I am getting very concerned about my special ed students taking the state tests. I do not mean that I don’t want them to participate because I think they should take the tests but I remember all of the stress last year. I saw my students forget everything they had learned and practiced and go back to the bad habits that I thought they had forgotten. Does anyone have any good ideas for helping kids deal with testing and stress. Last year one of my students never used punctuation when he wrote a paragraph. We worked all year to get him to stop this habit. When he wrote the state writing assessment, you guessed it, no punctuation! I have seen tremendous growth in my students this year. some have gone up 2 years in reading level but they seem to lose it when they have to take those tests and go back to guessing and not thinking questions through. We have worked on test strategies and practiced test situations but this did not help my students last year. Help!
Nan
Re: standardized tests
Everyone, including a number of test administrators, keeps telling students to hurry hurry hurry. This is of course the worst thing to do, causing stress and mistakes. I always coach students to slow down, take a deep breath, and to check and re-check their work. I keep driving into them the fact that it’s better to get six questions right than ten wrong. This is swimming against the current so you have to keep pushing at it while everyone else is trying to drive them crazy.
Try giving them sample tests, one where you tell them to go as fast as possible, and then another where you tell them to slow down and check their work. Compare the work and the marks. Ask the students which works better.
On test day, if you can be in the room, of course you don’t help with any questions, but keep reminding them to relax and check. And stop anyone else who tries to stress them up.
If it’s stress that’s causing them to regress, ameliorate the stress and they should deal better with the tests. Have a discussion with them about the tests. Tell them with pleasant openness that in the past you’ve seen students ‘freeze up’ on the tests. Why do they think that is?
Such a discussion is likely to allow them to vent some of their fear - and thus the accompanying stress. They may tell you what they believe about these tests. I’ve heard children say - I will be thrown out of school. I will get an F on my report card. My parents will be very angry. I will have to repeat the grade.
Assure them that their fears are unfounded (if they are) Tell them a pleasant reason for the tests. ( I tell my students it’s to ‘take a picture’ so we try to look our best but just like any picture, it’s not the end of the world if our hair wasn’t combed exactly so)
On test day, be pleasant and warm, supportive and reassuring.
That’s all anyone can do.