Upper Grade Test Prep Strategies

Hello Upper Elementary friends! It's Jennifer from Teaching to Inspire in 5th. We are knee deep in test prep over in Georgia. I wanted to write a post describing (and showing a few pictures) of my favorite test prep activities to use.



Gallery Walk:

For this activity, I post several problems on chart paper around the room. In groups, the students walk around and complete each problem. I have them complete them on a piece of paper first. Then, I choose groups to complete on the chart paper. Finally, if time allows, I have the groups rotate through one more time to compare and contrast their answers and strategies with the work on the chart.

Graffiti Test Prep:

If you have never seen this before, students respond to a text or stimulus on butcher paper at the same time. For this activity, I took three test prep questions and taped them to the middle of a piece of butcher paper. I sectioned off the butcher paper into four sections: A, B, C, D. This referred to the students and not the answer choices.
 
The students had to finish these sentences stems for each of the three questions:

• The question is asking me...
• The topic/skill of the question is....
• I already know ....
• The answer is ... because ...
• ....is wrong because... (done for all three incorrect answers)

Hands On Test Prep:

Finally, I love anything hands on that the students can manipulate. Here are two examples of hands on test prep centers I have used.

This one is a dialogue center where the students manipulate the punctuation and place it correctly.

This hands on center has the students correcting pronoun and antecedent agreement errors.

Do you use any of these strategies in your classroom? Or do you plan to try one out? I would love to know which one!


Jennifer

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Ring in the New Year with Ideas from Pinterest

Hello friends! This is Jennifer from Teaching to Inspire in 5th, and I hope all of you had a great holiday and spent some quality time with your family and friends.

Speaking of quality time, I wanted to share with you some great Pinterest boards to help you get ready for the New Year, and save some precious family time!


First up is my own personal Pinterest board for New Year's Ideas. I just started this board, so it will have tons of new freebies and ideas added over the next few days! Click here or on the image to see the board.

And here are two other great boards! Just click on the links to check them out!

New Years in the Classroom from Marcy (Simply Sprout)

Happy New Year from More than a Worksheet


I hope you find some great ideas to help you transition back to school and start the New Year off the right way!


Have a Happy New Year!

Jennifer

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Tis' the Season for Freebies!

Hello everyone! It's Jennifer from Teaching to Inspire in 5th. I am fortunate to be off this entire week for Thanksgiving..yay! Unfortunately, my boys are sick, so we are on quarantine over at my household.

I know everyone is super busy in the holiday mode...or is the trying to survive another day or two of work before the break, so I wanted to share some quick, fun freebies.

Hopefully these freebies will help get you through the rest of the holiday season!


First up, is a little Fall place value freebie (We are knee deep in Winter weather over here, but some of you might be lucky to be enjoying some Fall weather)

 
This little freebie contains 4 CCSS aligned story problems that are winter-themed and require some higher order thinking skills.

And, finally, some Christmas cheer in the form of a themed fraction sort that has the student sorting fractions based on if they are greater than, equal to, or less than 1/2.

 Happy Holidays! I hope you are able to use the freebies!


Jennifer

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Guided Reading Organization

Hi guys! It's Jennifer from Teaching to Inspire in 5th. One of my favorite parts of the year is getting my guided reading notebook organized. I change some parts of it every year and keep some the same.

Let's take a quick peek inside my guided reading binder for this year.

My main goal when I get it set up is: Keep it Simple! I try to get it to the essentials that I need to maintain my records for each group. Here is what I include:

1. My first section contains my whole group data information such as guided reading levels, spelling levels, and any other whole group data that pertains to reading.

 2. The next section has a numbered tab for each student in my class. This is where I keep my running record data. I have a spreadsheet graph that I complete each time I do a running record and then I place the running record underneath the graph.

Under each tab you will find a graph of each running record and then the actual running record forms.

3. The next tabs are were I keep my group records and information. Each group tab contains four items: the current week's lesson plans, the list of books we have read as a group, my guided reading groups note page where I keep anecdotal notes on the group's progress and needs, and the independent reading conference forms for the students in that group. (I keep the independent reading conferences in this section because I complete those conferences once a week while they are back with me in their group.)

4. And finally I have a section in the back for blank forms.

And that is it! I keep it simple but organized.

What are some must haves that you include in your Guided Reading notebook or binder?

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Vista Print Fun! Make it to Match Your Theme!

Hey guys! It's Jennifer Findley from Teaching to Inspire in 5th. I feel like it has been forever since I posted on here! Today I wanted to share with some of my newest vistaprint creations! 

 First, I had to find a coupon or something to help with the costs (I believe Vistaprint is on to the teachers using all those free shipping discounts :( ) So I headed to groupon and snagged this deal! $17 dollars for $70 worth of stuff? I think I will. 

Note: The discount does NOT cover shipping, but they offered me another deal that if I spent $25 over the $70 the shipping would be free. The shipping was about that much (maybe a little more) so I took them up on it! Grand total was $45 ($28 at Vistaprint and $17 for the Groupon deal)


Here is what I got:

Labels Galore: I got all these labels for my folders and notebooks...140 per design so I can use them for about 4 years! YES!

Slant Banner: I had another Slant Banner, but I really wanted one that matched my theme (can you tell what it is yet?)  I did decide to change the Nod in Response to Note Key Information because I always felt so silly modeling that one! (Bobblehead, anyone?)

Show What You Know Exit Slip (Magnet Style): This was another product that I had before that I gave a facelift. I ordered the large magnet as the title. I write student numbers on the smaller magnets. The magnets are placed on the markerboard underneath the title. The students put their post it note beside their magnet.

And then I ordered a few new stamps to supplement my ever growing collection of  Vistaprint stamps.

So wanna know how to make your own custom designs? It is easy, but you have to be very patient and adjust your images as needed.

Step 1: 

Adjust the size of your powerpoint slide to make the resolution high enough. Here is what I used:

Step 2: 

Make your design in powerpoint and then save the finished slide as a picture. (Be prepared that you may have to change it!)

Step 3: 

Choose the product from Vistaprint and follow these screens.

Step 4: 

Upload your picture and see what it looks like. Here was my first try at the labels. Notice how the border needed to be adjusted.

Step 5: 

Using the picture from Vistaprint as a guide, adjust your slide to make it fit the way you want. Here is my finished label and how it looked on the slide.

{Background from Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs}
{Fonts from KG Fonts}

Because I wasn't using a special offer from Vistaprint, I was not charged extra for the image upload. It was just part of the price. I hope this helped and you can make some cute themed vistaprint products! 

Check out my blog to see some pictures of these items in action for in the next few weeks!

Jennifer

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Organization: Task Cards and Other Game Pieces

Happy Friday! Is anyone else nearing the end of their school year? We only have 1 week left!

Today, I wanted to share with you a couple of organizational supplies that I tried out this year and am loving!

First up, I use task cards a lot...I mean all the time! In fact, I printed out a ton of task cards for test prep this year. And as luck would have it, the laminator decided this was a good time to take a vacation. So here I sat with a stack of task cards printed on card stock with no place to go. I remembered seeing a pin from Minds in Bloom about using photo albums to store cards. On a mission to find the cheapest photo albums, I found myself at a local dollar store. I picked up all the clear plastic photo albums they had. They were only $1! I took out the front cover and then loaded them with task cards. Perfect solution for my lamination dilemna!

I had the kids working in pairs so they shared a photo album with one another. It worked perfectly. No more missing task cards, no more crumpled or bent task cards! And the kids thought it was fun! Go figure!

Task cards shown are from Teaching with a Mountain View and Rachel Lynette.


On a trip to Office Depot that same weekend I came across these plastic envelopes (again just $1!). I immediately grabbed them and knew they were perfect for my Spoons games. These are also perfect for any game or center activity that requires small pieces. No more plastic bags for me!

I would love to hear how you organize task cards or other pesky game pieces.


Jennifer

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Showing the LOVE in Math

Have you ever noticed that some students that excel on multiple choice math tests struggle with constructed response assessments that require them to show all of their thinking? This is our first year taking constructed response assessments and I have learned that I have a lot of kids just like this in my classroom. (And even more that didn’t excel at either at the beginning of the year!) Early on, I knew I needed to come up with something to help them remember to show all of their thinking (and then some) on constructed response/word problems. With that, the acronym LOVE was born. You can read more about it here.

L: Label everything! Your visuals, your equation, anything you can put a label on!

O: Our Thinking. For this the students turn the question into a sentence with a blank for the answer. This is huge for them! They know they have to do this first. If they can’t do it, they have to re-read that problem and break it down until they know exactly what is being asked. This part really helps them make sense of the problem and check their answer for reasonableness. Also, it makes sure they actually answer the question! Our current rubric takes off a point for precision if they don’t actually state the answer in words, pulling it back to the problem.

V: Visuals. Our constructed response assessments are on the Fraction domains of common core so visuals are so important.

E: Equations. They must show an equation to represent their visual or to show how they got their answer.

This acronym has worked wonders with my students this year. They know to show the LOVE on any word problem I give them, even morning work. As evidence, we just finished our 2^nd constructed response assessment for the year and over half of my kids more than tripled their previous scores. We are talking going from a score of 1 out of 20 to a 14 out of 20. That is HUGE!

As I mentioned above, they show the LOVE on all of their assignments in math. Here are some images from their morning work. Check out all of that writing, drawing, labeling….I LOVE IT!

 How do you prepare your students for constructed response math assessments?

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