Testing

When we think of spring, we imagine birds chirping, leaves turning green, flowers blooming, and the sun shining its warmth over everything. If you are an educator, spring has a second meaning: it represents another testing season full of student worries about standardized assessments as well as teacher stress as…

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of incorporating movement into classroom work and gave an example of one way to do that with an editing activity. In this post, I’d like to share a way to add movement when the class is reviewing material right before a…

As we approached testing season, the already anxiety-prone fourth graders I teach began asking questions about test dates, format, and content. These signs of stress, combined with antsiness brought on by the arrival of long-awaited spring weather and a week of spring break, all came at once this year. I…

A Standards-Based Approach to Morning Meeting Sharing Ryan holds up the book so all his classmates can see the cover and begins: "Reptile Facts is my favorite first grade book. Every first grader should read this book because it shares facts about reptiles." He displays a few pages showing similarities…

Crafting powerful solutions for educating all children is an evolutionary and continuous improvement process. Educators and all those responsible for education must always be focused on innovating and pushing boundaries, digging deep, and searching wide for ideas to advance high-quality teaching and learning and to improve student outcomes. These are…

When I first began my teaching career in the early 1990's, it felt like an exciting time to be in education. There was incredible momentum building for rich, multi-layered, developmentally appropriate teaching. The reading and writing workshop approach to literacy was based on the belief that children were motivated to…

It’s fall! For many of us that means cooler temperatures, crisp leaves on the playground, thoughts of pumpkins and frost, and . . . testing. Yes, the beginning of the school year has become standardized testing time for many schools. This year, for the first time, I’m getting a new…

I wrote last week about things you can do to ease classroom stress during testing and other high-anxiety times. Here are three more tips for keeping the atmosphere of your classroom calm and productive! Have a Cooperative Recess A fun, energetic recess can be a great way for children to…

It’s spring, and end-of-the-year-testing looms. The children are stressed.You’re stressed. You need to ease the tension—but how? Well, you’re not alone! When we asked Responsive Classroom fans on Facebook if they’d like to read about strategies for relieving testing stress, many said, “Yes, right away!” So without further ado, here…

It's the beginning of a new school year. You're excited about your incoming class and have all kinds of plans for starting the year off right. Just one thing stands in the way: a few weeks in, standardized testing looms. Testing throws off classroom schedules any time of year. But…