10 Essential Tips for Teachers to Prepare Students for the STAAR Test (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Here are 10 tips for classroom teachers to help prepare for the STAAR test. Angela here from Custom Classroom. Before we get started, I want to remind you that I am not affiliated with TEA or STAAR. These are my ideas as a Texas educator and test prep writer. STAAR testing can be a very stressful time of year. These 10 tips can help you feel more prepared. Regardless of how you feel about the STAAR test, the acceptance that STAAR is coming, no matter what, might be stacked against your students can be a freeing mindset. Try to get rid of the negative thoughts. Focus on the students and all the little things you do every day that truly helps them prepare. End of year testing is not about trying to fit everything into a review the week before the big day. Start now and begin exposing students to STAAR-like questions and formatting every week, in conjunction with your lesson. Make it become normal and expected, not some dreaded thing that will come at the end of the year. Go to the TEA website and take the PASS STAAR test. I know this can be hard and very time consuming, but the better you know what is expected, the easier it is on a daily basis to naturally incorporate STAAR formatting and language into what you already have planned. I also have a free video series about the upcoming changes to the STAAR test to help you feel more confident about what to expect. As you become more comfortable with the test and the language used on the test, include vocabulary words on your classroom word wall that you think students might have trouble with. Not just content vocabulary, but the language used within the questions like analyze, clarify, convey, or excerpt. Many times we overlook the other language used and focus on just content. Some of the language can be challenging to students, especially English language learners. Test prep should not dominate your classroom and lesson planning. I'm not talking about teaching to the test, but simply exposing students so they feel more comfortable and confident. Adding test-like questions to your daily normal can be very beneficial to students. The more exposure they have to the format, the more likely they are to be able to show what they know. Think about it like a grocery store. If you've never been in one, it can be overwhelming to find anything. But if you've been in many different types of stores and grocery stores, if you walk into a new one, you can begin to infer where things might be. One way to accomplish this is to make test-like questions part of your warm-up. You could also include them in your exit tickets. Or always put questions in one of your centers. If you make it a natural part of your routine, it will be easier for you to keep up with it all year. You know you best. Find a spot that is easy and fits well within your routine so it just becomes a habit. 6. Make it fun. Incorporate review games to make STAAR testing more fun for students. Use common games like Jenga to review as a whole class. Or no-prep relay games that you could play today in your classroom. I've made many free videos explaining how to play test-prep games in your classroom with little to no prep. Check out the playlist in the description if you're looking for more ideas. 7. Use the data. Whether you are using formative assessments such as mid-year test results or previous STAAR scores, or you have a system of progress monitoring, make sure that the data is being used to drive your decisions on instructions and areas of weakness to focus on throughout the year using a system of spiral review or small group instruction. 8. Give students a chance to feel success. Many times students who have struggled with STAAR in the past just shut down when they see anything STAAR related. Give them a chance to feel success with the questions formatted like STAAR, even if it means giving them questions from previous grade levels. Students need to know that they can be successful within the format. 9. Talk about it. Don't wait until the last few weeks before STAAR to talk about it. Make it a common topic all year long. This helps demystify the test and makes students feel less scared and more prepared. Don't make STAAR the elephant in the room, always looming, but no one talks about. Make it more of just what you do, just another thing you do in the process of the school. 10. Be the example. Be calm and confident in your students as you talk about STAAR. Let your students know you believe in them and that all the hard work they are putting in every day is what really matters. Good luck.