Achievement Test, Some Took it, Some Didn't

Great job to the students that took the Ohio Sixth Grade Reading Achievement Test. Sorry to those that didn't get to take it, but your version of the test hasn't arrived yet. In an unbelievable move last week, the Ohio Department of Education told our district that students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) had to take a certain "version" of the test. And, because we hadn't received these yet, these students could not take the test with their peers. Even though most of these students spent every minute of every class in the regular classroom, they are excluded from testing until "their" version arrives.

Now, supposedly this test is no different that the other versions ( of which there are several), but for some reason, which was not explained to the district, all IEP students must take this specific test. These will then, without a doubt, be graded as a group.

For more information regarding this law read the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also know as No Child Left Behind. Basically this law requires schools and districts to focus their attention on the academic achievement of traditionally under-served groups of children, such as low-income students, and students with disabilities. The whole purpose of this act was to guarantee that all students achieve and are treated equally. It makes a teacher wonder why our Ohio Department of Education claims to be supportive, but then forces IEP students to all take a specific version of the OAT. Oh, and by the way, students will take the test whenever they arrive.

You can read more about this in the Columbus Dispatch's article State Goofs, Prints too Few Tests.

Achievement Vocabulary

Tune up that achievement vocabulary. "What," you say, "is achievement vocabulary?" Certain words are contained in Achievement Test questions. Now, I am not going to say that their only purpose is to challenge students, but they sure make the questions harder to understand.

Why say: How does the ending show what the writer felt?

When you could say: Analyze how the author's purpose is defined throughout the conclusion. Use detailed description to illustrate your position.

Now, I get that this is a reading test, but geesh, ask the question! It almost seems like the test writers from the Ohio Department of Education find the most difficult way possible to ask a question.

Anyhow, today we looked at specific words necessary to understand test questions. You can view most of the words at the Laurelville Elementary Wikipage. Students studied in rotating four person groups and then we had the big challenge. Students played Around the World, defining the words.

Congratulations to the winners: Shayna T., Micah L., Connor H., and Shelby C.

Achievement Test Tips

Laurelville sixth grade students compiled a list of the top 10 Achievement Test Tips.

Here is the Real Top 10, Baby!

1. Go to bed early, and get a good night’s sleep.

2. Eat a good Breakfast.

3. Come prepared (three sharpened pencils, erasers, highlighter, SSR book)

4. 10 Questions every 30 minutes

5. Read the questions before you read the passage, so you know what you are looking for.

6. Skim the article

7. Highlight the important information in the article and the questions.

8. Reread questions and look for key words. DON’T GUESS if you don’t know the answer to a question. Take a deep breath, read the question again, and look back into the selection.

9. Restate the question and number your answer

10. When you are done, go back and double check your answers.

Achievement Test Success Ahead

Hang in there!


I know you have been working hard to prepare for the Achievement Test. One week from today, you will have the opportunity for success. And, SUCCEED YOU WILL!

Are You Smarter Than a 7th Grader?

Everyone has heard of Fox's show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. In Reading Workshop, I didn't settle for that. I wanted to see if students are smarter than a seventh grader.

Yesterday, students were given an assignment straight out of the Ohio Seventh Grade Reading Achievement Test. As I told them from the start, "this is seventh grade work." The grandmother of Connor, a Reading Workshop student looked at the work and said, "this looks like 12th grade work to me." Obviously, this assignment was challenging.

You can view the test at the ODE website. Just follow the link to the 7th reading March 2006 Full Test. The answer key is there also. Students read a haiku poem and a passage, Do You Want to Write Haiku.

The passage had seven multiple choice questions and two extended response. As students worked on the passage yesterday, they put forth tremendous effort and concentrated on their work. Tension was high today as students scored their answers.

Student success was determined based on cut scores from the Ohio Department of Education, that determined reading proficiency for Ohio students in the seventh grade. Remarkably, in the two classes, 38 out of 43 students passed! I am amazed by such a successful sixth grade class!

Do You Get the Question?

This week, we are focusing on questions. Students are not even getting to see the passage that a question goes with, but they are expected to begin their answer. Sound impossible? Well, it is difficult but our students are proving they can do it.

Last week, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Caudill and I scored the practice run of the Ohio Achievement Test that students took on March 18. Students did well, especially on the multiple choice questions. As we scored the tests, the amount of effort students put forth, clearly showed.

One area that I noticed as an overall weakness, was in setting up short answer and extended response answers in a way that would make 2 or 4 points easy to attain. With this in mind, our instruction for the next two weeks, will focus on using the question to set up the best answer possible. This will help students as they take the Achievement Test, and even more important, as they move up through jr. and sr. high school.

Each day, students receive a paper with one or two questions. They must set up their answer, without being able to use the selection as a resource. Below is a typical question, and the beginning of an answer by Trevor S.

Active Reading

Are you an active reader? Or do you snooze along? Do you "dog it?"

Have a listen as a fourth grade student explains his view on how to be an active listener. Cooper, from The International School of Bangkok, in Thailand discusses the reading process.




Would these strategies help you as a reader? Which of the four steps--mark-up, visualize, predict, and question do you need to focus on personally? What are the implications for you when you take the Achievement Test?

Once we watched the video, and discussed it, students took the essay below, written by Roald Dahl and did the following:

1. Skim and then mark the article,
2. Describe two visualizations (things you could see as you read),
3. List 2 predictions you had as you read,
4. List 2 questions you have after reading.

Boy: Tales of Childhood
Roald Dahl

1 On the first day of my first term I set out by taxi in the afternoon with my mother to catch the paddle-steamer from Cardiff Docks to Weston-super-Mare. Every piece of clothing I wore was brand new and had my name on it. I wore black shoes, grey woollen stockings with blue turnovers, grey flannel shorts, a grey shirt, a red tie, a grey flannel blazer with the blue school crest on the breast pocket and a grey school cap with the same crest just above the peak. Into the taxi that was taking us to the docks went my brand new trunk and my brand new tuck-box, and both had R. DAHL painted on them in black.

2 A tuck-box is a small pinewood trunk which is very strongly made, and no boy has ever gone as a boarder to an English Prep School without one. It is his own secret storehouse, as secret as a lady’s handbag, and there is an unwritten law that no other boy, no teacher, not even the Headmaster himself has the right to pry into the contents of your tuck-box. The owner has the key in his pocket and that is where it stays. At St. Peter’s, the tuck-boxes were ranged shoulder to shoulder all around the four walls of the changing-room and your own tuck-box stood directly below the peg on which you hung your games clothes. A tuck-box, as the name implies, is a box in which you store your tuck. At Prep School in those days, a parcel of tuck was sent once a week by anxious mothers to their ravenous little sons, and an average tuck-box would probably contain, at almost any time, half a home-made currant cake, a packet of squashed-fly biscuits, a couple of oranges, an apple, a banana, a pot of strawberry jam or Marmite, a bar of chocolate, a bag of Liquorice Allsorts and a tin of Bassett’s lemonade powder. An English school in those days was purely a money-making business owned and operated by the Headmaster. It suited him, therefore, to give the boys as little food as possible himself and to encourage the parents in various cunning ways to feed their offspring by parcel-post from home.

3 “By all means, my dear Mrs. Dahl, do send your boy some little treats now and again,” he would say. “Perhaps a few oranges and apples once a week”—fruit was very expensive—“and a nice currant cake, a large currant cake perhaps because small boys have large appetites do they not, ha-ha-ha . . . Yes, yes, as often as you like. More than once a week if you wish . . . Of course he’ll be getting plenty of good food here, the best there is, but it never tastes quite the 1 On the first day of my first term I set out by taxi in the afternoon with my mother to catch the paddle-steamer from Cardiff Docks to Weston-super-Mare. Every piece of clothing I wore was brand new and had my name on it. I wore black shoes, grey woollen stockings with blue turnovers, grey flannel shorts, a grey shirt, a red tie, a grey flannel blazer with the blue school crest on the breast pocket and a grey school cap with the same crest just above the peak. Into the taxi that was taking us to the docks went my brand new trunk and my brand new tuck-box, and both had R. DAHL painted on them in black.

4 As well as tuck, a tuck-box would also contain all manner of treasures such as a magnet, a pocket-knife, a compass, a ball of string, a clockwork racing-car, half-a-dozen lead soldiers, a box of conjuring-tricks, some tiddly-winks, a Mexican jumping bean, a catapult, some foreign stamps, a couple of stink-bombs, and I remember one boy called Arkle who drilled an airhole in the lid of his tuck-box and kept a pet frog in there which he fed on slugs.same as home cooking, does it? I’m sure you wouldn’t want him to be the only one who doesn’t get a lovely parcel from home every week.”

This essay was copied from the Ohio Sixth Grade 2007 Reading Achievement Test.

Practice Makes Perfect-Achievement Test Preparation

Today we took a practice run at the Ohio Sixth Grade Achievement Test. We tried to make today as similar to the actual test as was possible. The test format was the same. Passages and questions were from a previous test. The time allotted and class structure was the same as when students will take the reading test on May 5.

On March 28, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Caudill, and I will score the tests using the same score sheets/rubrics as the state used. I will share the results with students on the week of March 31, and we will review areas of difficulty.

The practice today serves several purposes. When students take the actual test in six weeks, hopefully they will be familiar and comfortable with the process. This should allow them to perform at their highest level. The data from the test results will help me intervene on an individual and classwide level. I will be able to see specific academic areas that need addressed, and other areas that students have mastered. I can tailor instruction to best help the students learn what they need to learn.

The Ohio Department of Education has set up a website with a lot of usual information. There is a section just for the Ohio Achievement Test. Students can practice using test passages and questions from previous years. They have a choice of setting up an account to save their results, or they can Take a Test without Logging In. Parents and students can see what is expected, scores, and what they mean.

Students worked extremely hard, and with their accomplishments, the results will help us do the best job possible in preparing for the test, and learning what students need to be successful in upcoming grades.

Great job to all of the sixth graders for their effort!