[fooferny]

I wasn wondering what you all are doing to prepare your students for the NY ELA test coming up. Of course we are taking practice tests and working with KAPLAN but I wondered if any of you were doing other things or had any suggestions. The students are getting tired of listening to old ELA passages and writing about them. This is my first year in 4th grade (10 years in 1st) and I want to make sure my students are ready. Thanks for the help!

[CPATeach]

...."Daily Warm-ups" for your morning work. When I get back to school on Monday, I will look at my book to find out who publishes these. They are great multi-genred short reading passages with related comprehension and critical thinking questions.

I call these "RAP's"...Read, Answer, Prove! The students must go back into the passage and highlight where they found the answer.

They are also great because the passages come leveled ie..below grade level, at grade level, above grade level!

There are also tons of test prep books out there..perhaps your grade level has sample books you can make copies from.

Hope this helps.

Also...about 60% of the score is derived from part one.....make sure you spend enough time on key words that are included in the questions..."mostly about", "all of the above except", go through old part ones and check out the wordings.

Don't burn yourself (or your students) out...you still have two months before the test. I usually start my test prep the week before Thanksgiving.

And remember......you cannot perform miracles. You can probably predict today the scores of most of your students!

Good luck!

[fooferny]

Thanks so much. I know day one is so important and that is why I am so frustrated. When we do multiple choice questions, I tell them to go back and underline where they got their answers to prove their answer is correct. However, they aren't doing that and therefore making careless mistakes. I give them the papers back and make them underline but they are struggling to transfer what I am teaching them into the practice. Unfortunately our school started test prep early October so I think they are already tired of it. I appreciate all of your ideas. I will look for the info on "Daily Warmups".

[CPATeach]

...Teacher Created Resources. The book is called Daily Warm-ups - Reading Grade 4.