I teach middle school, now what?

      As a teacher of 20 years, I took the plunge and moved to Sixth grade in the middle schools.  What a difference!!!! I made it through the first nine weeks.  It is such a blur.   I realized  that just trying to manage 5 different classes with over 22 students in each was a challenge.  However, that wasn't the biggest challenge.  The biggest challenge was running workshop in a 45 minute time span.  I often heard MS teachers talk about how workshop is not for the middle school and just wondered how they could not utilize workshop model.  And than I became a MS teacher,  boy did I start seeing why they felt the way they did. I began to question all I believed in as a Reading teacher and had to have a lot of pep talks with myself.  I had to step back and realize, "No I can do  Reading workshop in Middle school." I just needed to reevaluate what I was doing?  What was working? What wasn't working?  What did I do in Elementary?  How can I use that and make it fit the time span I had in MS.  So I dove in and I made it work and now I have a flow and plan to make this flow run more smoothly in the new nine weeks.

How did I plan to do this, you ask?

I took a piece of paper and sketched out a few scenarios. I had to consider the expectations of the building.  All teachers had to be in the hallway and monitor until the tardy bell rang.  So I had been seeing post on FB about Bell Ringers and Do now activities, that  at first I saw no need for. WRONG!

So I quickly thought of activities that students could do the first 5 to 7 minutes of class, while I monitored in the hall way.  I came up with several possibilities.  Have you tried any of these as a Reading teacher?

• Students enter and discuss previous reading with partners, by pulling one sticky note to talk about using the question prompts provided.  Students are encouraged to revise and edit the sticky note and place both back in their journals, reflecting on them.
• Students would pull a sticky note from the previous night and right long and strong over it in their journals guided by questions that were on the board.
• Students would read independently, or complete previous nights homework if necessary.
• Students entered and began to do a write around based on prompts that were on the tables,  it may reflect on a previous lesson, homework, or to set up the days workshop learning.

I than had to make sure that I read the lessons a head of time and wrote out my script using note cards or large sticky notes.  I  know from previous  experience that trying to hold and read the text isn't effective or necessary.  I make my anchor charts and or slides I  planned to use for the week,  ahead of time.  I had to then practice them.  It was a necessity that I stuck to no more than 15 minutes for my mini lesson. Now don't get me wrong,  Some days my Mini was a Maxi and I had to reevaluate why and make adjustments because  with 20 minutes left I,  I  was determined that kids would be independently reading and I would be conferring or pulling small groups after the first few weeks of schools. 

   The first nine weeks was a lot of learning curves for scheduling, managing time, and dealing with transitions, lunch, meetings and drills.   Where I usually gather my data  and use it to create my groups and conferring schedules, I found myself winging it.  Anyone that knows me, knows this frustrated me.  So I came up with several ways to approach the new 9 weeks, I looked at what happened the first nine weeks.  I spent my weekend getting it together.  I went through all my data, analyze my students strengths and weakness, created small groups, determined how to make sure I pull every student in a week. My goal is to pull at least 2 small groups a day, conferring the entire time or a combination of both.

Now that I realize 45 minutes is not as long as it seems,  I have to be real strategic with managing my time especially in regards to the  mini lesson. It is doable, even with Lucy Caulkins UOS.  I learned from 7 years of  using her resources, planning ahead is the key.  I read the lessons for the week over the weekend and scripted out  what I would say and do to meet the learning target of the lesson.  I then  made sure to look over each lesson again the day before I present the lesson.

 Another game plan is to still plan to do  the Do Now activity,  So I scheduled  them in a rotation format.  I modeled them to the students and then I change it up daily.  I than worked backwards.  I  still want to do the Do Now.  I can use the entire independent reading block and  hold table top conferences with as many students a day as I can giving mini teaching points.  My goal is for students to spend most of their time reading during the time in my room, keeping my conferences between  2 to 7 minutes each.  Which every I chose.  I feel like I have a game plan.  Yet as most games, their is always a foul or a fumble that has to be over come.  We shall see.

Reading workshop is a model where kids should be reading most of the time.  I realized that unlike elementary it isn't familiar to some MS teachers.  With the time constraints, I see why.  However, I know from experience that small groups and conferring is the way to move kids and kids need time in class to read  or write during reading and writing.  So I plan to make that happen.

So how do I create small groups in MS?  

I use my data.  What data?  

Reading logs:

I can analyze what they are reading, how many pages are they reading daily, how long is it taking them to finish a book, what their goals are and if they are meeting their goals.  I can create small groups based on analysis.

Reading Journals:

What types of responses are they writing the most and least, are they using text evidence or not and/or are they demonstrating understanding of the learning targets from previous lessons.

Sticky notes:

What types of responses are they writing the most and least, are they using text evidence or not and/or are they demonstrating understanding of the learning targets from previous lessons.

Previous STAAR results:

I look at the categories and the TEK:  The lowest and the highest

I look at MAP results:

Categories, sub categories,  reading level range

I am able to form groups to meet the needs of the students using this information.  Do I use it all?  No,  Do I look at it all?  Yes you may find commonalities that would further solidify the groups you make.  I than use various resources to find skills and strategies to address in my small groups.  One of my biggest resources to use is Jennifer Serravallo:  Reading Strategies book.   I often come up with my own lessons to meet the TEK that I am addressing.  I know I will modifying and adjusting as I go because  that is what we as teachers do.  

If you would like more information on small groups check out my previous blogs or grab this resource in my TPT store by hitting the  tab on the right marked.

If you have the opportunity check out my other social media sites and follow me

www.instagram.com/MrsEduc8te/

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The New School year is approaching. " Now What?"

Teaching is a hard job, let no one tell you different.  We are never truly off.  We wear several hats and are constantly modifying and adjusting.  However, as a teacher we need to make sure to get to know the learner as a person before we began to educate them.

So it's the first week of school,  do I teach content or build  a community of learners?

Build a community of learners.

How do I build a community of learners?

Teachers need to make sure students get to know one another as well as get to know you as a person and a  teacher.  Here are several ways to do this?  Make sure you as the teacher participate as well.  Some you will want to do a head of time to model what it should look like.

1.  Create  "Get to know Bingo Boards."

Set a timer for  5 minutes and allow kids to do a scavenger hunt with one another.  They need to find someone that fits each category.  The kids would sign their names to a box.  The goal is to get a signature from each student.

2. Have kids to create visual representations to introduce themselves to the class.

Students can make flyers, posters,  or book marks using pictures to describe themselves.  You can even allow them to cut out and make things to glue to their medium to share.

3.   Have kids do Acrostic poems about  their favorite subjects, books, tv show, game, etc.

Students can use different types of paper that you have cut up ahead of time (card stock or construction paper) into different size strips, hole punch some of them, grab some yarn, string or ribbon so they can create a book mark or you can display in the classroom.

4.  Have them bring items from home to share during morning meeting,  so many kids are assigned a day until everyone has shared.

5.  Create or download  Get to know Interest Surveys.  I use a combination of the  subject areas and  personal interest surveys.

6.  Make Flyers introducing themselves.  There are several ways,  For reading you could have them write I like and I don't like book poster.   When I taught math we did a buy the numbers flyer. We divided the construction paper into four boxes and drew diagonals into each  box and use numbers to represent themselves.  Example:  2   I have two siblings:  Dawn and Eric

7.  Give students an Index card with the prompt:  If I could tell my teacher anything about me it would be............  You will be amazed at the information you get.

8.   Let students create a Flipgrid to introduce themselves.

 Don't forget that  keeping a positive Mindset is something we need to instill in students so in order to make that happen,  I will read the book The Girl that Never Made Mistakes:  But here are a couple ore:

1.  Fantastic Elastic Brain
2.  Beautiful oops
3. The Most Magnificent Thing
4.  How Full is your Bucket

This year I will talk about character development and use posters to represent character traits that students should be aware of I am able to build a bulleting board of vocabulary words that represent character and good citzenship.  Here is a link to the freebie,  if you like them grab the entire set.  I usually introduce 1 in the morning,  1 mid day and 1 to close out the day.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-Character-Anchor-charts-3927937

ROUTINES, PROCEDURES, EXPECTATIONS

As a teacher we have to make sure these are in place in order to get curriculum accomplished.  Remember to model what you expect.  Allow kids to make the rules with you.

I always start by posing this question?

What behaviors do you think we need to display as a community to ensure that everybody is able to learn at his/her on speed and in their on way?   (You may want to incorporate a Read Aloud or two.)

Some of my favorites are listed below.  However,  think about your grade level, the suggested ideas are just that suggested.  There is so much more you can do with any book you choose to read aloud to kids, modeling fluency, model thinking strategies, introduce reading skills,setting goals and even teach routines and expectations

Mrs. Nelson is Missing-  Behavior expectations
Recess Queen-  Behavior Expectation
Molly Sue Melon- Bullying
First Day Jitters
How I spent my Summer vacation
( You can use as a jump off for writing workshop.  shows what strengths and needs.)
Each Kindness-  Belonging and respect
Mrs. Malarkey Leaves no Reader behind-  Choosing Books
Come on Rain


Tips to consider:

• Avoid trying to give them too many  Rules and Routines at a time, spread them over a  few weeks.  
• Always come back and visit them often.  Always address the rule being broken not the students.. 
• Choose your actions and words carefully when correcting misbehavior.    
• As with all discipline plans,  you need to make sure kids are aware of the consequences for not following those rules and procedures.
• Make sure you are consistent, fair and respectful
• Create a visual to hang in the classroom:

  LOOKS LIKE               SOUNDS LIKE

• Say it, explain it, model it and  have kids model it as well. Be sure to include what it doesn't look like as well,  but I wouldn't necessarily put it on an  anchor chart.

Don't take anything for granted:  Here are the routines/procedures I have written to model and taught over previous years and I am sure a lot of these will be helpful in middle school as well.

1.  How to line up,  turning in work, sitting in seats
2.  How to use the pencil sharpener
3.  How to use materials in room( several different lessons)
4.  How to use class library
5.  Morning daily routine:  Planners, Homework, daily work, attendance
6.  Jobs and duties
7  How to come to/from meeting area and materials needed
8. SLANT( acronym we use in our district:
       Sit up in chair
       Lean in to listen to speaker
       Ask questions to confirm and understand
       Nod your head to show confirmation of information given
       Track the speaker ( all eyes and body turn toward the speaker)

9.   Non-Negotiable  (school wide)
10. Asking questions
11. Planners, Take home folders
12.  Traffic light signal( for noise level as well as to signify when to not disturb teacher
13.  Restroom, hallway and cafeteria expectations
14.  Partnerships/group work
15.  Use of School supply and Browsing boxes
16.  Labeling work
17.  Setting goals/progress monitoring
18.  Homework
19   Use of centers and nooks
20   Pillars ( Caring, Effort,  Responsibility, Respect, Integrity)= Citizenship
21   Consequences/Disciplinary plans
22.   Emergency Drill expectations
23.   Use of Technology
24.   Attention and other signals used in class ( your choice)

These are  the procedures and rules I have addressed over the course of my teaching career.  There are no set rules,  Think about what needs to be in place for your class to run efficiently and effectively, and no I don't do them all on the same day.  I do Mid workshop teaching points and also spread them over the first 3 weeks of school as stated before.  I revisit them often,  I make sure to model and follow the anchor chart format:  What does it look like, and what does it sound like?

You want to have routines and procedures for how the major workshop will work daily:
Reading Workshop, Writing workshop, Math workshop, and maybe even Science workshop.  There is a gambit of procedures and routines that  I do over three week period,  A great resource that gives a list of  mini lesson ideas for Reading and Writing  Workshop is Fountas and Pinelll's :  Guiding Readers and Writers.


Here is some pictures  of my old classroom,  However,  I am moving from fourth to sixth grade and I am working furiously to get my room set up,  Starting with my library.  Look for a blog post to come about setting up classroom libraries.

So take a breath,  ask a colleague,  learn by doing and be okay with making a mistake.  After 87 years,  I do.  However,  just remember the key for me was to start reflecting.  I kept a journal and everyday I would journal about my day,  what went well, what didn't.  My actions and behaviors, the students actions and behaviors.  I problems solved and made lots of list in my journal.

Every one have a great 2018-2019 school year.

You are appreciated

So you're a teacher? Now What?

As the year winds down, and testing wraps up.  Now what?    Students are tired, teachers are tired.  Sometimes behaviors explodes and students have literally checked out.  They figure we have taken the state test,  schools over.  Yet you have anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months left.   So Now What?

How about Book Clubs.  A great way to wrap up the school year.   Book Clubs allow students to collaborate and be interactive.  Their are so many things that you can do with book clubs, and their are so many ways to form students.

Did you know that book clubs don't have to be just  chapter books.  How about starting off with picture books.

Some of my favorite books to use for book clubs:

Baseball Saved Us
Rosa Parks
Anne Frank
Pink and Say
Ruby Bridges.

IF you are looking for additional resources and like some of these titles I have additional response activities that you can use with them.

I

If your not sure about book clubs,  how about creating a bingo board of activities for student to choose from to apply to their books, whether they are book club books or independent books.  My goal is to keep their hands moving and them actively engaged.  No down time!  Students love making and creating things.  We have created power points, book boards, diorama's, posters, puppet shows, and much much more.  Here is the resource given to the students,  I model those I think they are unfamiliar with and as they choose if needed I model as the need arises.

So, it's the end of the school year, so what?

        Are your students loosing focus?  Are they acting like they were at the beginning of the year?  Have they began to act out or become  unmotivated or care?  What's a teacher to do?

       In order to have a smooth exit to the year,  it is important that during this time of year teachers take the time to remember that they need to revisit expectations and continue with morning meetings.  The students need consistency so don't let up.  Now, I am not saying bombard them with work, especially busy work.  I am saying  use activities that will grab their attention but still address learning targets.

       The first thing to do is to make sure to have not only morning meetings but classroom meetings.  I have three rotations,  a homeroom/Social Studies and two LA/Reading  rotations.   I started revisiting our school pillars, one a week with my homeroom students. The students are creating posters that represent what they do and don't look like.  They are coming up with statements as well.  There job is to tell me one way they plan to show that pillar, and to evaluate themselves at the end of the day.   What are you doing to ensure students comply.

       In my rotation stations we revisit the contract posters we created at the beginning of the year as to the expectations for Reading and Writing workshop to be able to take place efficiently and effectively.   I remind them of the Non-Negotiables established at the beginning of the year.  I make sure to address every infraction that is major, and ignore the ones that are petty even if they are becoming annoying.  You will have those students that will do things just to get under your skin.  That is where you refer to some of your favorite PD for classroom management strategies.  I posted a few below.  I do make sure to stop when behaviors are off and problem solve and come up with solutions to the issues.  I don't want kids to think that it is okay for some behaviors and not others.  I just don't harp on them as a whole class.  I pull those students quietly and use some of the strategies from Power Struggles.  If you don't have this book.  I highly recommend it. 

        What are you doing?  Do you need ideas and support? Check out these two resources, they are sitting on my desk now and when issues arise I refer to them.  Great tools for all teachers especially new teachers.

             





       Other things that I have found that works at the end of the year as a reminder to students of their jobs is  number one practice academies.  If students aren't doing what is expected, I reteach and model expectations, have them practice it until it becomes a habit again.  The main thing is to not let the end of the year or the fact that testing is over to justify students lack of effort or behavioral changes.    A second thing is rewards,  give out reward coupons, use your treasure chest,  Here are a few rewards I use.  You will find them in my store.  Hit the link on the sidebar and it will take you there to check them out along with other resources for the classroom.



        When All else fails,  make sure to give opportunities for students to share and discuss their learning,  make sure to give brain breaks and technology apps such as:  Gonoodle, Kahoot, padlet, google classroom, CPS, Pic Collage,  and Sock puppets.  Use logic puzzles, incorporate music and art around  content area.   The goal is to keep them engaged!! However, keep it relevant to content,  not busy work.

So it's the end of the school, year, Now What?

So, you teach writing and it is time for state testing. Now what?

          As state testing is approaching, many of us  are  just trying to stay above water and make it from one day to the next.  However, we also have to be intentional about our teaching at this point.  So how are you keeping kids engaged while preparing them to take the test? What is your plan of action to avoid the stress, keep the kids motivated and to avoid teaching to the test?

       As I sat with my colleagues, we looked at our State Teks and what fourth graders are expected to know for the state mandate test.  We pulled our curriculum and began the tedious task of  making sure or lessons aligned to the Teks.  We realized that many of them we cover everyday. so we relied more on our MAP data  for LA and the Oral practice STAAR test for Reading

  I went to work  developing my plan of action:

Writing is the focal point for us at this point.  So with my data in hand, note cards, and color pencils I began to study and sort.

1.    I  looked at whether kids were below standards, approaching standards, meeting standard,  or exceeding standard.

2.    I colored coded the students scores; red- did not meet,  yellow- approaching, blue-  meets, green- exceeded.

3.    I looked at the skills that were missed the most that are tested  and create sub groups within each category.

4.    I  determined whether we needed to reteach, teach or enrich students and planned accordingly.

5.    I created a schedule on who I would pull, when, and how often.

    At this point I knew I had to work on my pacing and use a timer if I wanted to get the most out of my time and hit the needs of the students.  I decided which two groups I would definitely pull daily.  As I looked at my groups I new I needed to break up the monotonous of paper pencil activities.  So   I created games that required movement, collaboration and discussion by the students. 

First,  I pulled passages for the week over four different skills and than one for a formative assessment.

Second,  I would see if I already had a game or create a game to go with the skill,

Third,  I would create my anchor charts for each day.

Fourth, I would tie this into reading by providing students with a mentor response sheet where they would find sentences that represented the skill and copy it onto the response form.   or  I created mentor sentences from some of my favorite read alouds and used Jeff Anderson's Notice and Mimic strategy.  It kept students more engaged.  If your interested hit MrsEduc8te TPT store on the right and grab this freebie and check it out.  You can use one sentence for a week or one sentence a day.  Each sentence easily represents several different grammar skills.
   

If you enjoy the freebie, than grab this comprehensive packet.  It consist of mentor sentences from 5 of my favorite read alouds.  All picture books, all familiar to the students.  Over 50 different sentences to choose from.

     Are you looking for engaging activities that I used to reinforce the many uses of a Comma.  How about using sentence strips and have kids combine two simple sentences into one using an Introductory clause or FANBOYS.

       How about having them become a human sentence:  The activity below in the pictures was done using the sentence:  The baby cried.  I cut it apart into the subject and predicate.  I asked these questions:

Where did the baby cry?
Why did the baby cry?
When did the baby cry?
How did the baby cry?

       Every student would write an answer on a provided index card.  Who ever the teacher called on, wrote their answer on a sentence strip and chose where to insert their response.  The rest of the class was tasked with making corrections.  They may have had to tell us we needed to make a letter lowercase move or add a punctuation mark.  As we did this, every now and than I would tell the students standing is their another way to rearrange our sentences.  They were able to tell me how they changed it:  Introductory clause, fanboys, comma in a series, etc.  They had a blast and really didn't want to stop when time was up.

      Another activity was providing student with two simple sentences and tasking them with combining them using FANBOYS. They had to really think about the meaning of the sentence to choose the correct FANBOY 

I used power points to further explore concepts such as Plural vs Possessive:  A mini teach, a guided activity, and independent activity and kids were tasked to add the skills into their writing.

Although I focused on  grammar, we  had students to develop Expository essays as well.  each day we focused on a different part.  The student wrote on half sheets and  created booklets. Each day they were asked to incorporate or determine if they could incorporate the grammar skill taught for the day into their writing some how.  

Writing plan of action:

Day 1 Topic list and Box and bullet

Day 2  Introductory paragraph

Day 3  Reason 1

Day 4  Reason 2

Day 5  Conclusion, Conferring

        After two weeks of this so far,  I realize the key is a timer.  You have to stick to a mini lesson and designate a certain amount of time to each thing and stick to it.  I had to consistently just prompt kids to keep them moving and engaged.  Students learned quickly that what they didn't finish became homework.  After the first week, they were engaged and focused.  I learned what my students could truly do.  This unit has allowed me to truly differentiate and to constantly modify and adjust.  As I teach students the grammar and writing curriculum I make sure to teach them strategies for taking the test as well. 

What strategies are you teaching?  I have talked to students about rereading, cross checking, and using ARMS and CUPS to  analyze question types. how to eliminate and prove answer choices and how to make sure they are whispering reading to hear the text and using a critical eye to see the errors.

So, your a teacher of writing,  What are you doing  at this time of the year?

         As teachers, many of us our gearing up in the new year to prepare students for state test.  It can be a daunting task.  I have taught fourth grade for 12 years and each year brings different challenges.  I have to adjust my teaching style, adjust the materials I used, adjust my pacing and most of all adjust my mindset for the students I have in my class at that time.

       I have learned over time no matter what subject area students are testing at the time, all of them boil down to being a Reading test.  Students have to be taught how to read to glean information to help them to answer the questions posed to them.   Before we start teaching we need to really take the time to analyze the test.

                                          What information am I looking for you ask?

Here are some of the things I suggest in no particular order:

1.  Read the questions and think about the vocabulary being used.  List all the possible words you deem may trip students up and categorize them.
      -----Create a word wall and start discussing those words now,

2.   Look at the answer choices examine them for similarities, differences, and more importantly for tricky parts.
      -----Talk about how to attack those parts, create these same type of questions with your content daily,  don't be afraid to tell the students what you notice from previous test score analysis.

3,  Teachers need to take the time and take the release or practice state test if it it available to them.
        -----This will help you determine which questions you feel students will have the most trouble to understand what the student has to be able to do in order to be successful.

4.  Identify what content material students need to know in order to  be able to take the test
         -----Use this as your whole group instructional points.
       
5.  How did students score on the previous test?  What skills did they master/struggle?
          ------ Make list and small strategy groups based off of these scores.

6.  Make sure to teach the difference between reading for a test vs reading for enjoyment.

       Most importantly give students time to read and discuss the content they are expected to answer questions.  If students are not reading in class they need to be.  The test is also an endurance test.  They have to be able to sustain their reading pace and be focused.  Reading teachers have the daunting task of making sure that students know how to read critically to understand what they read no matter what the genre.  Students have to understand the characteristics of the Genre and what each characteristics job is in that Genre.  I have found year after year that my students tend to lean toward the Fiction genre because it is not that technical and students tend to read more of this genre than any other.  It is a story that has a beginning, middle and end.  The story has characters, setting, a problem and a solution always.  Students love to read for entertainment.  They read poems, and  Dramas during the Fiction unit.  It seems most times they are able to answer questions that refer to these genres with minimal problems.

       However, when it comes to the Nonfiction genre it's not always the students first choice.  The students when they do read NF, get so overwhelmed with all the text features and academic jargon that they failed to understand what they are reading.  It is our job as teachers to make sure to teach students how to read a Nonfiction book.

               The first thing I start with when teaching the Nonfiction Genre is teach students how to make connection and determine what they already know about the topic.

               The second think I do is teach and talk about the importance of the Text Features.  So many times I see students just skip over the Text features especially when they are doing the formal Reading Assessments. They don't think they are important and they tend to ask about them on state test.  At least the Release test that I have encountered.   I make a point to create anchor charts, and make a production about the Text Features in my read aloud.  I model how i use them to help me gain understanding of the text.
                 The third thing I focus on in the Nonfiction Unit is identifying and using one of the five Text Structures that authors used to present the information in NF text.  We use graphic organizers to take notes in the form of the Text structure.  I emphasize how knowing the structure helps them determine what is important in the text.
                 Fourth, we talk about how all vocabulary may not be important.  What is your topic?  What vocabulary is related to your topic and fits the Text Structure?  We create Vocabulary banks in our Reading Journals.


        As a teacher of Reading,  I really work on teaching readers how to read critically and with intent in order to make sure they are understanding what they read.  We talk about monitoring our understanding by stopping and jotting after every section.  I use my small groups a great deal and I model using my own read aloud.  I am constantly revising and editing my lessons daily.  I also give students the opportunity to experience how the things I teach and model in class will look on an assessment.   I may use release passages from previous years  or teacher made activities  as a formative assessment.  My goal is to make sure that the students know what to expect on the test.  They are exposed to the types of questions they will be asked and the types of reading they will be required to do.

         When I started this unit,  I began to create questions for students to use with partners, create anchor charts with graphic organizers they could use and I even created my on assessments to make sure students were understanding and able to apply what I taught and they had been practicing.  As  a TpT author I uploaded the resources that I created to use in my nonfiction unit.    Hit the link on the side bar to check the product below out.  The Table of contents show you what is included.  There is a color and a black and white set of  each printable.  I also have several other response activities available to help students to track their understanding of what they read and to discuss their reading with their partners and class.


     Last but not least,  don't forget to engage in focused tutoring.  Teach for growth not necessarily mastery.  Use your time wisely,  research,  and study your data, colloaborate with colleagues come up with a plan of action and avoid slamming students with test prep passages.  It is a way to prepare kids without over exposure to the point students failed to put forth the effort on the real think because they are burned out from doing passage after passage for months leading up to the test.

    Teach the student not the test.