It's that time of year again! Testing season is not far away, and we are all getting ready to help our students prepare for the standardized tests. My job as a reading specialist has shifted a little to help students as they work on those all important test taking strategies. This year, I am trying something different.
One of the strategies we use to help students as they work through reading passages is the "Prove It Strategy". I can't take any credit for the name of the strategy, but it works for our students.
Students read the passage then go back through the questions and actually locate the answers in the passage. When they do, we get them to write the paragraph number next to the question. This helps them to remember and prove they actually found the answer.
This year I a taking it one step further. Students are graphing their results after we have reviewed the answers. They use this graph to show how they are doing.
So far, it seems to be working with my third and fifth graders. We look at the graphs each day before we complete the passages and then work through them. They know their goal is to get past 70%, and I tell them how many questions they have to get correct to get to 70%. They finally get to graph the results after we review the answers. The competition against their old scores is fierce! And they get mad when they don't get to graph where they want to get.
I love the success I have seen and can't wait to see where it leads for us this year!
How do you motivate your students to work and try their best?
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