Test Smart: Ready-To-Use Test-Taking Strategies and Activities for Grades 5-12 - Softcover

Abbamont, Gary W.; Brescher, Antoinette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876289162 ISBN 13: 9780876289167

Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 1997

Synopsis

A storehouse of lessons and reproducible worksheets to help students master important test-taking strategies and skills. Students learn to follow directions and apply winning strategies to various test formats, including all kinds of standardized tests and classroom achievement tests.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This unique resource gives classroom teachers and contents specialists in grades 5-12 a ready-to-use activities program to teach and reinforce students skills in taking a wide variety of standardized and teacher-made tests in the areas of reading, language, and writing.

Each skills is introduced on a strategy page which may be reproduced as a student handout and is followed by one or more reproducible worksheets for practice in that skill. The strategy page presents the specific skill stressed . and explanation of the skill, an example, and a related testing tip. The worksheet(s) provide a model for you to develop similar activities.

All materials are printed in a big 8 1/4" x 11" format for easy photocopying of the strategy and activity pages, and are organized into four sections:

GENERAL TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES: Section 1 features 14 illustrated reproducibles that teach and reinforce skills in preparing for and taking tests, for example, Approaching the Test, Filling Out the Answer Sheet, Following Directions, Testing Format and Narrowing the Odds.

READING/VOVABULARY/COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES: Section 2 focuses on aspects of reading traditionally found in standardezed and classroom tests. It is packed with 63 strategy and activity pages featuring vocabulary—analogies, synonyms, antonyms and word parts—and comprehensive—main idea, sequence, and drawing conclusions. Included are activities such as Recognizing Relationships in Analogies ... Decoding Unfamiliar Words ... and Sequencing Ideas.

SPELLING/MECHANICS/USAGE STRATEGIES: Section 3 presents 27 reproducible strategy and activity pages to help students consider the form and content of test items in spelling and the conventions of langauge, including proofreading, capitalization, punctuation, and usage. Sample titles are Proofreading to Fin the Error ... Recognizing Correct Spelling ... Identifying Capitalization and Identifying Usage Errors.

WRITING TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES: Section 4 contains 27 reproducible strategy and activity pages focusing on the structure of written, covering the topic sentence, supporting details, sequencing of ideas, and word choice. Activities strengthen students' responses to both short-answer and essay-type questions. Examples include A Strategy for Writing Topic Sentences ... A Strategy for Combining Sentences ... and A Strategy for Writing an Opinion Essay.

The activities are illustrated with over 100 original drawings to facilitate students' understanding. An a complete answer key for all activities is located at the end of the book.

In short, TEST SMART! gives you a ready store of activities to build test-taking skills and performance. The activities will help students understand and develop specific strategies for taking tests. With such strategy, each student is more likely to approach the test confidently and demonstrate achievement to the best of his/her ability.

About the Author

Gary W. Abbamont, B.A. Rutgers University, M.A. Teachers College, has taught social studies and language arts for the past 23 years at Crossroads Middle School in South Brunswick, NJ. In 1987, he was named "Outstanding Educator" in New Jersey's Teacher Recognition Program.

Antoinette Brescher, B.A., M.A., Kean College, currently teaches science at Gill/St. Bernards School in Bernardsville, NJ. She was the reading consultant and a contributing writer for the Silver Burdett & Ginn Elementary Science series.

The authors also co-authored Study Smart! Ready-to-Use Reading/Study Skills Activities for Grades 5-12 (C.A.R.E., 1990).

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0876289162
• ISBN 13: 9780876289167
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240