We approached this with lots of big talk! January through March...I would spend more time on following directions and building independent work time. We did lots more listening activities as our work load increased. We talked about the special tests in the book. We learned that was the only work we would do that week. We asked Dad and Mom to send in extra snacks. I made sure we had new pencils and got a sticker to put on our 1/2 sheet "bookmark" after each section we completed. We got up and did a fun song for a brain break between each testing section. Every day I had some sort of special sweet treat at the end of testing. We read extra books to rest our brains. When testing was all done for the day, they got to do "free play" which was their favorite! Free play is being able to play with whatever they wanted to play with in our classroom uninterrupted.
The more positive I was as I walked around and read through the test questions, the better the children did. Some struggled and did not try very hard...because it was too hard. Some did great and enjoyed the challenge. It always showed exactly what I saw happening each and every day in our class with listening and thinking skills and participation. By Thursday, every class was always over it all! On Friday, the last two tests were always the hardest...the reading sections...very intimidating to mid to low-level students. It is a week to be talked about with encouragement and praise for doing hard "big kid" stuff. It is a week to have lots of fun treats planned...eating treats and playing treats! As a teacher, you should know by April what some of your students really enjoy and look forward to doing. You should know their triggers and be training them to be able to handle the stress of the week. If you are doing it right...you will be exhausted...just like your students!
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