As a
former Advanced Placement Physics teacher, I can unequivocally state that the
most important period of the academic school year was the three to four weeks
prior to the administration of the official examination. As the teacher who
designed his own course outline and curriculum, I made sure to dedicate the
three weeks prior to the examination to a complete review of all topics
explored throughout the year-long course. Not only was this strategy important
to remind students of everything that was taught in the course, but it was also
a fantastic opportunity to finally make connections between various domains of
content that would not have been possible whenever the topics were first
explored through the different units. After speaking with other Advanced
Placement teachers and individuals who work with The College Board, it is
evident that the “review period” has been statistically shown to increase the
pass rate for all Advanced Placement subjects. While one can argue that the
test is “being taught” during this period, it is important that this period
utilize the time to solidify students’ understanding of content and skills that
may not have been immediately understood at the time of original instruction.
Since I am
an advocate for standardized testing, and I realize that an individual school
cannot change testing culture if it is mandated (and dictated) by the state
legislature, I would like to spend time in this blog post to describe a
school-wide leadership plan that can address the need for meeting state
accountability benchmarks on the 11th grade ACT examination (for the
state of Kentucky) while simultaneously improving the school culture pertaining
to the relationships between the teachers and students in the school. By
implementing this plan, it is my hope that one can see the value of preparing
students for the 11th grade ACT examination while fostering more
collaboration between teachers and students alike.
The plan
consists of the following steps
·
At
the beginning of students’ Junior year, all teacher who primarily teach Juniors
will administer a mock ACT Examination to determine where all 11th
grade students stand in terms of meeting the benchmarks at the end of academic
school year.
·
The
school’s accountability administrators and curriculum specialists will use the
10th Grade PLAN Examination along with the results from the mock ACT
Examination to separate students into performance bands (Low performance,
Mid-Low performance, Middle performance, Mid-High performance, and High
performance).
o Junior-level teachers may also provide
insight into the appropriate performance band that select students should be placed.
·
Require
all teachers who primarily teacher Juniors to participate in an ACT Review Day
o Junior English Teachers, U.S. History
Teachers, Chemistry/Physics/Advanced Placement Science Teachers, Algebra
II/Precalculus/Advanced Placement Calculus Teachers, Arts & Humanities
Teachers, and selected educators who teach elective classes.
·
All
teachers selected to participate in the ACT Review Day should be arranged into
groups of two teachers who must work together to come up with fun, interactive,
engaging, and insightful/meaningful activities/games/instructional strategies
that can be used to help Junior-level students review for the ACT Examination.
The paired teachers should plan to teach a two hour lesson to groups of
students no larger than twenty-five.
o Science Teachers will be paired with
each other.
o English Teachers will be paired with
U.S. History Teachers and Elective Educators
o Mathematics Teachers will be paired with
each other
o Administrators will be paired with
Guidance Counselor Staff
·
The
paired teachers will need to create specific lessons/instructional activities
that meet the needs for the performance bands that were established earlier in
the academic school year. This will allow paired teachers to specifically
address the needs of each performance band in order to increase performance in
areas that they struggle the most. This zero-ing in on areas of improvement
will be data-driven based on the mock ACT Examination results.
o Paired Science Teachers will need to
create lessons pertaining to the Science portion of the ACT
o Paired English/US History/Elective Teachers
will need to create lessons pertaining to the Grammar/English portions of the
ACT
o Paired Mathematics Teachers will need
to create lessons pertaining to the Mathematics portion of the ACT
o Paired Administrators/Guidance Office
Staff will need to create lessons pertaining to general test-taking
strategies/tips for all portions of the ACT
·
Prior
to the ACT Review Day, the school administrators need to contact a local community
college or a community center that can accommodate the teachers and 11th
grade students for the special occasion. This location needs to be rented
(through grant money or as a result of a kind gesture).
o This will take the students out of the
“boring” classroom, and place them into an environment that is new, different,
and exciting. This will also decrease the formality associated with teaching
lessons in the designated school that the students attend.
o Funds would need to be secured to bus
the 11th grade students and teachers to the special location.
o If a community building cannot be
acquired, one section of the entire school building needs to be sectioned off
and used in a way that seems new, special, and exciting.
·
Prior
to the ACT Review Day, the school administrators need to secure the funds
necessary to provide the students with a special lunch that does not consist of
school food. Teachers can choose to make food for the students from their
homes, pizza can be ordered, or food from a restaurant may be catered in to the
students to keep the event fun, exciting, fresh, and different from a typical
school day.
·
On
ACT Review Day, teachers/administrator who participate should dress down to
make the day more exciting, fun, engaging, and informal.
·
On
an ACT Review Day, students will be separated into their performance bands
without specifically referring to them by their performance band categories. In
other words, students will not be told that they have been placed in the “High
Performance Band”.
·
All
teaching pairs will be required to teach two lessons consisting of two hours in
length. Students organized by performance bands will circulate around the five
possible lessons: Grammar, Mathematics, English, Science, and Test-Taking
Strategies.
·
Since
students will only be able to attend two lessons in a given review day, the ACT
Review Day should be implemented three times before the official ACT exam is
administered in March. It is recommended that the first ACT Review Day should
be held in November, the second ACT Review Day should be held in February, and
the third ACT Review day should be held in March (right before the ACT
examination).
o ACT Review Day #1: Students will
attend 2/5 of the available lessons. The remaining time of the school day is
used for a one hour lunch, travel time to the location, travel time to the
school, and field day activities.
o ACT Review Day #2: Students will
attend 2/5 of the available lessons, but not the lessons that they have already
attended The remaining time of the school day is used for a one hour lunch,
travel time to the location, travel time to the school, and field day
activities.
o ACT Review Day #3: Students will
attend their final lesson. The remaining time of the school day is used for a
one hour lunch, travel time to the location, travel time to the school, and
field day activities.
·
All
teachers in the school building will be asked to create “field day” activities
that are mean to reduce the anxiety and fear of testing culture. These
activities should be developed in such a way that encourages student-teacher
interactions that are in the form of team-building activities or competitions.
Regardless, teachers should participate as much in these activities as the
students. This should also include administrators as well.
·
Before
the official ACT Examination is administered, it is important to hold an academic
pep rally that is as exciting and eventful as an athletic pep rally.
·
Freshman
Teachers should plan to prepare students for the PLAN Test that they are to
take in their Sophomore year. The steps outlined for the official ACT Review
Day should be followed, except Sophomore students should not be bused to
another location. They should informally use the school building.
o These review days will take place on
the same days that the Junior level students will be gone from the building.
·
Sophomore
Teachers should plan to prepare students for the ACT Examination that they are
to take in the following year. The steps outlined for the official ACT Review
Day should be followed, except Sophomore students should not be bused to
another location. They should informally use the school building.
o These review days will take place on
the same days that the Junior level students will be gone from the building.
The above
strategy allows for a school to meet the needs of its accountability from the
state, but it also allows students and teachers to foster more meaningful, less
formal interactions that allow for student-teacher bonding. While it is
important that we want to get away from “testing culture” at some point in the
future, it is critical that we begin improving the overall school culture by
fostering the relationships between the stakeholders of the individual schools.
Once culture has been established, these relationship-fostering events can be
applied over a variety of different situations that are not exclusive to the
ACT Review Days. As the school culture improves, it is expected that students
perform at a higher level on their benchmarks as well.
As of now,
that is probably enough. Until next time, I am caching out.
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