4 different medals drawn on it, labeled as follows:

Bronze- Classwork, Homework

Silver- Quizzes

Gold- Tests

Platinum- Standardized Tests

I explain that each assignment they are given is an opportunity for them to show how much they know.  I show them pictures of Olympic medalists and explain the different types of awards.  Then I tell them in recent years, the schools have given another opportunity for students to show what they know, an award even greater than a gold medal- platinum.  I explain that these are the ‘big tests’ that parents see, principals, superindendents, the governer, sometimes even the president.  These are the most important tests and it is important to try hard on them. We also discuss why they are called standardized tests, and clear up any other test-related vocabulary the kids don't understand.

-In your efforts to stress the importance of trying one’s best, do everything you can not to induce test anxiety by making this "The Big One".  Text anxiety is a big thing for my third graders because in second grade they used to be required to take a test which determined whether or not they passed to go on to the next grade level.  I assure the kids that only their attendance and report card grades determine whether they go to fourth grade, and that they should have other motivations for doing well on this test. 

-Don’t be afraid to express your own anxiety and stress over the test.  It’s normal to feel that way, and it's often reassuring for kids to see that even grown-ups have to deal with testing pressure!  You can be an excellent role model for handling stress.  I tell my kids that most teachers don’t like giving them and most kids don’t like taking them, but it’s something that we have to do, so let’s stick together and do the best we can.  There’s a hilarious children’s book called “Testing Miss Malarkey” which depicts the children and faculty pretty much hanging upside down from the light fixtures by the time the testing week is up, and makes light of the fact that most educators and students have to face this at one point or another.

Preparing Academically: "Will this be on the test?"

-Try not to reference the material on The Test much ahead of time.  In my opinion, kids should be learning what they need to know to read, write, do math, and be citizens of the world.  Each assignment should be valuable in itself, and kids don’t have to know whether it is preparing them for a standardized test or not.

-Minimize the amount of test-prep materials you use.  Most research shows that practice tests don’t have a huge affect on the final scores, anyway.  All test-prep work does, in my own experience, is make kids want to scream everytime they see a paper with bubbles to fill in or a multiple choice question, and makes them too burned out to try their best when it’s time for the real deal.  Some teachers at my school give a one page practice test once a week throughout the year, and say that method has been very successful for them.

-When you do give test-prep work, approach the whole thing non-chalantly and build up students' confidence.  Tell the students that you are going to show them a paper that looks a little bit like the state test they’ll be taking.  That means that when they do take the state test (or have their ‘platinum opportunity’ to show what they have learned), they will already know what it looks like and won’t have any reason to be nervous.