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Teaching Strategies That Prepare Students for High-Stakes Tests

By: Donna E. Walker Tileston, Sandra K. Darling

Improve student performance on high-stakes tests with research-proven practices for teaching to standards!

This step-by-step manual outlines a straightforward, powerful model for infusing state standards and knowledge benchmarks into lesson plans and assessments to boost student success on high-stakes exams and enhance overall academic achievement. Grounded in the results of more than 30,000 research studies, these best practices empower teachers to easily:

Unpack standards by grade level into measurable units
Identify key elements of state tests
Determine and assess critical benchmarks
Select the most appropriate and effective strategies for teaching declarative and procedural knowledge
Implement strategies with reproducible templates

Full description

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412949767
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2008
Page Count: 104
Publication date: May 29, 2008

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Description

"Helps building and district-level administrators realize that they don't have to abandon sound and effective instructional practices to prepare students for high-stakes tests."
—Sheila Smith, Science Specialist
Jackson Public Schools, MS

"I encourage trainers to discuss this text and its applications with teachers to enhance the performance of students on state and national tests. This book meets a very specific need in classrooms."
—J-Petrina McCarty-Puhl, Teacher
Robert McQueen High School, Reno, NV

Improve student performance on high-stakes tests with research-proven practices for teaching to standards!

Standardized tests are one of the leading measures of student achievement and educator accountability today, so it is important to give students the necessary skills to perform well on state exams and to align instructional practices with standards. This step-by-step manual outlines a straightforward, powerful model for infusing state standards and knowledge benchmarks into lesson plans and day-to-day assessments to boost overall achievement.

Grounded in the results of more than 30,000 studies, the best practices shared by the authors are linked specifically to the two types of knowledge—declarative and procedural—assessed on high-stakes tests and are ranked according to their effectiveness for each type. To help educators maximize testing results while meeting state standards and ultimately deepening student learning, the text provides a solid framework that empowers teachers to easily:

Unpack state standards by grade level into measurable units
Identify the key elements of state tests
Determine and assess critical benchmarks
Select the most appropriate and meaningful strategies based on new data on the effectiveness of various instructional practices

From reproducible templates to tangible tactics for mapping lesson plans, this resource offers comprehensive tools for teachers to nurture learning and ensure success in all students.

Key features

A step-by-step guide that shows educators how to use the accountability and standards movement to improve student learning
This simple yet powerful model clarifies the processes of unpacking state standards; identifying the key elements of state tests; selecting research-validated teaching strategies; and using a variety of teaching tools to address all necessary elements for student success on their state test
Includes reproducible templates, resources, bibliography, and index
Presents new data on the effectiveness of different instructional practices

Author(s)

Donna E. Walker Tileston

Donna Walker Tileston is a veteran teacher and administrator. She is currently the president of Strategic Teaching and Learning, a consulting firm that provides services to schools throughout the United States and worldwide. Donna’s publications include Ten Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles, and Standards Define Teaching Competencies (2000), which has been on Corwin's bestseller list since its first year in print, in addition to the ten-volume award-winning series What Every Teacher Should Know, now in its second edition. Other recent titles are Teaching Strategies for Active Learning (2006), Teaching Strategies that Prepare Students for High Stakes Tests (2008), and Closing the Poverty and Culture Gap (2009). Donna received her BA from the University of North Texas, her MA from East Texas State University, and her EdD from Texas A & M University-Commerce. She may be reached at www.whateveryteachershouldknow.com

Sandra K. Darling

Sandra K. Darling is the founder and president of Learning Bridges. Grounded in five years of research, the Learning Bridges Aligned Instructional Database contains the most effective, research-based instructional strategies for the standards of all states—ranked in order of their power to impact learning. Born into extreme poverty in rural Minnesota, Darling understands the power of having significant adults in her life who believed in her, held high expectations, and taught her the value of integrity. She has co-authored three books in education and published articles in several education journals. She has presented on standards-based education, curriculum alignment, inclusion practices, transformational leadership, school improvement, strategic planning, and assessment practices to thousands of educators. She is the leading expert on aligning instructional strategies to content standards and delivering that instruction with the modifications to close the gap in achievement for diverse learners, i.e., students from poverty, diverse cultures, and English language learners. She received her BS degree, three master’s degrees, and her PhD from the University of Minnesota in related areas of education.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction

1. Zooming in on the Standards

The Forgotten Part of the Triangle

Meta-Analysis

Breaking Down Standards Into Manageable Parts

What Will Students Need to Know About the Standard?

What Will Students Need to Be Able to Do With the Knowledge?

At What Level Will Students Be Expected to Achieve?

In Summary

2. Identifying the Types of Knowledge

Using Benchmarks to Identify Tested Content

Unpacking the Standards and Benchmarks

Declarative Knowledge Strategy: Teaching Vocabulary

Procedural Knowledge Benchmarks

Procedural Knowledge Strategy: Heuristics

In Summary

3. Teaching and Assessing Declarative Knowledge Standards

Declarative Knowledge

The Process of Teaching Declarative Knowledge

Constructing Meaning

Activating Prior Knowledge

Using Semantic Mapping

Storing Declarative Information

Teaching Vocabulary

Diverse Learners and Vocabulary

Building Background Knowledge for Culturally Diverse Students

Providing Visual Representations and Kinesthetic Opportunities

Finding and Using Research on Best Practices

Formative and Summative Classroom Assessments of Declarative Knoweldge

In Summary

4. Teaching and Assessing Procedural Knowledge Standards

Identifying Procedural Knowledge, Standards, and Benchmarks

Teaching Procedural Knoweldge, Standards, and Benchmarks

Constructing Mental Models

Shaping

Automaticity

How Do We Assess Procedural Knowledge in the Classroom?

In Summary

5. Mapping Lessons to Standards

First Things, First

Levels of Understanding

Levels of Complexity

Mapping the Way

In Summary

Blackline Masters

References

Index

Reviews

"Helps building and district-level administrators realize that they don’t have to abandon sound and effective instructional practices to prepare students for high-stakes tests."

Sheila Smith, Science Specialist
Jackson Public Schools, MS

"I encourage trainers to discuss this text and its applications with teachers to enhance the performance of students on state and national tests. This book meets a very specific need in classrooms.”

J-Petrina McCarty-Puhl, Teacher
Robert McQueen High School, Reno, NV

Other Titles in: Summative Assessment & Testing | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

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