ELA Testing - Day 1 (Reading and Multiple Choice)

Today was a pretty exciting day!  It was so nice to look out and see an entire room of YELLOW shirts!  Everyone was here today!  Mrs. Landin even made it by to make sure that her students were ready for the test!  All in all, I really can't complain about much.

• I picked the kids up from the gym after we did the announcements.   We came upstairs where I had Katy Perry's playing "FIREWORK" and Taylor Swift playing "SHAKE IT OFF" to get the kids to shine like fireworks and to shake off the fears.... We got the room ready by putting all the contents of our desks away and donning our yellow shirts!  We were ready!
• 2nd - 4th was all about testing!  Our classroom had 18 students, all general education with no changes to their testing.  They had 70 minutes to complete book 1, which was 5 readings and 30 questions.  The state said that most students would finish in 50 minutes, but our first didn't happen till 55 minutes, and only a handful at 60.  Our students went right up to the 70 minutes.  I can say that the 18 students who were testing with me, that all of them finished which is a good thing.   The problem with finishing in 70 minutes with other classrooms have 105 minutes and 140 minutes, is that we have to stay in our room and we cannot talk or make noise because others are testing.  I will say, that for the most part, the kids were good about staying seated, reading, drawing, or playing quiet games with each other until the rest of our students returned and the school was finished with testing.
• 5th period - This was supposed to be my break period, but when the teacher came in, I told her it was ok.  I knew that after testing, if I had left, the kids would have gotten too rowdy and started acting out.   I decided to forgo my break and stay with the kids.  I gave the kids options and they choose to read the class novel.  We read 2 chapters in our novel THE BFG.   We read THE PALACE and THE QUEEN.  WE are just about at the climax of our class novel, so the kids are really trying to figure out how this book ends.  I told them about this program I saw on TV about the Queen's Garden (since the book was taking place in the Queen's Garden at the Palace...) and we looked on PBS and it was still on.  I told them if they could do really good at lunch, we could watch the show online when we got back upstairs instead of doing Math.
• 6th - LUNCH
• 7th - I picked them up at 1:30 instead of 1:40 and we came upstairs.   We watched "The Queen's Garden" on PBS and they children got to see the real garden that they are reading about.  They seemed really interested (well, there were 4-5 boys who wanted to talk instead of watching, but that is a different story!).  

Because of testing - I gave the students a RARE treat!   NO HOMEWORK!

• Day 2 is a mix day for the ELA Test.  They will have to read several articles and answer another round of multiple choice questions (about 10)>  Then they will have to read a few more texts and answer several short response questions and one extended response question.  We have practiced soooo many times how to answer short response questions... R.A.C.E....  RESTATE the questions, ANSWER the questions, CITE your evidence (at least 2 supports), and EXPLAIN how these support your answer.   If they do this, they will get full credit on their response.   I keep telling the students _ I train the teachers how to score the state test... I am telling you how to get full credit... LISTEN TO ME!!! I KNOW!!!   I can't wait to see the results of our hard work.  Those who have worked hard, have tried... I know they will see growth!