It's Almost Here...

So we are only one week away from the STAAR test and honestly, there isn't much more I can do...which is both a freeing and a terrifying feeling. The next week will be spent "putting into practice" our knowledge of the content + test taking strategies I've taught. My students made 2 foldables to remind them of important strategies to use so I thought I'd share them :) I wish I could say that they are completely original wonderful ideas BUT everyone knows teachers are the best at taking someone else's ideas and making them work in their own classroom. However, I am not going to steal someone else's fabulous ideas without giving them credit--the first foldable's contents came courtesy of some Pinterest searching which led me to The Savvy School Counselor.  She wrote this post about test taking tips for new test takers but I think it's totally acceptable to review these tips with "experienced" test takers. I chose the parts I liked and added in the RELAX acronym (thank you, Pinterest) to make this useful little thing: 

So Monday we made the generic test-taking strategies and then Tuesday we made a foldable with strategies specifically for Reading. I found this little gem FOR FREE on TpT. Even though it says its for the Common Core, it totally fits our TEKS. 

We used this little tool to anticipate what kind of questions might be on a few practice passages we read and that's what we'll be doing this week too. I'm not really into test prep but sometimes, you gotta do what ya gotta do. :) Let me know what kind of test taking strategies you teach your little darlings--in Texas if our students don't pass, they have to test another round in May so I (hopefully won't but might) be looking for more tips for some of my kids. 

Have a great week! 

Caitlin

Reading Review Folders--best thing EVER

So last year, our Academic Specialist showed me a folder that was used in a college course over curriculum. The moment I saw it, I had visions of colorful paper, fonts, graphics and (oh, yea) reading content coming together in one beautiful reading review folder. The only sad thing, I made the folder at the beginning of April and in 4th grade, we take our state assessments at the end of April...so the folder didn't really have time to serve it's full purpose. Lesson learned. This year, after we finished teaching all of our TEKS (the standards in TX), I pulled out the ole Reading Review folder, revamped it for 5th grade and we were ready to go! The folder has sections that cover (almost) everything our students need to know for poetry and fiction and (most) of our nonfiction TEKS. During any kind of independent practice, I let my kids use their folders as a reference tool. My hope is that some of these little things will stick with them for good. 

This is the front of the folder. (I just used a file folder and folded it so that both sides opened. The front focuses on poetry, sensory details and figurative language. The simile/metaphor and analyzing poetry portion were on my kids' folders when I taught 4th grade but I added the other stuff for my 5th grade darlings. 

The Back

The back of the folder is kind of "unorganized" in that it has random topics (Context Clues, Analogies and Types of Conflict) but these things needed a home and this was the best fit. The types of conflict opens to explain the 4 types (character v. character, character v. nature, character v. society, character v. self)

Inside the folder is mostly information for fiction texts but I also included a little booklet I got off of TpT about text structures. You can find it here if you want to purchase it yourself :)

More of the inside :) 

 So I hope to get all of this stuff up on my TpT account (when I actually set that up...). It's totally useful and my kids use their folders all the time to refresh their memories about elements of fiction we've already studied. Tell me what you think!