Whew! Testing is Over....

... and we charge toward the end of the year with purpose! Resolve! 19....18....17.... This is my least favorite time of the year. For the homeroom teachers, every management trick that worked all year is either scrapped or completely retooled. The testing is DONE! Now it's just a waiting game. It's a difficult time to focus for teachers and students, alike. For an ESOL teacher, for every plan you think up, create, and prepare materials for, it feels like four of those will be cancelled. The fun part is not knowing until you go to a class to pull-out students and all the lights are off, little or no warning. Then, the test results come in, and boy, does that bring its own flurry of activity. So, as I begin to already scratch out plans I created this weekend, I have to adjust my attitude. I'll miss my students, and I won't get as much time to reach classroom goals with them or even say a proper, "Good luck in middle school. We'll see each other soon." By year three, I'll be better prepared to only see them a time or two a week until the end of school, I suppose. In the meantime, this little fella made me smile, I hope he can do the same for you. Gotta love Kid President! Remember, you've worked hard all year! You woke up every day because this is your calling. Administrators may have changed, curricula may have changed, expectations from higher ups may have changed. When a child succeeds, when a child is grateful, and when a child shows evidence of growth, we all remember, hopefully. We remember that any job has challenges, but ours has some pretty awesome rewards.

Chop Suey - Perfect Testing Review Dishes

I have a late one for you readers. I had the best time with this lesson, and I couldn't wait to share it... but, I had to do some Spring Breaking first! So here it is, my Chop Suey review lessons. This is a great, interactive way to connect students with the text and to check their comprehension. Let me start with the prep for this lesson first.

I was able to get a dozen to-go boxes, a dozen sets of chopsticks, and a dozen fortune cookies for $3 from my local Chinese restaurant. I made an 11pm run, so I was willing to pay much more. I was floored and so appreciative of the deal. "I'm a teacher" can be a powerful phrase! There are two Chop Suey lessons I've created. One is arranging a short story; the other, finding the main idea.

Story Chop Suey 
I found stories online and cut them up by sentences. For the product listed below, the stories are mine, completely original, so no worries about infringement. In each to go box, I put the story sentences on white paper that I curled. I also added the other parts, title choice and ending choice. Titles were printed on one colored paper, and story endings were printed on another. Students were instructed to put the white "noodles" in order, using all of them. They were then instructed to choose the BEST title and the BEST ending to the story. Once everything had be chopsticked out of the to go box and taped down, students read their story one more time. When they decided as a group that their story sounded correct, I gave them a story key to check their work.

Main Idea Chop Suey
I put out 8 boxes around the room, and in each box, I put 4 sentences. One sentence was the main idea. I timed the students to see how quickly they could find the main idea. When they were finished picking out the main idea with their chopsticks, I ran to check their answers and told them how many were right, how many were wrong. 

After they had them all correct, I asked students to tell me the main idea and use the phrases from the anchor chart to cite and defend why they thought they'd chosen the main idea correctly. Once finished, we checked the key to see the sentences together.

My ESOL kids loved using the chopsticks. Some had never had the opportunity to try. My students did a great job, and it gave us all a lot of confidence in their reading and comprehension. I've created the packets below that would be convenient for you to purchase; but honestly, plenty of stories are available online, too.

Get out there and get those Chinese food supplies. I'm still figuring out how many ways I can use them. For all of those testing now or in the near future, good luck to you and your kids. Hope they're all kissing and nurturing their brains! Before I link the product from TPT, here is a fortune cookie message. One fortune for you, one fortune for your students.

I hope the pictures help you see what is going on and how you can use the product. You simply print the pages, some on different colored paper, then cut the sentences into strips. Curling is optional, but if you plan on integrating the chopsticks, it makes it more manageable. Flat sentence strips may be impossible to pick up, and that's coming from a pro.... basically! Click on the images below to purchase your own copy on TPT.

Good luck! Thanks ahead of time for any feedback.

Testing Season Reflections - Bucket Filling

I've posted about testing season once already. I am one of three ESOL teachers at my school. Because ELLs' academic and language development can be influenced by so many factors throughout the year, it is crucial that we assess their language proficiency annually with ACCESS on top of all the other assessments they receive throughout the year. It does truly benefit us all as their instructors. I'll admit, it's exhausting!!! More than it is exhausting for me, I'm sure it's exponentially more exhausting for our little 5-11 year-olds. By now, perhaps we'll all become numb to it.

It's exhausting for me because there is no flow to my day. My schedule..., well who am I kidding? It's not my schedule. It's, 
                                      "Are they at lunch?"
                       "Are they at specials?"
                              "Oh, there's a Dr. Seuss party?"
                   "Wait, we have a writing/science/checkpoints/math test right now?"
               "Yay! We finished early!!!"
       "Did you say we got 3 new ELLs today? Well, we need to order more books, then."
    "They need two days of testing. If they're not absent, we can meet the deadline."


[Though we test every single ELL three different times, twice in small group and once individually... yes, every single child.] Then, there's, 
                  "There's three of them, why does it take this long?"
   "They can't just send a courtesy email 30 minutes before they pull students (it was a courtesy and it's hen's teeth)." 
             "Cover all the content on your walls."
                         "Testing's over, take down your coverings."
                                 "One writing test on Wednesday, cover all content again."

So, while we're still testing ELLs, now overlapping with small group testing general ed. students, I walk around listlessly. My usually very enthusiastic smile and how-you-dos has been replaced with a less vibrant smirk and an "eh." My bucket's empty, what can I say? I miss my students making my cozy little modular complete with their laughs, enthusiasm, and their awesome kiddisms. I miss all my grades, but closing out the school day with my first graders was always the best. It's been nearly a month now, and I'm dying for normalcy.

I received an email yesterday that made me realize just how much I was craving my regular bucket levels. Thanks so much to this parent for filling it up just a bit. What a sweet message! I have many heart-to-hearts with said student about paying attention in her gen. ed. classes. I try! This made me (until now) secretly swell with pride.

So, while I was thinking about replacing my snowman and snowlady bulletin board with a gumball theme (just for the bright colors), I may do a Bucket Filling bulletin board instead.... after I take down the content coverings for this round. To all you teachers out there, when I can, I will not dip out of your bucket, but rather, I will try to fill them if possible. Hang in there during testing season, don't interpret my smirk as lack of enthusiasm for you. I promise, that's not the case! That smirk actually means, "I feel ya. We'll make it though this."