Steadily building their confidence and ability, our students have been learning effective reading and writing strategies all year. But will this learning transfer on test day?
When students have been immersed in reading and writing in different genres throughout the year, and the STAAR test is drawing near, they are ready to begin a Test as Genre Unit. A Test as Genre Unit follows the same methodology as other genre inquiry units. Students immerse in the genre of the test, reading passages they would expect to find on the test, reading and discussing the types of multiple choice questions they will eventually have to answer. Students explore the writing tasks and prompts of the writing test. And they slowly begin to build a rapport with the standardized test. In this case, familiarity breeds confidence. Students write passages and questions that emulate the test. Students study writing prompts and write their own. They had been reading like writers all year in the other genre inquiry units, reading like poets, reading like op-ed journalists, reading like novelists. Now, in the Test as Genre unit, they read like test-makers. And they practice the reader and writer moves they have been honing all year, using the test as their text.
Experts like Nancie Atwell, Randy Bomer, Ralph Fletcher, and Frank Serafini agree that students need dedicated time to practice transferring the skills learned in class to test-like tasks. This just-in-time workshop will deliver real strategies and instructional sequences for doing this important work.
