Feature Articles:

Test Lady™ Sisters at Smekens Literacy Retreat
Friday, October 8th, 2010

During the 2010 Smekens Literacy Retreat, Kristina Smekens introduced a Test Lady™ Skit that included members of the Smekens staff portraying the Test Lady Sisters. As the Test Lady™ Sisters were introduced during the skit, they walked up a center aisle as if they were models on [read more...]

Articles by Date:

Test-Prep Motivators
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Several teachers sent information about ISTEP Pep Assemblies they hosted prior to testing week. Many hosted special dress-up spirit days. There are some really creative educators out there delivering test-prep tips and Test Lady™ reminders to students! [read more...]

Test-Prep Bumper Stickers
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Bumper stickers are a fast, fun way for students to communicate encouraging sentiments and prepare for standardized testing. Teacher Pam Addison had her fifth graders write last-minute reminders and words of encouragement to their peers. She posted them in the hallway for all students to view. [read more...]

Test Lady™ Pop-up
Monday, February 20th, 2012

To help prepare their students for success on the standardized writing prompt, Pam Lewis and Jane Hoyle from Lake Ridge Middle School (Gary, IN) introduced the Test Lady™. When you see her, you may notice that she looks familiar. [read more...]

3 Test-Reading & 3 Test-Writing Tips
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

The kind of reading students do for standardized tests is often very different from the experiences we provide in the classroom. It's not different in content. It's not different in genre. It's not even different in vocabulary. It's different in length! [read more...]

Purple Word Day
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

For years Kristina Smekens has suggested the idea of using a purple highlighter to celebrate strong word choice in students' writings. Rather than writing lots of time-consuming, word-choice compliments, a teacher can communicate the same message with just a stroke of a purple highlighter. [read more...]

Trigger Happy
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Third grade teacher Austin Theobald from Loper Elementary School (Shelbyville, IN) was pleased after his class completed the writing portion of their standardized testing. He said he felt so good about their efforts. Even the kids were excited about how well they had done! [read more...]

The Test Ladies™ are Everywhere!
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Ever since Kristina Smekens introduced the Test Lady™, signs of that lady's true identity have been popping up all over. Here are some great examples of how schools are making the audience for test-writing a "real" person. Wouldn't you want to write your best for these Test Ladies™? [read more...]

Last Chance Workout
Friday, March 4th, 2011

Part of any achievement is goal setting. What about your writers? What are their goals? Whether your students are preparing for the state writing assessment or an in-class assignment, what are they going to be intentional about? [read more...]

Preparing for the State Writing Assessment
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

The weeks right before standardized testing can be a meaningful time for instruction. Although we all know skills are to be taught throughout the year rather than in a two-week blitz, here are a couple of considerations that might push your students to achieve higher scores. [read more...]

Topic Choice Tight Wire
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

With the pressure to raise scores on state assessments, the lean tends toward the prompt-writing side of the wire. Yet, if students always have free choice in writer’s workshop, they wouldn’t do very well with the state mandated prompt. [read more...]

Prompt Connections in Test Writing
Monday, November 29th, 2010

Topic choice equals topic voice, and yet, assigned topics are the nature of high-stakes state assessments. No choice. No time. No process. That’s the state writing assessment. And sometimes the prompt is about something totally out of a [read more...]

Topic Choice = Topic Voice
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

If it’s true that writers write best what they know about, what they care about, and what they’ve recently experienced, then it follows that topic choice is an essential part of topic voice. If a writer is forced to write about something that he cares nothing [read more...]

Timing for the State Writing Assessment
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

If timing is everything, then it is of great importance to know how much time to allot for the different components involved in the state writing assessment. What skills are involved in each part of the process? How can you pinpoint those skills? Read more for some simple ideas on [read more...]

Test Lady™ Sisters on a Bulletin Board
Monday, November 15th, 2010

The Test Lady™ Sisters are expanding their scope of influence. First, the Smekens Literacy Retreat. Now, their pictures are showing up in Smoky Row Elementary School, Carmel Clay Schools! Barb Mahnesmith used Kristina Smekens' Test Lady™ script to spur her students on [read more...]

Preparing Students to Write More for State Assessments
Monday, November 15th, 2010

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… [read more...]

Writing for the Test (Ladies™)
Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Increase the time with each streams of consciousness practice time. By the end of the year, you could make this into a contest to see who can write for the longest time without stopping. Then another challenge could be to see who can write the longest and still have their writing [read more...]

Right Before Test Time
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Days before the state assessment, consider passing back the students’ Test Lady™ portraits and having them add one more element. You’ve surely focused on some key writing components in the last few weeks and months (e.g. adding details, tying beginnings to endings, using strong action verbs [read more...]

FAQ: State Writing Prompts: Cursive or Print
Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Question: Should I encourage my students to write in cursive or print their responses to the state writing prompt? Answer: If you are a MS/HS teacher, then I would have the student write in whichever method is most efficient for the writer and most legible for the reader. [read more...]

Beginnings & Endings Are Crucial on State Writing Tests
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Let’s dive into the second most common reason students don’t pass--their writing lacks cohesiveness or completeness. In other words, they don’t have the 3-part combination of a beginning, middle, and end. They may have a beginning (or hook sentence), but after developing the middle, the piece [read more...]

The Test Lady™ Lives!
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

The Test Lady™ is alive! WOW! The creativity in your mini-lessons on the Test Lady™ was astounding. Some teachers submitted portraits, illustrations, and mannequin props. Others went so far as to announce the ISTEP Lady™ has disappeared, and the students needed to create “MISSING POSTERS.” [read more...]

Twenty Ways to Develop an Idea
Thursday, January 7th, 2010

With state standardized tests scheduled for late February and early March, we need to plan accordingly for the final push to get students ready. Before the tests, we need to fine-tune students’ strategies for elaborating in their writing, to hone in on [read more...]

Book Recommendation for Prompt Writing
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

One of my favorite books for prompt writing is entitled The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The book consists of fourteen black-and-white drawings, each accompanied by a title and a caption, allowing readers to make up their own stories to complement the pictures. [read more...]

Strengthen School-Wide/District-Wide Writing Assessments
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Many schools have already established a system for administering and scoring formal writing prompts. The scores from these common writing assessments are used to track student improvement and target future instruction. [read more...]

Key Lessons Before State Writing Assessment
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Here are my essential mini-lessons to target first-draft, on-demand prompt writing within the waning weeks before the state writing assessment: Study examples of good ones. Print off examples from the Department of Education website that include strong responses [read more...]

Where's the Test Lady™?
Monday, October 27th, 2008

The teacher called her Vestibule McFlannerty. Since introducing her as the ISTEP Lady™, the students had been referring to her frequently for several days. Then, one day a student confessed he had googled “Vestibule McFlannerty” to find out more about her. [read more...]

Writing Prompt Websites
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

Although not full-fledged prompts, this site includes a list of hundreds of writing topics. With a little revision, these could become prompts, or use them as ideas to spark your writers. Love this list of writing topics, sorted by grade-level appropriateness. Although not [read more...]

Culminate a Genre Study with a Writing Prompt
Monday, May 19th, 2008

After an intermediate or secondary teacher spends a couple weeks teaching a particular type of writing (compare-contrast, persuasive, narrative, how-to, expository, etc.), then the study typically concludes with a final draft of a written piece. [read more...]

Key Question on Scoring of Indiana's ISTEP Writing
Monday, May 19th, 2008

Q: I heard that ISTEP scorers are only allowed 30 seconds to read, which means they only skim the writing looking for key words. Is that true? A: To verify my information in this response, I emailed Indiana Department of Education consultants to get "from-the-horse's-mouth" answers. [read more...]

Introductions to the Test Lady™
Monday, May 19th, 2008

Several teachers responded to my all-call for interesting "Test Lady™" introductions. Here are some of the best: Cathy Strawer, Colleen Hostetler, and Jenni Kramer teach fourth grade at Topeka Elementary. Here's what they did--"We had our own ISTEP Lady™ come and review key prompt writing skills [read more...]

Getting Kids Ready for the State Test
Monday, May 19th, 2008

How do you get kids excited to write to a prompted topic that they know little about or care little about? For many writers, it's the lack of motivation to dive in and attack a prompt that holds them back. The students get in "git-r-done" mode and just slap some ideas on the paper to be done. [read more...]

Scoring School-Wide Writing Prompts
Friday, May 16th, 2008

Many staffs monitor the writing development and growth of students through the administration of school-wide writing prompts. When hundreds of writing samples are collected, the next step is for them to be scored with a common writing rubric. [read more...]

Writing Effective Prompts
Friday, May 16th, 2008

Balancing “free choice” writing with prompted writing in the classroom is important. Students need to develop the skill of on-demand writing. However, teachers sometimes draft assignments that sound more like a test question than a prompt. Here are a couple tips: [read more...]

Tracking Student Writing Experiences
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Even if your state's "big test" is behind you, the concepts and skills it assesses on the exam should be a part of your year-long teaching. The prompt portion, or what some call “on-demand writing,” should not go by the wayside. [read more...]

Helping Kids Envision Their Audience
Friday, May 16th, 2008

Students preparing for the writing prompt on any other standardized test need to know that they are writing to humans--not machines. Explain to students that the scorer reads hundreds of prompt writings from kids all over the state--and then she comes to theirs [read more...]

Idea Stretching Writing Strategies
Thursday, May 15th, 2008

When you need to break up a long writing project with a day or two of isolated writing experiences, you might try one of these strategies:1. Utilize one of Linda Rief’s 100 Quickwrites. This book includes 100 short passages, poems, and stories that each includes follow-up writing topics or prompts. [read more...]