Do your students dread their state testing?

Do you shudder at the thought of "drill and kill" teaching?

Me too!!!

​

I want everything I do in my classroom to be hands on and engaging!  I want my students to feel confident and excited about what they have learned. My first year teaching 8th grade I decided I wanted, no- I NEEDED, a better way to review with my students before the dreaded test.  I decided to turn the review into a competition.  Being a reality TV buff, and ridiculously obsessed with the TV show SURVIVOR, I decided we would have a SURVIVOR WEEK in the week leading up to the test. I told my coworker, the 8th grade Social Studies teacher, about my plans and she decided to join me in what would become a yearly tradition at our school.  It became something that students looked forward to as they grew into 8th graders.  Our students did AMAZING on their state tests!  They didn't just survive, they THRIVED!!! That very first year my students performed the strongest of any 8th graders in our school's history!  I saw HUGE improvements in all of my students in each consecutive year by the end of our Survivor Week.  Our Social Studies teacher experienced similar success. 

Survivor week made teaching fun!  We began looking forward to it and students would start talking about it on the very first day of school. 

​

WHAT IS SURVIVOR WEEK?

​

Survivor Week can be done 1-2 weeks leading up to the test.  It can be done with ANY subject and to prepare for ANY state test.  On this post I will talking about it in regards to science, since that is what I taught. We had block scheduling our first two years which allowed for me to get the review done in one week (since classes were much longer with less transition time).  Once we went to regular daily periods, we began doing the review each day for 1 1/2 weeks leading up to the test.

 

One of the keys to Survivor Week is how you group students.  Your strongest students become the Tribe Leaders and have additional challenges that are individual to help stretch them.  Each tribe must be pretty evenly matched to ensure everyone participates and feels like they have a shot at winning.  I had multiple classes with multiple tribes in each class.  The competition was across classes- grade wide.  For each review game your students complete they get an assigned number of points.  They get additional points for placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd (I had these places for each class).  Students don't know which games are worth what number of points (I kept that privately on an excel sheet).  This means they don't know how many total points they have or who is in first place.  My reasoning behind this was I didn't want a team to think they didn't have a chance and quit trying.  We played review games as tribes (card sorts, task cards, puzzles, mazes, relays, etc.), and completed review sheets as individuals throughout the week leading up to the test. On the last day of class before the test, we would play a Jeopardy game full of STAAR type questions.  I would tell my students their tribal scores just before Final Jeopardy and they used these points as their $ to bet on the final question.  We set up prizes for the top three tribes and then gave a homework pass and free dress pass to everyone who participated in the week.

 

WHAT SHOULD I REVIEW?

Prior to Survivor Week, I would actively monitor my students' progress and keep data on which standards they were struggling with.  I based the review games on those standards.  To be honest, creating the games took the most time in preparing for the weeklong review- but you don't have to start from nothing, like I did- I have digitized ALL of the review games and sheets we did and have them available in my TPT store.  You can add in any additional review elements you feel your class may need.  If you aren't sure where they are still struggling, you can use my STAAR Task Cards to help you figure it out. See my homepage for links to these featured products in my TPT store, The Thoughtful Educator.

​

WANT MORE DETAILS?

​

Now you can have your own SURVIVOR WEEK!  I have created a FREE guide to help you navigate through the fun. Create lasting memories for your students that help them feel more confident and grow academically.

​

​

​

​