[MOSAIC] Standardized reading tests

[Maggie Dillier]

Okay, a question first: if I turned off the email option and just read the
posts online (you guys write a LOT!), can I not respond to posts from the
website? This seems like a weird way to do it - I've posted, below, my
response to Linda and Linda's original post.

I liked Test Talk too, but I was REALLY hoping for some concrete curriculum.
It seems all they share is the first and last lesson in an unit. I would
like more details on the day-to-day components of a test-prep curriculum. So
no, I haven't tried the lessons. I am in need of a framework for ALL of my
reading lessons. (See post that will follow shortly!)

Linda, I'd be eager to hear what you end up doing with their ideas! I need a
mentor in this area. :)

~Maggie


Hi Maggie,

I am reading Test Talk right now, and I think it is great.
I teach third grade and we do a unit test after five stories.
I am going to take 1 day a week and follow their mini-lessons and
see if it helps.  I am not through the whole book, but I do
think they have a lot of good points.  Teaching test taking like
it is a genre and getting kids to really look for the text structure. I
think that because it was a schoolwide movement, they did not
make specific lessons - just general strategy lessons so everyone
in the school could use them.  Did you just read the book or did
you try the lessons and they didn't work?  I am anxious to know because
like I said, I am reading it now.

Thanks,
Linda Buice


-- 
Maggie Dillier

"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and
don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the
endless immensity of the sea." (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)