FAQ - Since we are doing Daily 5, when do I have my 5th graders practice answering questions similar to the questions they will see on our state test?
Sometimes the pressure produced by high stakes state tests can feel overwhelming, but we are not alone. Just remembering that can help. So how do we all get that practice time in? In intermediate grades, one way we ask students to practice these questions is through the reading response journal. Beginning in September, we teach comprehension strategies whole group while also modeling the answering of question stems that align to our state standards and state test. For example, if we are teaching Summarizing, we will also teach students how to respond to, "Write a summary using three main ideas from the selection" which is one of the questions stems for our state test. Once we have thoroughly taught summarizing, we ask students to summarize their own books using the question stem. This will become part of their response journal that is graded once a week. This embedded practice of skills taught and aligned with our state standards gives students the skills and practice to be successful on the test. It also makes their weekly assignments meaningful.
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