Faculty Highlight Reel - CRS Testing Edition

CRS Testing Edition

• Mr. Sobucki gave students work on interpreting graphs (which constitutes the majority of the Science exam).  He is raising his students’ grades on the exam as they complete their graph interpreting work.
• Mr. Hoerster is having students retake the test and rewarding them points as their grades improve. 
• Mr. Behzadi had the writing coach from the University of Chicago assess the essays using ACT’s Writing Rubric and prepare a handout on common writing mistakes.  The writing coach then presented the mistakes to the class. 
• Mr. Daly ran his classes through the scantron machine again to analyze how his students compare to the other scores from the Class of 2014.
• Mr. Enright is breaking the students into groups after reviewing the entire test as a class.  In groups, students will decide on a strategy / thinking process for tackling each question.  He will then grade the thinking process for each group. 
• Mrs. Millsap gave her students graphs to interpret and create their own heading, label x and y axis and identify independent and dependent variables.  Students will then use their graphs to answer additional interpretation questions. 
• Mr. Blew approaches the test by focusing on getting as many of the first 30 questions correct as possible.  He has students use process of elimination and focuses on translating the questions to identify the correct formula / rule that is required to solve the problem.  This is done as a class.  Students are encouraged to take their time on the first 30 and not to sweat the questions towards the end as they are the most difficult and, for most students, constitute topics that students haven’t covered. 
• Coach Kammholz’s Physical Education students rewrote their essays for improved grades after receiving feedback and a completed rubric from the University of Chicago writing coach. 
• Mr. Haggerty put students in categories based on their scores.  He then assigned each category a given 15-question section of another ACT test and required students to work on it until they received 12/15.  Students with lower grades had to complete more sections of the additional test.  Students were allowed to continue to submit the test until they got 12/15 correct and were rewarded for their work with an improved grade. 
• Mr. Hurry put students in groups and had them discuss the approach to each question item.
• Dr. Berry gave his English students work from Grammar for High School: A Sentence – Composing Approach for students that struggled with various standards.  Unlike most approaches to grammar instruction, this book requires students to complete their own sentences using given grammatical rules.  Dr. Berry matched students’ work with the standards they most struggled with.    
• Mr. Good posts the most missed problems that students should have completed around the room for what he calls a “Carousel Review.”  He then breaks students into groups and has them do the first step of the problem in front of them.  Students then rotate to the next problem where they have to look at what has been done and figure out what the next step is.  This rotation continues until each problem is complete. 

Other Ideas:

• Have students do the work of matching the question item with the College Readiness Standard it assesses.  This work will familiarize students with the standards they need to know.
• For each question students missed, they write a narrative explaining why they were incorrect and explain how they will think about a question item assessing that skill in the future. 
• Students present one problem they missed to the class (or a small group they are assigned to), explain the CRS that is measured, and teach the class how to approach that problem in the future.