FCAT Season offically started February 9 with the FCAT Writes.
If you have had your formal visit from the IRT team –two recommendations probably topped your list of Deliverables—
• spend the first 20 minutes of class on FCAT strategies
• analyze the benchmarks that are most tested from year to year. (http://fcat.fldoe.org/fccontentfocus.asp)
Diane Fettrow provided High School English Department Heads with just that-- Benchmarks, Skills and Number of Items in the Past Two Years in Reading.
Examine the data and have your teachers do the same thing with Science, Math, and the appropriate grade level of your school. The data is available—use it.
Now that you have this information, what do you need to do to assure teachers are using the information to your school’s advantage?
First, make sure teachers have taught all the skills listed on the chart. Next, have them recognize the clusters and skills that have the biggest payoff. Then, teachers should use the released items, the old tests, (http://fcat.fldoe.org/fcatrelease.asp) from the Department of Education for practice.
Teachers should not make this just another assessment. They should use it as a teaching tool to find out what students are missing. . . what they don’t understand. Time is running out!
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For 5th grade math make sure to review the benchmarks that are covered in short and extended response.
One strategy that is employed at McNicol Middle is to conduct a "Last Look" analysis of our bubble students and our high achieving students (level 3 and above) who were not predicted proficient on BAT Assessments to ensure they have acquired the skills necessary (through various extended learning opportunities) to become proficient on FCAT.
-H.Hamm
To address test taking strategies:
For three weeks prior to FCAT, each assessed content area, reading, math, and science, conduct mock FCAT testing using released FCAT test. This provides for students the opportunity of exposure to an actual grade level FCAT assessment. Teachers are responsible for grading and reviewing answers: teachers explain why incorrect answers are incorrect and why the correct answer is the choice.
Crunch time is so stressful, that I decided to try and reduce stress. We are not using the four letter F word. Our kids know that we have a state inspection coming up in a couple of weeks and the state just wants to see what we know :-)
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