Product Details

• Author: Lori L. Conrad, Missy Matthews, Cheryl Zimmerman, Patrick A. Allen
• Year: 2008
• Grade Range: 3-8

• Media: 184 pp/paper
• ISBN: 978-157110-731-2
• Item No.: WEB-0731

How can teachers use the comprehension strategies put forward in books like Strategies That Work and Mosaic of Thought to help students become not just better readers and thinkers but also better test takers? The four authors of Put Thinking to the Test have spent years pursuing that question and have developed a groundbreaking approach, as their colleague Ellin Keene writes in the foreword to the book:
I knew that Lori, Patrick, Cheryl and Missy met frequently to discuss professional issues and that they were working on a book related to testing. I had no idea, however, that their proposal would be so fresh, so original and, simultaneously, so sensible and immediately useful.

Just as comprehension strategies have helped millions of students learn to read like proficient readers, they can also help students think like effective test-takers. The authors show how students can use background knowledge, mental images, synthesizing, monitoring, inferring, questioning, and determining of importance to understand the genre of tests and to think through the problems they are given. Instead of engaging in artificial and disconnected activities to cram for upcoming tests, students learn skills and strategies that will serve them throughout their school careers and beyond.

Presenting numerous classroom vignettes featuring students in grades 3–8, Put Thinking to the Test includes:

examples of the direct application of thinking strategy instruction to test taking;
actual work samples from lessons used with students;
additional lesson ideas that go beyond the teaching described in the vignettes;
detailed anchor charts;
background on how the authors came to understand this work so that a staff, team, or individual teacher can apply these concepts in their own school setting.

Table of Contents

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Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
About Our Book
SECTION ONE: Wondering About Tests
Introduction
Chapter 1: Coming to Know Standardized Tests: Walking in Our Students' Shoes
Chapter 2: Tests as a Genre: What Makes Standardized Tests Unique
Chapter 3: Increasing Student Stamina: The Role of Workshop Structures in Becoming Successful Test Takers
SECTION TWO: Thinking About Tests
Introduction: Applying Proficient Reader Research to Test Taking
Chapter 4: Ask Questions
Chapter 5: Create Mental Images
Chapter 6: Draw Inferences
Chapter 7: Synthesize New Learning and Ideas
Chapter 8: Activate, Utilize, and Build Background Knowledge (Schema)
Chapter 9: Determine the Most Important Ideas and Themes
Chapter 10: Monitor for Meaning and Problem-Solve When Meaning Breaks Down
SECTION THREE: Still Learning About Tests
Introduction
Chapter 11: Q and A -- Weaving Thinking Together with Testing
Chapter 12: Integrity: It's All About Being True to Ourselves and Our Profession
References

Patrick Allen
Patrick is the youngest of ten children---five boys and five girls. "My parents were wonderful role models of literacy and learning, hard work, and humility," he says.
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Lori Conrad
Lori has twenty four years of elementary classroom and staff development experience behind her. She is currently the senior director of professional development for the Public Education and Business Coalition in Denver.
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Missy Matthews
Missy Matthews received her bachelor's degree in education from the University of Utah and her master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado at Denver.
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Cheryl Zimmerman
Cheryl began her teaching career at the age of seven in the basement of her childhood home. "I did a fantastic job of educating the baby dolls seated quietly on the couch. I've always loved kids and that love of kids propelled me into a teaching career."
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