Like it or not, as educators, state assessments do not seem to be going away any time soon. No matter your view or if you are pressured to “teach to the test”, it can be helpful for students if they have an idea of what to expect when they take the tests. With that in mind, Curipod.com created templates specifically for several state tests.
Test prep is rarely a favorite, both for teachers AND students. With Curipod, you get ease of use and incredible student engagement. While introducing a lesson for writing test prep, there were audible groans from the students. By the time we finished, they wanted to do it again! In each classroom, from 3rd through 6th, they were on task and actively engaged with the lesson.
To generate, select the desired template, grade level, and a topic and Curipod does the rest, generating sources, images, and activities, including the rubric and the prompt that the system scores. As the teacher, you get a detailed report of each student’s feedback and responses. No student accounts are required. They go to curi.live and enter a join code and their name. The system automatically assigns them a nickname.
Not only were students engaged, but after a few lessons, teachers were contacting me that scores were improving. In one case from 1 out of 10 to 5 out of 10. Check my math, but isn’t that a 400% improvement? In one week! In some cases, the students wrote, got feedback, copied their writing into a Google Doc or Microsoft Word file, made edits, then I generated a fresh join code for the students and they pasted in their revised writing for new feedback.
Sample lessons are available at the end of this post.
The SBAC templates include narrative writing, explanatory writing, and argumentative essay. Students get feedback based on the SBAC rubric automatically within about a minute of the teacher clicking the send feedback button.
Some templates are in the free version, but others require a school/district subscription to access. Through June 30th, all, except STAAR and the recently announced ACT template, are open. Look for the school icon in the bottom right corner to determine which are only in school subscription accounts
Templates include:
- Texas – STAAR & TELPAS
- California – SBAC & CAASPP
- New York – NYS Exam Prep
- Georgia – Milestones
- Arizona – AASA
Below is a deck created in Canva with sample Curipod templates for 3rd – 6th grade along with other resources specific to California. Feel free to share, if you find it helpful, and happy test practice!
Creative Commons – Attribution
GK Techies 