Preparing Students to Write More for State Assessments

This lady looks a little like one of the Smekens Education Test Ladies™! And it looks like she’s feeling the pressure of the timed test-writing genre, too. But there are ways to get students ready to write for more than 10 minutes…

When you consider the upcoming standardized tests, doesn’t it make you cringe when you think of students who are “done” in 10 of the 55 minutes allotted for the state writing assessment? But many students have never practiced writing for that long.

State writing assessments require tight time constraints. “Stop writing, put pencils down, and close your booklets.” How do we prepare students for this kind of writing? We have to start early to help students prepare for on-demand writing. If we want them to be able to hold their own in 3rd grade, we have to start building muscle in kindergarten.

Quickwrites
One timely way to help students prepare for state writing assessments involves quickwrites. Although this seems an unlikely way to practice for a 55-minute test, quickwrites are wonderful for nudging students into a quick prompt connection. The last thing you want during a state assessment is for a child to go blank. Quickwrites help students practice jumping in quickly. This works for any age because it can also be a quickdraw! (Check out 100 Quickwrites, by Linda Rief.)

For more information and resources to help you prepare students for standardized tests...

• Kristina offers a powerful one-day workshop that focuses on prompt writing and preparing students for the state assessment. Watch for it in the fall in Upcoming Workshops.
• Want to help your kids "picture" the Test Lady™? Wear her to work. Sport a Smekens original Test Lady™ T-shirt with authentic anchor pictures from students just like yours. Visit The Literacy Store for more information.