Chapter 27 of Guiding Readers and Writers underscores the necessity of interweaving test-taking strategies into the general curriculum. The assertion is that the “testing environment” is “high-stakes” for both teachers and students. Thus, it is in the best interest of both parties to ensure that test-taking have positive outcomes. So the question becomes: How do educators continue to provide satisfying literacy and educational experiences for students while simultaneously coping with the demands of ongoing state, national, or proficiency testing? In short, the “testing genre” must be embedded into the general curriculum.
The chapter outlines 4 essential steps to cope with the demands of testing:
1. Analyze the genuine underlying skills that students need in order to be able to perform well on comprehensive proficiency tests.
2. Create an ongoing curriculum to help students develop the genuine reading and writing abilities that will provide a foundation for good test performance (as well as all the benefits of a literate life).
3. Analyze the ways of reading, writing, and displaying knowledge that tests require.
4. Familiarize students with the ways to display knowledge and skills that will be expected of them in test performance.
The first two steps are essential in that good test performance relies heavily on students being competent readers and writers. Additionally, coping with the demands of testing requires that educators begin to consider “testing” as a specific genre of reading and writing. This thought is represented in the 3rd and 4th steps. If students and teachers consider the distinguishable characteristics, forms, patterns, and content often presented on a test then students will be better equipped to read and respond to varieties of tests. This is a noteworthy concept because, while testing reflects the types of reading and writing done for authentic purposes, there is a significant difference between authentic reading/writing and testing: test readers must display a competence for what the “tester” is looking for. Therefore, the openness of response that often accompanies authentic forms of reading and writing is somewhat limited in the practice of test-taking within the parameters of time limits, restricted choices, context, and performance.
In order to perform on reading tests in general students must be able to:
· Locate information in or beyond the texts.
· Understand what test questions require.
· Process a variety of texts effectively so they learn the characteristics and demands of different texts.
However, those tests can have many different forms and styles. Consequently, students must also be equipped with the test-taking skills to perform well on the varieties of tests that they will encounter.
Multiple-Choice Questions:
The most widely used form of testing is multiple-choice. The task in such tests is usually to select the best answer from a limited number of choices. In order to do this successfully, students often need to go deeper than the literal comprehension of a text. On multiple-choice tests, students are often required to gather information that might be implied or need to be inferred. Students often encounter problems on multiple-choice tests when:
· There are two or more “right” answers but on is the best according to criteria that may not be explicitly stated.
· Selecting among alternatives requires interpretation of the text.
· Selecting among alternative requires going back into the text to gather or compare information.
· Selecting among alternatives requires paying extremely careful attention to the wording.
Educators can help students do their best on multiple-choice tests by helping students understand and examine the language of multiple-choice tests. There are a number of activities that a teacher can use to help students understand the process of taking a multiple-choice test:
· Have students highlight important details in both questions and answers that can make a difference in which answer they select.
· Have students share their “first responses” with each other and critique them, noticing how the test makers may have tried to mislead them.
· Have students use a highlighter to search through the text for words like always and never and discuss why they are misleading.
· Have students line up answers in order of best to worst and discuss why each one falls where it does on the continuum.
· Have students brainstorm what they know as a group and discuss how they can use even partial knowledge to make a strong attempt at answering a question. (Model this process for them so they will know how to approach such a challenge when they take tests on their own.)
Short-Answer Questions:
Students must understand exactly what a question is asking in order to be successful on a short answer test because the student must be able to express their knowledge in a response that directly addresses the demands of the question. Teachers can help students understand how to be successful on short-answer tests by modeling how to examine question stems in order to understand what is being demanded of the reader/test taker. For example: If a question uses the stem “How do you know…” then the test-taker must be able to identify evidence in the text to support his/her answer.
Students might also benefit from practicing writing their own questions for texts that they’re reading. The practice of designing their own questions will help students better understand the point of view of the “tester.”
Extended-Response Questions:
Extended-response questions require more time and thought from the test-taker. The most crucial step for test-takers is that they be able to organize their thoughts before attempting to write the final response/text. Students can be more successful with extended response answers if they possess some criteria for evaluating their own thinking:
· Is the response complete? Or is an important piece of information missing?
· Does the order of the sentences make sense?
· Does the response answer the question? Is a response to any part of the question missing?
Embedding “testing” into Daily Instruction
Ultimately the “testing genre” needs to be embedded and supported within the reading, writing, and language workshops. It is critical that teachers begin to include testing-skills within the daily curriculum and instruction. Finally, the chapter suggests that there are some overarching guidelines to achieve for the inclusion of the “testing genre” within the curriculum:
· Engage your students in reading, enjoying, and studying wide range of genres, which ensures that students do not meet totally unfamiliar text structures on proficiency tests.
· Emphasize poetry. Often poetry is relegated to a single “unit.” Within the language and literacy framework students read and write poetry weekly so they know how to recognize the forms of poetry and derive meaning from them.
· Match books to readers. We cannot expect students to apply high-level strategies such as gathering information, inferring, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and critiquing texts unless they can read the material. When we ask students to meet rigorous criteria for constructing and extending the meaning of texts, we must provide a learning arena that enables them to do so.
· Students need to spend a lot of time reading and writing. Their testing success depends heavily on their classroom experience. If students have read carefully chosen texts and discussed them in the classroom, they will extend and refine the background they bring to the test. Similarly, the more they write and consider their writing in relation to well-grounded criteria, the better they will be able to perform on a timed writing test.
· Prepare students for the language and expectation of the tests. Teach them how to use the language of the test, such as selection, evidence, and best tells. Discuss how their responses to reading will be evaluated and allow them to participate in the process enough to be able to evaluate their own responses. Encourage students to consider how their writing will be evaluated so they can use these criteria daily.
