Assessment, Blog, Reading
Throughout their time in school, students will have to take hundreds of tests. There’s no escaping this common method of assessing student mastery. But we can’t just automatically assume that students know how to take a test. As with everything else, we must explicitly teach students to be successful test takers. Let’s explore some tips for teaching test taking strategies to elementary students.
Test Taking Strategies for Elementary Students
In order to help students be better test takers, we must provide them with test taking strategies. There are various test taking strategies we can use in our classrooms to help elementary students find success on a test. The Sadlier website has free handouts with additional strategies.
Strategies for Answering Questions
- Underline key words in the question
- Predict the answer before looking at the choices. Then choose the answer that is closest to your prediction.
- Read all answer choices and “Slash the Trash” to eliminate incorrect answers.
- Highlight the text evidence to support your answer.
Vocabulary Strategies
- Substitute each answer choice in the sentence for context clues questions. Then select the one that makes the most sense within the context of the text.
- Break down unknown words into known word parts.
- Make connections to other known words. For example if a student knows the word circle, it can help them read and understand words such as semicircle and circulate.
Stop & Jot Strategy
When students are reading a story, they can stop after each paragraph to write a quick note about what they just read on a blank piece of paper.They will need to clearly number each paragraph.
When students begin to answer the questions, they can refer back to their notes. This may help them identify which paragraph closely relates to the question. As a result, they can go directly to that specific paragraph to look for the text evidence without needing to reread everything. Find out how you can use this test taking strategy for struggling readers.
Brain Dump
The brain dump strategy encourages students to write down everything they know about a subject before takingthe test. Before beginning a test, provide students with a blank piece of paper. When the test begins they can write down facts, vocabulary terms, tools, or other things that they want to remember.
I have students practice writing the alphabet on a blank piece of paper to help with questions requiring them to put words in alphabetical order.
Build Reading Stamina
While this isn’t a test taking strategy, reading stamina plays a huge role in students’ performance on standardized tests. If students are not used to reading for extended amounts of time, they’ll quickly become fatigued on a test with multiple reading passages. You can improve students’ reading stamina through independent reading and fluency activities.
Independent Reading
Before building reading stamina, you need to determine your students’ starting point. Have them read independently while you take anecdotal notes. Which students remain focused the entire time? At what point do certain students begin looking around the room? Are there students who try to switch books to avoid reading?
Once you have your starting point, you can have students read independently for the least amount of time where they can be successful. Gradually increase the amount of time you expect students to read independently each day. It may also be beneficial to teach students some strategies for remaining focused while reading independently. Jennifer Serravallo’s Reading Strategies Book offers specific strategies you can teach students in minilessons and small groups to help build their reading stamina.
Reading Fluency
Students will have difficulty building their reading stamina if they don’t read fluently. Students who read word by word will become very fatigued on a standardized test because it takes them significantly longer than their peers to read a passage.
Some ways to improve fluency are by using echo reading, repeated readings, readers’ theater, or reading buddies. Find out additional tips and strategies to improve students’ reading fluency.
Test Prep Study Guides
While we can provide students with practice using testing strategies, it’s impossible to help them study for a test as they can in other subject areas. A few years ago parents at our school started asking for study guides to help their children prepare for reading tests…which is easier said than done. All you can really do to “study” is practice authentic reading and talk or write about the text.
Eventually came up with study guides to send home with students. These forms were helpful as they read at home and allowed them to write or talk about any text they read. The study guides have a brief explanation of the comprehension skill with a “Good Readers can…” statement. It includes graphic organizers and prompts that a student may encounter on a test.
Not only can you send the study guides home with students, but it’s also beneficial to add them to readers notebooks. By doing so students can refer back to it during independent reading and reading response activities. So while they’re not studying for the test, they ARE practicing the type of thinking required to respond to questions they’ll see on a test.
Teaching Test Taking Strategies to Elementary Students
We can’t just expect students to automatically know how to implement test taking strategies. You need to spend time modeling and explicitly teaching them. Make sure to also introduce students to the various types of questions they may encounter on a test and how to approach these questions. Students will need ample opportunities for guided practice. This can be done during minilessons or small group instruction.
When and how you teach test taking strategies is entirely up to you. Some teachers prefer to slowly introduce and practice them throughout the year. While other teachers don’t want to feel that they are teaching to the test. So they prefer to spend the year focusing on content instruction and only explicitly working on test taking strategies the last few weeks leading up to the standardized test. Either option is fine as long as you dedicate some time to this work!
Coaching Students with Test Taking Strategies
Ideally, you’d want to teach students the test taking strategies in an authentic context, such as when they are actually taking the test. It can be beneficial to “coach” students during a test by helping them understand what the question is asking or how to approach it. This does NOT mean giving them the answer but helping them understand how to answer the question. It also provides you more accurate information about whether the student actually knows the content versus getting a question wrong because they didn’t under the question.
Rather than teaching the strategies in isolation, students are more likely to internalize them in the moment, which is why it’s beneficial to coach as they’re taking a test. If they see how the strategies benefit them while they’re taking a test they’re more likely to implement them independently. Some teachers opt to review incorrect answers with students after they’ve taken a test and teach them how to answer that question. But at that point, the student already knows they’ve missed it and it won’t change their grade. So they’re less likely to internalize it because they don’t see the value.
Obviously, we cannot help students during a standardized test, which is why coaching should be used as a scaffold. Begin the year by modeling the test taking strategies you expect. As the year progresses, gradually reduce the amount of coaching you provide during testing. The last few tests before standardized tests should have absolutely no coaching. At this point, students already know what is expected of them during the test without you needing to say anything.
*Controversial Tip* Coaching has shown to be highly effective; however, there is debate surrounding it. Some believe there should be NO student support during a test. If comparing scores among grade level teachers, you’ll want to make sure all teachers are on the same page with this strategy. If some teachers on a team coach students while others don’t, you can argue that it’s unfair to compare those results. Do what works best for your team!
Additional Test Taking Strategies
Testing is a reality of education that students cannot avoid. But we can help elementary students overcome testing anxiety and find success with these test taking strategies.
Have you implemented any of these test taking strategies with your elementary students? Which ones have been most beneficial for them? Are there other strategies that you’ve found to be helpful? Share them with us in the comments below!
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