STAAR Crunch- Day 1

Agenda:

1. Warm-ups
2. Go over test # 1-8
3. Review Game
4. Pass out/discuss homework

We are one week away from the STAAR assessment, so we are in crunch time!  We are switching things up, which has students excited and there are incentives being thrown all over the place (I don't necessarily know if that is a good or bad thing).  Monday we are covering reporting category 1, Tuesday category 2, etc.

I created warm-ups that were all questions with answers that could be recorded in grids.  Students struggle to record answers correctly so each day at the beginning of class, they practice this.

We gave a CSCOPE test Friday and the grades were LOW.  In all honesty, I didn't think it was a fair test of what we covered that week but we are required to give those exams for data purposes.  I didn't want to completely dismiss it though, so we are going over category 1 questions Monday, category 2 questions Tuesday, etc.  I'm asking students to find WRONG answers and tell me WHY they are wrong.

For a review game, we tweaked "ghost in the graveyard" or "Candy Hearts" to have a STAAR theme:

Student groups got a card of questions from Reporting Category 1 (TEKS 6.1 (A-F) and 6.2 (A-E) and were to work together to solve.  When they thought all were correct, they bring me the card.  If they are right, they receive a colored star to place around the room on larger stars.  If any answers are wrong, I tell them to go back and try again.  I tell them how many they have wrong, but not which ones.  This annoys them, but tough.

At the end of class, I drew cards to determine how much each start was worth.  The kids are familiar with the game, so it was a good day!

I made a few changes throughout the day though-  some of the cards had 5 or 6 questions, which took students too long and they got frustrated.  For some of my classes 3 was a better number, and for others 4 made it more challenging, so I adjusted the number of questions they had to complete on each card along the way.

Homework this week:  Every night students have 10 STAAR-like (or as close as we can get at this point knowing what we know) questions.  They are graded at the beginning of class the next day.  Students who complete the homework receive 3 things-  a ticket, a STAAR buck, and the satisfaction of preparation and a job well done.

Tickets are entered into drawings for prizes at the end of the week.  STAAR bucks earn them a chance to play games or purchase snacks in a school-wide STAAR carnival at the end of testing.