It is the final countdown. Whether you are one week or three weeks away from the test taking window opening, it’s time to think through how we can leverage the final days leading up to the test.

Some of our recent study with teachers has inspired the design of these final rounds of test prep boot camp in ways that prepare students to put their best foot forward on the big day, feel confident, and proud - knowing they gave it their best.

Try one, two, or all three of these final countdown test prep boot camp opportunities.

Bootcamp #3: Deal with Difficulty & Release the Scaffolds

Listen up! This one is an important one. We’re not talking about difficulty in ways that could possibly lead to FRUSTRATION here. Instead, we’re talking about looking closely at the information you’ve gathered throughout the entire year about students, skill sets, and the test.

Think about what Lev Vygotasky refers to as the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Your goal is to stay in that zone. The LAST thing you want to do is step out of the “ZPD” zone and risk setting up students to experience pure frustration when the test is just a few days away. Frustration leads to shut down. We need students to be engaged and ready to show what they know in just a few days or weeks. Therefore, the goal in this boot camp is to select a focus that with just a bit more explicit teaching and time, students will “get it” and experience success, which leads to their confidence as students, people, and yes - test takers.

How do I know where the ZPD is?

Great question! Throughout the year, if students are able to successfully accomplish a specific skill set with coaching from you while learning and practicing, but not yet apply the skill independently - they are ready for you to teach a few more strategies while at the same time, releasing (bit by bit) the scaffolds you’ve got in place that are propping up their learning experience. The goal in releasing scaffolds, or the swap of a scaffold with a strategy, is to set up students to independently apply strategies they have learned to reading, writing, thinking, and you guessed it - test taking.

For example, if you’ve designed a shared experience for students (where you take the heavy lift and model the writing process) about how to successfully write a short response - the shared experience IS the scaffold you’ve created in order for students to be freed up from the actual writing process, so that they can focus their cognitive energy in a way they can take on the thinking process required to:

understand the question or task being asked;
recall the reading from which to find the answer;
comprehend the text in a way that the correct answer can be synthesized;
formulate the answer in a mental model;
navigate the computer screen to select where the answer needs to be typed;
type the answer;
type the answer in complete sentences that are coherent and demonstrate an understanding of the task. (I’m exhausted thinking about it!)

The reason why SCAFFOLDS are important in well-designed test prep is because each test task is layered like an onion and requires multiple constructs of the brain to work simultaneously. This layered like work is why it’s important for test prep teaching to consider, and incorporate the gradual release of scaffolds that prop up the many layers of test taking. Well designed test prep teaching peels back each layer and teaches strategies for each. As the calendar inches closer to the testing date, we begin to shift our teaching toward strategies that teach how to combine skill sets (layers) in order to be a successful reader, writer, and thinker - and apply these skills to testing scenarios.

Below are examples of scaffolds being released:

If you’re planning to design a final test prep boot camp that teaches students to deal with difficulty by climbing (and releasing) the scaffolds together, here are a few tips to consider:

Begin the boot camp by “normalizing” difficulty - we all encounter it!
Return to a skillset that you’ve already taught, plan to gradually release scaffolds so that students are set up to apply strategies (more) independently
Select a focus that brings high value to student learning - a focus that with just a bit more time, teaching, and experience, students will be successful in applying the myriad of strategies you have modeled, and coached.
Stay within the ZPD.

Bootcamp #2: It’s Dress Rehearsal Season!

My friends in the theater world of performing arts think the dress rehearsal season is exciting because it’s a time when things are put together!

Artists thrive during dress rehearsal season because they try out, and bring together, all of their practice without an audience, so that when they step on the stage with a live audience, they know exactly how it’s all going to come together. How their costume is going to feel. How their wig moves as they move. Where the marks are for the spotlights. In other words, how it’s all going to go! It’s all a part of the process, so that nothing is experienced for the first time on opening night of the show. This way, their acting is convincing as they prepare to become characters in the story the production is telling. In the same way, we want to design experiences in the days leading up to the test where students can experience bringing all their learning together. We want students to be confident in their reading, writing, and thinking the day of the test. Part of this confidence is knowing exactly how things will go the day of the test - similar to opening night of a theater production.

We want students to know exactly how things will go so that all of their mental energy can be applied to reading, writing, and thinking instead of experiencing mental fatigue from trying to figure out the test taking scenario before they even begin to apply their literacy strategies!

Below are three examples of how to bring all of your teaching and learning together through a dress rehearsal style boot camp so that students are set up to experience success:

Role Play!
Total Immersion
Connecting with the Community.

Role Play! Act out, dramatize, and perform “If - Then” scenarios as a class so that students know ahead of time a strategy they can apply should a situation occur on the day of the test. Role playing is fun, engaging, leverages embodied cognition, and gives students rehearsal time and space to think through scenarios that might contribute to normal test day jitters.

Below is a chart of a few sample “what if”scenarios that could possibly be encountered on test taking days, a few possible solutions of “then we can try” and a space to think through an action item. Sometimes creating an action plan creates a productive pathway to naming the normal jitter, and having a concrete step by step plan. We encourage you to invite students you teach to co-author a chart similar to the one we’ve included here (or design your own), role play, and co-author possible solutions:

PRO TIP: When designed well, role play is an effective tool to use throughout the year to navigate nearly all situations that occur in a classroom community. During test taking season we recommend using it to normalize test taking jitters, but also throughout the entire year to discuss and work through collaborative solutions to classroom management protocols, social dynamics, and in general the journey of soft skills and emotional intelligence development!

Immersion

When we learn something, we often immerse ourselves in it. We are totally, completely involved. We watch. We listen. We watch and listen again!
During the dress rehearsal teaching of your final stages of test prep, consider conducting some total immersion experiences that students might encounter on test taking days.

What’s an example of a total immersion test taking experience?

Great question! Thanks for asking. To make the best of this boot camp, return to your notes from previous test prep bootcamps. What do you notice? What patterns are evident? When you notice a pattern, it’s typically an indicator that students are ready for you to teach them! In our conversations with teachers this spring, we’ve noticed a (fairly common) pattern from our observations of students. Many students are ready for you to teach them a skill set to navigate the technology on the devices they will use for the test taking process. To create a total immersion test taking experience to teach into this opportunity you will need to create experiences that parallel the “sticking point.” For example, if students are ready for more support with the process of reading a text on a screen, find a passage that mirrors a typical passage on the test in length, graphics, genre. Model for students how to click on the screen, scroll through the entirety of the passage, how to return to a previous section. Show students how to access the testing material on a device (which is a very different experience from reading a printed paper copy of a sample test). Create a digital mock test for students to experience first hand on their devices how to navigate the test materials. Make sure the mock test you create is designed to include all of the elements students will encounter on the day of the test.

A few questions to guide you in discovering your total immersion experience focused on navigating technology in devices are listed below. Do students need to know:

How to scroll on the screen to access more of a text while reading
How to click on answers?
How to fill in their own writing?
How to make changes in their typing?
How to return to a reading passage?
How to use a split screen?

PRO TIP: Immersion is an important condition of successful learning. We recommend designing a yearlong curriculum to include an immersion phase before each new cycle of study - especially in the teaching of writing. When we immerse ourselves in the learning ahead, it creates a roadmap, a pathway we can use to build a step by step model to learn. It helps us imagine and envision the journey ahead of learning.

Collaborative Community

This dress rehearsal reminder is for you - the adult - to make sure that students are set up for the utmost success. This is a reminder to gather as a community of educators to discuss, and plan test taking conditions for each and every student so that they are set up for success. For example, many students receive services throughout the year from adults on campus - will these adults proctor testing for students? What are the optimal conditions we can create as adults so that students take the test in an ideal environment that matches their learning style?

For example, if students receive services from the Speech Therapist on campus, or the Occupational Therapist, or the school psychologist and the student is familiar with the location of this work, does this space work for a testing location? Does the student have a 504 for extended time for testing? Does the child have an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) with test taking conditions that are current and relevant for the learning progress the student has made throughout the year? As a community, think through the test taking environment for all students. Where will students be the most successful? Do they need a smaller, quieter classroom that will eliminate distractions? Do they need to be in the presence of their classmates? Is there a trusted adult on campus who can proctor the test for the student in a calm, quiet, place?

PRO TIP: Assume nothing. As adults, we typically take for granted all of the years of experiences we have had on earth, and we assume that students “know how to…” which just isn’t the case because they haven’t had as many years on this planet as we have had in trying to figure things out. Our advice - get nitty gritty in bringing it all together with a dress rehearsal style boot camp! The more information and experiences students can have before the actual test, the more they are prepared, confident, and ready when they step on the (metaphorical) stage for opening day of the test!

Bootcamp #1: Get the Pom Poms Ready for a Test Prep Pep Rally

I have very vivid memories of stepping into the wooden floor gymnasium and sitting on the bleachers cheering on my classmates the afternoon of the BIG game!

Sometimes, I was on the cheering side; sometimes, I was on the athlete-being-cheered-for side. Both were exhilarating! Pep rallies bring the community together. The prep work has been done. We celebrate one another…and we psych up each other to step on the field, knowing we have put in all the work at practice leading up to the big game.

A pep ‘prep’ rally style boot camp is exactly this - we are cheering one another on and celebrating the work of reading, writing, and thinking strategies we’ve done all year!

This is a time when we celebrate that hard work and we focus on the psychological elements of being confident in our test taking game.

Lunch Box Notes - Have you ever watched a child’s face light up when they open their lunch to find a note from someone who loves them? Let’s leverage this idea and instead of lunch box notes, let’s ask members of the immediate school community, or neighborhood to write a test day note of encouragement to each student. Use this chart to help you keep track!
Playlist - music has a way of impacting our mood, and our mindset. Ask every student in the class to contribute a song that makes them feel happy, confident, excited. Create a playlist and play it throughout the days leading up to the test, and even on the morning of the test.
Class Mantra - co-author a mantra that represents the identity of the class. Practice saying it out loud, envisioning moments of success as a class. Write the mantra on a large chart paper. Ask students to sign their names to the chart, and perhaps sketch an image that represents their identity as a member of the class community.
Personal Mantra - Show students examples of mantras. Model creating your own mantra - the questions you ask yourself, jotting a few options, selecting the one that resonates with you the most. Give students time to jot a few ideas in their notebooks. Set up students in their partnerships and give them time to share their ideas with their partners (sometimes hearing ideas out loud helps you select one that resonates in both the idea and sound). Give students the opportunity to jot down their personal mantra on a 3 x 5 card (or cardstock). Encourage students to use it as a bookmark, or put it in their pocket to help them remember it - and all their hard work! One of my personal favrites is, “I can do hard things!”
(Singing) Telegram - a telegram is a way of sending information (before the invention of zoom, video calls, text messages, or email!). Invite members of the school community (students, teachers, faculty members) to visit the classroom and send well wishes! It doesn’t really need to be a singing telegram…but we’re not stopping anyone who may be inspired to proudly display their not-so-hidden (singing) talents with students in your class! Be creative - invite members of the community to visit brick or mortar or remotely! We trust you’ll make this work for you and your community members.

A reminder before you go…

Whether you’re planning a test ‘prep’ pep rally, “directing” a dress rehearsal, or engineering the final push to gradually release the scaffolding, the goal is the same - you want your students to feel cool, calm, collected, and confident.

No one knows your students like you, so remember to trust your gut instincts here as their teacher, leader, director, and coach. Ask yourself: what do they need collectively to feel confident? What do certain students need respectively to feel calm and collected in the chaos of test prep or taking the actual test?

Your final countdown bootcamp - whatever you choose - should be about building their confidence as test takers, but, more so, as readers, writers, and thinkers.