School Testing?!?

As the beginning of the school year starts I have found myself giving the students more testing than ever before. This tends to have a negative connotation to it but I think it is important to really look at the testing and the purpose of it. We all grew up taking quizzes and tests in content areas and I would say the number of these assessments have gone down in recent years. We all took college placement tests, ACT or SAT, along with State sanctioned tests while we were in school, so is testing really new and that different?

Testing has adapted for sure as technology continues to change the face of education. I would have never thought that while taking a nationally-normed assessment that students would have game breaks on the same system they are taking the test (I wish we had that when I was a kid). Speaking from personal experience as a student who struggled with test taking and was intimidated taking State tests, if I would have had game breaks and taken the tests on the friendly (gamified) systems that students are today, I may have enjoyed or looked forward to these tests!

As educators we also have to embrace the testing and all the amazing data we can gain from it. It provides us with so much descriptive data that we can use to help our students throughout the year. Being able to identify specific skills, standards or ideas that students understand or don't allows us to really tailor our instruction towards what is most important and what the students really need. Why provide basic skill instruction when everyone in your class already has that skill? Move ahead and challenge those students with skills or standards that may be more advanced or provide them with more critical thinking activities. The data and information we get as educators from these assessments is truly amazing and we have to identify that and use it to tailor our instruction towards our student needs!

The last part is include these students in their test data. Allow them to see what skills they have and what they need to work on. Allow them to set goals for themselves based on what they need to improve on! Is a student going to be more willing to learn and work if they are told what to do or if they can see the progress they make and they can pick what they need to work on?

I will leave you with a story from my classroom this week. We have been doing a lot of testing in various subject areas but we did this math challenge activity after testing one day. This was not a simple activity and was very thought provoking and challenging for a lot of the students. But even after a day of testing they were fully engaged and loved this math challenge. They embraced the challenge and wanted to solve it various ways! The authenticity of their engagement and enjoyment of this activity was truly an awesome sight to see.  So did this testing drain them out or did it provide stamina and a willingness to try new things? I guess it's how you look at it.

Description of the activity from above 4-4's.