NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Katie Schrodt, an associate professor in Middle Tennessee State University‘s College of Education, and Blair Vaughan, a fifth-grade teacher at Homer Pittard Campus School, are dedicated to ensuring students feel prepared for TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program) testing.
On Friday, April 4, Schrodt and Vaughan visited WKRN-TV News 2 for the university’s “MTSU on 2” segment to offer tips on easing your child’s anxiety and worries about end-of-the-year testing.
You can watch the segment, part of the station’s Local on 2 programming, with program co-host and producer Laura Schweizer and co-host Stephanie Langston below.
“Families can feel confident that teachers and kids have been working so hard every day to get ready for these end-of-year tests. They are ready,” said Schrodt.
“State-level initiatives are helping teachers and schools shift to the science of reading,” she added. “Over the last five years, teachers have been going through lots of training, and districts have been shifting to using high-quality instructional materials. In teacher preparation at MTSU, new teachers have never been more prepared to enter the classroom.”
Vaughan said students have the knowledge needed for the tests.
“As teachers, we have been preparing for these end-of-year tests all year by working on students’ positive self-talk and helping them build their confidence. Confidence is key,” she said.
Vaughan said some essential test-taking strategies she encourages her students to use include:
- Read directions carefully: Emphasize the importance of understanding what is asked before answering. You might say, “It’s like following a recipe; if you skip a step, the results might not be what you expected.
- Manage your time: Discuss how to allocate time for each test section. If you have 60 minutes for 60 questions, you should try to spend about a minute on each question.
- Answer easy questions first: Start with easier questions, as this can help build the student’s confidence and give them the boost they need to finish strong.
- Use process of elimination: Eliminate obviously wrong answers to improve chances of guessing correctly. If a student can narrow it down to two choices, they have a better chance.
- Check your answers: Keep time at the end to review answers. Double-checking can help catch silly mistakes.
Vaughan said that at Campus School, a teacher training lab for MTSU’s Education Prep program, teachers have transformed classrooms to make mastering standards and skills fun while learning.
Some of the themes teachers have used include:
- Transforming a classroom into the life-size board game of Candyland and implementing TCAP practice questions while playing the life-size version of the game.
- With a Disney-themed transformation, teachers can do things like “Dining with Decimals,” a nod to the classic “Beauty and the Beast” movie.
- A classroom transformation to an operating room can help teach the order of operations while playing a life-size version of the board game Operation.
- A Mission Impossible glow-style transformation can help students work in groups to uncover secret messages in a time session, using math skills they have learned throughout the year while solving TCAP-style practice questions.
Vaughan and Schrodt both emphasize that your child’s teacher has been preparing students for these required end-of-the-year tests since August. Remember to make sure they get enough sleep and have a good meal on test days.
Schrodt also offered advice to parents on how they can prevent their children from experiencing the “summer slide” and prepare them for the upcoming school year.
“Parents can work on knowledge building. By giving their kids a wider and deeper understanding of a topic, it helps readers connect new information to existing knowledge, making it easier to understand and retain what they read,” she said. “I like to think about it as a big web growing in your brain. With every knowledge-building experience a kid has, they are making this web bigger and bigger. Then, when new knowledge comes at them, it has something to stick to. The bigger the web, the greater the chance it can stick.”
Schrodt also suggested activities that can help kids work on knowledge-building:
- Visit a museum like The Parthenon in Centennial Park, the Adventure Science Center, both in Nashville, or the Discovery Center at Murfree Spring in Murfreesboro.
- Watch a documentary like “The Americas” or “Planet Earth.”
- Listen to a podcast like “ABC Kids News Time” or “Wow in the World.”
- Read and write for enjoyment, like graphic novels, “The Week Junior” magazine or do some creative writing. Bring a journal and a book everywhere you go!
To learn more about the programs offered in the MTSU College of Education, including how you can become a Difference Maker in your community as a teacher, counselor, librarian or school leader, please visit education.mtsu.edu.
— Kristen Keene (Kristen.Keene@mtsu.edu)
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