6 Ways to Engage Your Students During Test Prep

Listen to the full episode to hear how to engage your students during test prep:

Test prep is so much fun, said no teacher ever! Well friends, it’s that time of year again – test prep season right before state assessments. 

There’s always a negative connotation with test prep, but I’m here to tell you that it can be engaging, informative, enjoyable, and collaborative amongst your students. In today’s episode I’ll be sharing 6 ways to keep your students highly interested throughout your test prep season. 

Last week’s episode was all about assisting your students with test prep, but today I’m focusing more on how to keep them engaged, interested in their learning, how to keep student participation high, but also enjoyable for you as the teacher! 

The 6 ways to engage your students are: show what you know, incorporate common reading activities, the cut up, read around the room, selective questions, and the use of response cards. 

Don’t think you have enough time to incorporate these before the big day? Well, you do! Now is a great time to start using these in your classroom because they’re a great way to spark something new and different with your students, which piques their interest and engagement. 

Another bonus of these strategies? They’re low prep! Time is of the essence, so try one of these with little prep, but a whole lot of movement and interest!

Already planned out your test prep this year? Try incorporating them throughout the school year next year! They will still have the same effectiveness in having students participate, collaborating, and talking with their peers, all while working on reading skills.

The beauty of having so many ways to engage students is you get to pick which ones would be the most effective with your students. You can also be intentional and differentiate based on the needs and skill of your students. 

So if you’re looking for quick, effective, learning by moving, collaborative, and engagement ways to engage your students during test prep, we have your covered! Don’t forget to tell me which ones you’re most intrigued with, excited about, and most successful with your students – I love to hear from you! 

In this episode on how to engage your students, I share:

• Quick and low prep ways that incorporate movement while learning
• A bonus strategy to engage your students during test prep
• How response cards are great for partner checks, which can lead to discussions amongst peers
• Why differentiation is easy to do with these test prep strategies 
• How collaboration is power, especially for students discussing answer

Related Resources:

• Episode 77, Test Prep Tips That Will Help ALL of Your Students
• Test Prep Instagram Post
• Simple Student Response Cards
• Student Response Cards

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About The Literacy Dive Podcast:

Do you find yourself seeking new ideas when it comes to literacy instruction in elementary classrooms? The Literacy Dive Podcast was created to offer actionable steps and to share information for teachers, like you, who are always looking to improve their craft! ELA is our jam and we are excited to dive into all things reading and writing with you!

Your host, Megan Polk, is the creator and owner behind The Literacy Dive and loves to support students and their teachers with curriculum, literacy instruction, best practices, and engaging literacy activities.

Dive in with us every Monday for a new episode from Megan! She, and her guests, will chat about various literacy topics and will bring you tips and tricks that can easily be implemented in your classrooms. You can tune in wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to The Literacy Dive Podcast on platforms like Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, and more! If you find value from listening to this podcast, please rate this show, leave a review, and follow!

You can tune in wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to The Literacy Dive Podcast on platforms like Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, and more! If you find value from listening to this podcast, please rate this show, leave a review, and follow!