Test Day

Today was test 1 for my grade 10 applied class. We tried doing “test talk” for the first 5 minutes. This is a technique I saw Howie Hua talk about in this video.

we put pencils on the floor, and with test in hand have 5 minutes to look through it and talk with others in the class. This strategy helps to lower anxiety levels, encourages people to read through the entire test before writing, and also values the collaboration that we do each day. Nothing is written during this time. After the 5 minutes is up, it was back to regular test protocol, quiet individual work.

I also handed out some smooth stones which is something I’ve done for years. It’s a good fidget, and also something calming to hold onto.

Some students used tiles during the test to help with patterning. Others just wrote and drew pictures.

for a first test I think it went pretty well!