It’s Standardized testing time. Standardized tests often create anxiety and stress for students, parents and teachers. Check out these helpful tips that will make taking and administering standardized tests a whole lot easier.

Create a Positive Atmosphere

It is important to reassure your students and allow them to express their concerns.  Maintaining a calm and relaxed classroom environment will help alleviate excessive nerves in your students. Pre-test stretching and other mindfulness activities will also help your students to stay relaxed on test day. Brain breaks can also help clear students’ minds and help them expend excess energy before or after testing. Read this article to learn more about the importance of brain breaks and how to incorporate them into your classroom. There are a few other ways that you can provide brain breaks for your students. Use brain-break chips or voices and brain break cards that give students the ability to get up and act out an activity.

Practice Time Management

Throughout the year, provide practice tests with time limits so that students don’t panic when they are timed on testing day. Practice tests will also help to prepare students for the types of questions that will be asked on the “real” test, which will help to alleviate some stress for students.  Set timers so that students know exactly how much time they have to complete their practice tests.

Motivate Your Students

Give your students ways to take charge of testing situations. The more involved they are the more interested and focused they’ll be. A simple way to get students involved is to have them set testing goals. Playing games will promote critical thinking and problem solving skills, and will also create a diversion for students. Digital games encourage students to make mistakes and learn from them in a positive environment. Here are some recommendations that you may want to try:

• Kahoot enables teachers to create interactive quizzes
• Epic is a digital library for kids 12 and under

It’s equally important for teachers to stay motivated during testing season in order to keep their students focused and motivated. Teachers need to provide daily positive praise and encouragement so that students will feel confident and ready to do their best.

Involve Parents

Parents are often anxious about their child’s performance on standardized tests. Before the test, send a letter home explaining which test will be given, for what reason, and when. Encourage parents to help their child to do well in school all year by sending students to school daily and practicing skills at home daily. Family engagement is so important!

How do you motivate your students during testing time? Comment below.