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(from NWEA)

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Disponible en español

Developed in collaboration with Raise The Bar. Parents learn what a growth mindset is, why it's important, and best practices to support their children in developing this learning belief.

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Mindset Kit - Growth Mindset for Parents Course

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Disponible en español Developed in collaboration with Raise The Bar. Parents learn what a growth mindset is, why it's important, and best practices to support their children in developing this learning belief.

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Testing is used in schools for two main purposes. One is to find out how well an individual student is learning in the classroom. For instance, teachers can test how well a child is responding to reading instruction by using assessments that measure specific skills necessary for fluent reading.

The other purpose is to find out how well the school is meeting local and national benchmarks for student achievement. For this purpose schools use standardized tests, usually administered in the spring. (Learn more in Parent Tips: How to Help Your Child Prepare for Standardized Tests.)

As a parent, there are many ways you can support your child's academic success, which will in turn help your child with test-taking throughout the school year.

Throughout the school year

Talk to your child about homework, grades, and testing at the beginning of the school year

It's helpful for children to understand why schools give tests and to know the different kinds of tests they will take. Most tests are designed and given by teachers to see if students are learning important information in the class. These tests are associated with the grades on report cards. The results tell the teacher and students whether they are keeping up with the class, need extra help, or are ahead of other students.

Make sure that your child attends school regularly

Tests reflect children's overall achievement. The more effort and energy your child puts into learning, the more likely it is that he will do well on tests.

Meet with your child's teacher to discuss his progress

Ask the teacher to suggest activities for you and your child to do at home to help prepare for tests and to improve your child's understanding of schoolwork.

If you have concerns about the test or testing situation, talk with your child's teacher

Discuss your concerns with the teacher and/or school administrator. If you're not satisfied with the outcome, however, you can reach out to some other organizations that monitor testing, including your local PTA, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing or the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (Narang, 2008).

If you believe that your child's difficulty with standardized tests may be the symptom of a problem such as a language or learning difficulty, speak with your child's teacher to learn if your child qualifies for any assessment accommodations.

Provide a quiet, comfortable place for studying at home

Make sure your child is completing all daily assignments. Let your child know that you think education is important and that homework needs to be done each day. You can help your child with homework by setting aside a special place to study, establishing a regular time for homework, and removing distractions such as the television and social phone calls during homework time. Helping Your Child With Homework offers some great ideas for ensuring that your child gets homework done.

Make sure that your child is well-rested and eats a well-balanced diet

Children who are tired are less able to pay attention in class or to handle the demands of a test.

Provide books and magazines for your child to read at home

Reading materials and enriching experiences will spark your child's curiosity and build vocabulary. Ask your child's teacher for lists of books for outside reading or get suggestions from your local library.

Encourage your child

Praise her for the things that she does well. If your child feels good about herself, she will do her best. Children who are afraid of failing are more likely to become anxious when taking tests and more likely to make mistakes.

Help your child avoid test anxiety

When well-meaning parents focus too much on test results, they put undue pressure on young children. For kids who struggle with attention or memorization tasks, testing can be extremely stressful because it requires students to draw entirely on these skills, and it can cause test anxiety.

Test anxiety is worrying too much about doing well on a test. Students with test anxiety can worry about success in school and about their future success. They can become very self-critical and lose confidence in their abilities. Instead of feeling challenged by the prospect of success, they become afraid of failure. If your child worries too much about taking tests, you can help to reduce the anxiety by encouraging the child to do the following things.

Take a deep breath

Step away from the flashcards. As a parent, the most important way you can help your child do well on tests is to read with your child regularly, talk with her about her experiences, and provide a quiet work space at home.

Plan ahead

Make sure your child starts studying for the test in advance and understands what material the test will cover.

Discourage your child from "cramming" the night before

This will likely increase anxiety, which will interfere with clear thinking. Make sure your child gets a good night's sleep.

Remind your child to:

Read the directions carefully before beginning the test.

Ask the teacher to explain something he doesn't understand.

Look quickly at the entire text to see what types of questions are on it so that he can decide how much time to spend on each question.

Mark questions that he doesn't know the answer to, skip them, and go on. Tell him if he has time at the end of the test, to return to it and try again.

Don't get upset because of a single test score

Many things can influence how your child does on a test. She might not have felt well on test day or she might have been too nervous to concentrate. She might have had an argument with a friend before the test or she might have been late to school because the school bus got caught in traffic. Remember, one test is simply one test.

After the Test

Your child can learn a great deal from reviewing a graded exam paper. Reviewing will show him where he had difficulty and, perhaps, why. This is especially important for classes in which the material builds from one section to the next, as in math. Here are some helpful steps to take when your child gets a test back.

Discuss the wrong answers with your child and find out why he chose the answers

Sometimes a child didn't understand or misread a question. Or, he may have known the correct answer but failed to make his answer clear.

Read and discuss all comments that the teacher writes on a returned test with your child

If any comments aren't clear, tell your child to ask the teacher to explain them.

Finally, remember that tests and grading systems are not perfect

Each format has its own limitations. As you help your child do her best on the tests she takes and in all of her schoolwork, also remind her that testing is just one part of her education. With your support and involvement, she will be well on her way to her own bright future!

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Parent Tips: Helping Your Child with Test-Taking

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Testing is used in schools for two main purposes. One is to find out how well an individual student is learning in the classroom. For instance, teachers can test how well a child is responding to reading instruction by using assessments that measure specific skills necessary for fluent reading.

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Resources for parents We know that children learn better-and faster-when teachers have a clear picture of what each student knows and what they are ready to learn next. That's why our assessments react to each student's answers. In the testing world, this makes our tests "adaptive," or personalized to measure the needs of every student.

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DRA, Lexile...

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Parent Resources

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Family Information Package
Learn what research has to say about visual language and bilingualism. Read people's stories about growing up bilingual. Click here to see the contents of the Family Information Package and to request your own copy.

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Learn what research has to say about visual language and bilingualism. Read people's stories about growing up bilingual. Click here to see the contents of the Family Information Package and to request your own copy.

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Activities for families

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These activities have been developed by national reading experts for you to use with children, ages birth to Grade 6. The activities are meant to be used in addition to reading with children every day.

In using these activities, your main goal will be to develop great enthusiasm in the reader for reading and writing. You are the child's cheerleader. It is less important for the reader to get every word exactly right. It is more important for the child to learn to love reading itself. If the reader finishes one book and asks for another, you know you are succeeding! If your reader writes even once a week and comes back for more, you know you have accomplished your beginning goals.

We wish you many wonderful hours of reading and writing with children!

Activities for birth to preschool: The early years

Activity 1: Books and babies

Babies love to listen to the human voice. What better way than through reading!

What you'll need:

Some books written especially for babies (books made of cardboard or cloth with flaps to lift and holes to peek through).

What to do:

Start out by singing lullabies and folk songs to your baby. When your baby is about six months old, choose books with brightly colored, simple pictures and lots of rhythm in the text. (Mother Goose rhymes are perfect.) Hold your baby in your lap so he/she can see the colorful pages of the book. Include books that show pictures and names of familiar objects.

As you read with your baby, point out objects in the pictures and make sure your baby sees all the things that are fun to do with books. (Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt is a classic touch-and-feel book for babies.)

Vary the tone of your voice with different characters in the stories, sing nursery rhymes, make funny faces, do whatever special effects you can to stimulate your baby's interest.

Allow your child to touch and hold cloth and sturdy cardboard books.

When reading to a baby, keep the sessions brief but read daily and often.

As you read to your baby, your child is forming an association between books and what is most loved - your voice and closeness. Allowing babies to handle books deepens their attachment even more.

Activity 2: Tot talk

What's "old hat" to you can be new and exciting to toddlers and preschoolers. When you talk about everyday experiences, you help children connect their world to language and enable them to go beyond that world to new ideas.

What you'll need:

Yourself and your child

What to do:

Talking enables children to expand their vocabulary and understanding of the world. The ability to carry on a conversation is important for reading development. Remember, it is better to talk too much rather than too little with a small child.

Activity 3: R and R - repetition and rhyme

Repetition makes books predictable, and young readers love knowing what comes next.

What you'll need:

Books with repeated phrases (Favorites are: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst; Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.; Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss; and The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.

Short rhyming poems.

What to do:

Pick a story with repeated phrases or a poem you and your child like. For example, read:
(Wolf voice:) "Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
(Little pig:) "Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin."
(Wolf voice:) "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!"

After the wolf has blown down the first pig's house, your child will soon join in with the refrain.

Read slowly, and with a smile or a nod, let your child know you appreciate his or her participation.

As the child grows more familiar with the story, pause and give him or her a chance to fill in the blanks and phrases.

Encourage your child to pretend to read, especially books that contain repetition and rhyme. Most children who enjoy reading will eventually memorize all or parts of a book and imitate your reading. This is a normal part of reading development.

When children anticipate what's coming next in a story or poem, they have a sense of mastery over books. When children feel power, they have the courage to try. Pretending to read is an important step in the process of learning to read.

Activity 4: Poetry in motion

When children "act out" a good poem, they learn to love its rhyme, rhythm, and the pictures it paints with a few well-chosen words. They grow as readers by connecting feelings with the written word.

What you'll need:

Poems that rhyme, tell a story, and/or are written from a child's point of view.

What to do:

Poems are often short with lots of white space on the page. This makes them manageable for new readers and helps to build their confidence.

Activity 5: Story talk

Talking about what you read is another way to help children develop language and thinking skills. You won't need to plan the talk, discuss every story, or expect an answer.

What you'll need:

Storybooks

What to do:

Activity 6: Now hear this

Children are great mimics. When you tell stories, your child will begin to tell stories, too.

What you'll need:

Your imagination

What to do:

Have your child tell stories like those you have told. Ask: "And then what happened?" to urge the story along.

Listen closely when your child speaks. Be enthusiastic and responsive. Give your child full attention.

If you don't understand some part of the story, take the time to get your child to explain. This will help your child understand the relationship between a speaker and a listener and an author and a reader.

Encourage your child to express himself or herself. This will help your child develop a richer vocabulary. It can also help with pronouncing words clearly.

Having a good audience is very helpful for a child to improve language skills, as well as confidence in speaking. Parents can be the best audience a child will ever have.

Activity 7: TV

Television can be a great tool for education. The keys to successful TV viewing are setting limits, making good choices, taking time to watch together, discussing what you view, and encouraging follow-up reading.

What you'll need:

A weekly TV schedule

What to do:

Limit your child's TV viewing and make your rules and reasons clear. Involve your child in choosing which programs to watch. Read the TV schedule together to choose.

Monitor what your child is watching, and whenever possible, watch the programs with your child.

When you watch programs with your child, discuss what you have seen so your child can better understand the programs.

Look for programs that will stimulate your child's interests and encourage reading (such as dramatizations of children's literature and programs on wildlife and science.)

Many experts recommend that children watch no more than 10 hours of TV each week. Limiting TV viewing frees up time for reading and writing activities.

It is worth noting that captioned TV shows can be especially helpful for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, studying English as a second language, or having difficulty learning to read.

Activities for preschool through grade two: Moving into reading

Activity 8: World of words

Here are a few ways to create a home rich in words.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Hang posters of the alphabet on the bedroom walls or make an alphabet poster with your child. Print the letters in large type. Capital letters are usually easier for young children to learn first.

Label the things in your child's pictures. If your child draws a picture of a house, label it with "This is a house." and put it on the refrigerator.

Have your child watch you write when you make a shopping list or a "what to do" list. Say the words aloud and carefully print each letter.

Let your child make lists, too. Help your child form the letters and spell the words.

Look at newspapers and magazines with your child. Find an interesting picture and show it to your child as you read the caption aloud.

Create a scrapbook. Cut out pictures of people and places and label them.

By exposing your child to words and letters often, your child will begin to recognize the shapes of letters. The world of words will become friendly.

Activity 9: Write on

Writing helps a child become a better reader, and reading helps a child become a better writer.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Activity 10: Look for books

The main thing is to find books you both love. They will shape your child's first impression of the world of reading.

What you'll need:

Good books

What to do:

Activity 11: Read to me

It's important to read to your child, but equally important to listen to them read to you. Children thrive on having someone appreciate their developing skills.

What you'll need:

Books at your child's reading level

What to do:

Listen carefully as your child reads.

Take turns. You read a paragraph and have your child read the next one or you read half the page and your child reads the other half. As your child becomes more at ease with reading aloud, take turns reading a full page. Keep in mind that your child may be focusing more on how to read the words than what they mean, and your reading helps to keep the story alive.

If your child has trouble reading words, you can help him or her in several ways:

Ask the child to skip over the word, read the rest of the sentence, and then say what would make sense in the story for the missing word.

Guide the child to use what he or she knows about letter sounds.

Supply the correct word.

Tell your child how proud you are of his or her efforts and skills.

Listening to your child read aloud provides opportunities for you to express appreciation of his or her new skills and for them to practice their reading. Most importantly, this is another way to enjoy reading together.

Activity 12: Family stories

Family stories enrich the relationship between parent and child.

What you'll need:

Time set aside for talking with your child.

What to do:

Activity 13: P.S. I love you

Something important happens when children receive and write letters. They realize that the printed word has a purpose.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Send your child little notes (by putting them in a pocket or lunch box, for example). When your child shows you the note, read it aloud with expression. Some children will read the notes on their own.

When your child expresses a feeling or a thought that relates to a person, have your child write a letter. Have your child dictate the words to you if your child doesn't write yet.
For example:

Dear Grandma,
I like it when you make ice cream. It's better than the kind we buy at the store.

Your grandson,
Darryl

P.S. I love you

Ask the people who receive these notes to respond. An oral response if fine - a written response is even better.

Explain the writing process to your child: "We think of ideas and put them into words; we put the words on paper; people read the words; and people respond."

Language is speaking listening, reading, and writing. Each element supports and enriches the others. Sending letters will help children become better writers, and writing will make them better readers.

Activities for grades three through six: Encouraging the young reader

Activity 14: Good books make reading fun

Stories for young children should be of all kinds - folktales, funny tales, exciting tales, tales of the wondrous and stories that tell of everyday things.

What you'll need:

A variety of interesting books

What to do:

Give your child many opportunities to read and write stories, lists, messages, letters, notes, and postcards to relatives and friends. Since the skills for reading and writing reinforce one another, your child's skills and proficiency in reading and writing will be strengthened if you help your child connect reading to writing and writing to reading.

Activity 15: Artful artists

Children love to be creative when it comes to drawing, and illustrations add visual imagery to stories.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Find a fable, fairy tale, or other short story for your child to read. Then ask your child to illustrate a part of the story he or she likes best or describe a favorite character. Have the child dictate or write a few sentences that tell about this picture.

Activity 16: Shopping your way with words

Use your weekly shopping trip as an opportunity to help your child develop reading and writing skills.

What you'll need:

What to do:

As you make out your grocery shopping list, give your child a sheet of paper and read the items to him or her. If the child asks for spelling help, write the words correctly for him or her to copy or spell the words aloud as your child writes them.

Ask your child to look through the newspaper ads to find the prices of as many items as possible. Your child can write these prices on the list and then look through your coupons to select the ones you can use. Take your child to the supermarket and ask him or her to read each item to you as you shop.

Activity 17: Cookbooking

Cooking is always a delight for children, especially when they can eat the results!

What you'll need:

What to do:

Show your child a recipe and go over it together. Ask your child to read the recipe to you as you work, and tell the child that each step must be done in a special order. Let your child help mix the ingredients. Allow your child to write down other recipes from the cookbook that he or she would like to help make.

Activity 18: Dictionary words

A dictionary is a valuable learning tool, especially if your child makes up his or her own booklet of words that are challenging.

What you'll need:

Paper and pencils

A stapler

Old magazines

Newspaper and supplements

What to do:

Encourage your child to make a dictionary by putting together several sheets of paper for a booklet. Ask your child to write at the top of each page a new word he or she has recently learned. If the word can be shown in a picture, have him or her look through magazines and newspapers to find pictures that illustrate the words and paste them on the correct pages.

Have your child write the meaning of each word and a sentence using each new word. Your child can then use some or all of these sentences as the basis for a creative story. Have your child read this story to you and other family members.

Activity 19: Journals

Keeping a journal is a way for your child to write down daily events and record his or her thoughts.

What you'll need:

Two notebooks - one for your child and one for you!

What to do:

Help your child start a journal. Say what it is and discuss topics that can be written about, such as making a new friend, an interesting school or home activity just completed, or how your child felt on the first day of school. Encourage your child to come up with other ideas. Keep a journal yourself and compare notes at the end of the week. You and your child each can read aloud parts of your journals that you want to share.

Activity 20: Greetings and salutations

Everyone loves to get mail, especially when the card has been personally designed.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Ask your child to list the birthdays of family members, relatives, and friends. Show your child some store-bought birthday cards with funny, serious, or thought-provoking messages. Your child can then create his or her own birthday card by using a folded piece of paper, making an attractive cover, and writing a short verse inside. Then your child can mail the cards to friends and relatives for their birthdays.

Activity 21: Giving the gift of reading

Reading a book is more fun when you have a homemade bookmark to mark your spot.

What you'll need:

Pieces of lightweight cardboard

Pens and pencils

Paper

Crayons and magic markers

What to do:

Provide your child with a piece of cardboard about 6" long and 2" wide. On one side of the bookmark, have your child draw a picture of a scene from a book he or she has read. On the other side, ask your child to write the name of the book, its author, publisher, publication date, and a few sentences about the book. After making several of these bookmarks, you might ask the child to send them to friends and relatives as gifts accompanied by a short note.

Activity 22: Let your fingers do the walking

The telephone book contains a wealth of information and is a good tool for reading and writing.

What you'll need:

A telephone book, including the yellow pages

Paper and pencils

What to do:

Have your child look through the yellow pages of the telephone directory, select a particular service, and write a clever or funny ad for it. Have your child read this ad to you. Help your child to find your own or a friend's listing in the white pages of the telephone book. Explain the different entries (for example, last name and address), along with the abbreviations commonly used.

Activity 23: Map your way to success

Children love to read road maps and this activity actually helps them with geography.

What you'll need:

What to do:

When planning a vacation, let your child see the road map and help you plan where you will drive. Talk about where you will start and where you will end up. Let your child follow the route between these two points. Encourage your child to write to the Chamber of Commerce for brochures about places you will see on your trip.

Activity 24: What's in the news?

Newspapers are a form of daily communication with the outside world, and provide lots of learning activities for children.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Clip out an interesting news story and cut the paragraphs apart. Ask your child to read the paragraphs and put them in order.

Ask your child to read a short editorial printed in your local newspaper and to underline all the facts with a green pencil and all the opinions with an orange pencil.

Pictures fascinate children of all ages. Clip pictures in the newspaper. Ask your child to tell you about the picture or list adjectives to describe the picture.

Do you take your child to the movies? Have your child first look up the movie page by using the index in the newspaper. After a movie has been chosen, have your child study the picture or text in the ad and tell you what he or she thinks the movie is about.

Have your child pick a headline and turn it into a question. Then the child can read the article to see if the question is answered.

Ask your child to clip food coupons from the newspaper for your grocery shopping trips. First, talk about which products you use and which you do not. Then the child can cut out the right coupons and putt hem into categories such as drinks and breakfast items. You can then cash in the coupons at the store.

Pick out an interesting article from the newspaper. As you are preparing lunch or dinner, tell your child that you are busy and ask him or her to read the article to you.

Many newspapers publish materials especially written for children, such as the syndicated "Mini Page," "Pennywhistle Press," and "Dynamite Kids." In addition, some newspapers publish weekly columns for children, as well as tabloids and summer supplements written by educators.

Activity 25: Using television to stimulate reading

What child doesn't enjoy watching TV? Capitalize on this form of entertainment and use TV to help rather than hinder your child's learning.

Some important ideas to consider before turning on the TV: Limit in some way the amount of TV your child watches so as to leave time for reading and other activities. Decide how much time should be set aside for watching TV each day.

Serve as an example by limiting the amount of TV you yourself watch. Have time when the TV set is off and the entire family reads something. You may want to watch TV only for special shows. Before the TV set is turned on, encourage your child to select the programs he or she wishes to watch. Ask your child to give you the reason for the choices made.

In addition, watch some of the same TV programs your child watches. This helps you as a parent share in some of your child's daily activities.

What you'll need:

What to do:

Ask your child to tell you about favorite TV characters using different kinds of words.

As your child watches commercials on television, ask him or her to invent a product and write slogans or an ad for it.

Encourage your child to watch such programs as Reading Rainbow. Urge older children to watch such programs as 60 Minutes and selected documentaries. These programs are informative. Discuss interesting ideas covered in the programs and direct your child to maps, encyclopedias, fiction, or popular children's magazines for more information.

Have your child name 10 of his or her favorite shows. Ask your child to put them into categories according to the type of show they are, such as family shows, cartoons, situation comedies, sports, science fiction, or news and information. If you find the selection is not varied enough, you might suggest a few others that would broaden experiences.

Prepare a monthly calendar with symbols such as a picture of the sun to represent an outdoor activity or a picture of a book to represent reading. Each time your child engages in a daily free time activity, encourage him or her to paste a symbol on the correct calendar date. This will give you an idea of how your child spends his or her free time. It also encourages a varied schedule.

Ask each child in your family to pick a different color. Using the TV listing, have each child use this color to circle one TV program that he or she wants to watch each day. Alternate who gets first choice. This serves two purposes. It limits the amount of time watching TV and it encourages discriminating viewing.

Devise a rating scale from 1 to 5. Ask your child to give a number to a certain TV program and to explain why such a rating was given.

Have your child keep a weekly TV log and write down five unfamiliar words heard or seen each week. Encourage your child to look up the meanings of these words in the dictionary or talk about them with you.

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25 Activities for Reading and Writing Fun

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These activities have been developed by national reading experts for you to use with children, ages birth to Grade 6. The activities are meant to be used in addition to reading with children every day. In using these activities, your main goal will be to develop great enthusiasm in the reader for reading and writing.

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http://tea.texas.gov/student.assessment/parents/

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http://www.tsd.state.tx.us/apps/events/?id=6

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http://tea.texas.gov/student.assessment/STAAR_Released_Test_Questions/