Test Prep for Real Readers

Dear Educator,

As we solider on in this educational climate of testing, one way to protect our students from becoming products of teaching to the test is to teach test-taking as a genre. That means that for a period of time, you will focus on teaching your children HOW to navigate a standardized test.
I know how easy it is to drill the skills because we want them to pass. But this can be detrimental to our students’ love of learning. If we can show our students that this is how we read for testing, they will be less likely to think that this is what reading truly is. We don’t want to snuff out our students’ love of reading by preparing them to test all year without actually teaching them that we are doing this for a reason- and that it won’t always feel this way. Our students need to be able to shift their reading purpose and focus in on how to do well on a test- an unfortunate but critical skill for this day and age.
My goal was to do just that- in the most engaging way possible! You will find vocabulary, craftivities, anchor charts, and science experiments in this unit. I hope your students enjoy preparing for testing.