Test Prep for your Classroom

Test prep is an important part of everyday classroom instruction. One of our main goals as teachers is to prepare students for testing. Whether you are regularly conducting informal assessments or getting ready for that big yearly standardized test, you are trying to gain as much information about your students as possible to monitor their social and academic growth over the course of the year. Here is a list of several resources that may help give you ideas on how to incorporate test prep into your routine. There are many different resources designed to help with test prep.

• Find a test prep resource and make it work for your group of students. Realize that you may need to try several resources before you figure out what works for you Maybe you want to use an activity or practice exercise weekly or several times a month in the beginning. You may want to follow the format of the book. Some books suggest doing a short daily exercise, or you may want to change things up and combine different resources to design what works best for you.
• Approach standardized testing with confidence. When you make time for test prep over the course of the year, then your students are prepared.
• Make it fun - There is always value in having students complete exercises that mimic the testing format; however, there are other activities that can be useful too. There are a variety of test prep games designed to target specific content areas such as science, math, and language arts. Take these resources as using them as needed.

Testing is a necessary part of education. Assessments should guide instruction and students should go into any testing situation prepared. You may be spending only a small amount of your instruction on these practice activities, but chances are that your ongoing formal and informal assessments are helping prepare students for test day. How do you choose which resources you need to help your students prepare? Think about your teaching style and what activities would best meet the needs of your class.