1st Edition
What Every Middle School Teacher Needs to Know About Reading Tests (From Someone Who Has Written Them)
Tests require a special kind of savvy, a kind of critical thinking and knowledge application that is not always a part of classroom reading experiences. Who better to teach you how to prepare your students for reading tests than someone who has written them? Charles Fuhrken has spent years working with several major testing companies and contributing to the reading assessments of various testing programs. What he' s learned about testing can help teachers who are interested in teaching effective reading strategies as well as preparing students for reading tests. What Every Middle School Teacher Needs to Know About Reading Tests (From Someone Who Has Written Them)' offers extensive, practical strategies to help students perform well on test day. This ready-to-use, easy-to-understand resource provides a wealth of information about reading tests, including high-quality preparation materials, samples of the most frequently assessed reading standards, and engaging core-reading activities. Charles takes the mystery out of reading tests; he explains how students can learn the language of tests and apply their knowledge of reading to standardized tests. In addition to providing information about reading tests that will help students feel prepared and confident on test day,' What Every Middle School Teacher Needs to Know About Reading Tests' provides a wealth of resources that can be incorporated into a teacher' s everyday reading work, including vocabulary development, literary techniques, interpretation, comprehension, and more.
Introduction Section 1: Building Understandings About Tests Chapter 1: Helping Students Build a Test Vocabulary Chapter 2: Helping Students Become Test Savvy Section 2: Exploring Strategies for Reading Tests Chapter 3: Vocabulary Development Chapter 4: Important Ideas Chapter 5: Literary Elements Chapter 6: Literary Techniques Chapter 7: Interpretations Chapter 8: Text Matters Section 3: Putting Strategies to Work Section 4: Demonstrating Understandings with Reading Activities, Activities for Vocabulary Development, Activities for Important Ideas, Activities for Literary Elements, Activities for Literary Techniques, Activities for Interpretations, Activities for Text Matters, Conclusion
Biography
Charles Fuhrken. For the past twelve years, Charles has worked in assessment for three major test publishers and on testing programs for several states, as well as on norm-referenced achievement tests. After completing a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, Charles began writing What Every Elementary Teacher Needs to Know About Reading Tests. “From talking to teachers in various arenas,” he says, “I’ve come to understand that teachers want and deserve to be informed about tests, but currently they feel either uninformed or misinformed.”
