Since we are in the midst of test prep, I thought I'd sharing a testing strategy that I've been working on with my class: justification. Everything about multiple choice work has been about justifying answer choices and reasons for eliminating other choices. Although I am definitely NOT a fan of the testing mania, I want to empower my students with as many strategies as possible so that they can be successful. They are old enough to know and understand how tests are constructed, so I want them to be able to use the same vocabulary {process of elimination, distractor, text evidence} we do when we discuss tests.
What you see above is Grade 5 Daily Common Core Reading Practice Weeks 1-5 by Literacy and Math Ideas on TpT. This product has short reading passages and Common Core aligned multiple choice questions. If you are looking for some quick practice (as in less than 15 minutes) you may want to check this out. I use it between read aloud and word study. You can see the justification that my students gave for each answer choice {first sentence, no proof, not mentioned}.
This was not an overnight process! The first time I used the word "justify" with my class, we were working on finding word meaning in context. The justification wasn't great and a lot of times, it was really off the mark. You might notice while trying to determine the meaning of "bauble" this student wrote "not a gift" and "not a present" as reasons why he crossed out those choices. Those aren't great reasons, because the bauble was a gift. In this case, I wanted to see great reasoning for why jewelry is the BEST choice.
Tell me, what are you trying to get your students ready for their tests?
