State testing is coming up soon.
While I have very mixed feelings about the tests, I know that a ten year old should not be loosing sleep over these tests. Prior to a district assessment earlier this year, I noticed that the students were acting a bit off. I had them sit down and asked them to share some of the thoughts that were going through their minds.
- "My parents will get mad at me if I don't do well."
- "I won't pass the grade."
- "I'll be moved into a different reading class."
- "I'm no good at reading."
- "I'm going to get a bad score."
We looked at each thought they were having, and then came up with a new helpful thought. For example, instead of saying "My parents will get mad at me if I don't do well," they could label that thought as emotional reasoning and say in their heads, "My parents love me no matter what."
I didn't think too much of the exercise until I saw the test results. Amazingly, the students did much better than their previous reading exam. Of course this wasn't any scientific study, but it is worth a try and made for a much calmer classroom!