Middle School Reading Test Prep Competition

It's that time of year again!  

Time to review for the Big State Test in Reading.

I polled my students to see what they thought were the best kinds of review.  It probably comes as no surprise to you that my middle school students said "competition"!

So I put on my thinking cap and figured out how to make a fun and productive review. Then I had it—the "Reading Ruckus"!

It worked like this:

1.  I intentionally grouped students into teams of 4.

2.  They chose a team name.

3.  Each day, we had a short mini-lesson on a few standards.  I showed a PowerPoint with definitions and examples, and students recorded the information in a mini-book.

4.  Then, students each had to answer practice questions on the mini-lesson in their groups.

5.  I drew a number.  The student in each group who had that number on his/her desk answered for the group by writing their answer on a whiteboard.  The groups with the right answers earned a point.  I kept a tally of each team's points front and center!

6.  After all the standards were reviewed, the group with the most points wins!  What did they win?  Well, my students wanted a popcorn snack and I was happy to oblige!

7.  For individual accountability, there were exit tickets.  Those who scored proficiently earned their team bonus points.

We only had a week to do this, so it was "Go time!"  The kids loved competing against each other, and I think this made enough of an impression on them to commit the skills to memory just before the big test!

If you'd like to give this a try, I have a PowerPoint, mini-book, passages and questions prepared for EIGHT reading anchor standards for fiction & nonfiction.  All the prep work is done and everything is ready to go!

If you have more than 1 week to review, then I would definitely suggest you take some time to work on test item vocabulary.  I don't know about your state, but in Florida the questions are written with a high level of vocabulary that can tend to throw students off!  Click here to read more about Test Prep Vocabulary Strategies!

Get all the reading activities from above PLUS vocabulary, and MORE with this bundle:

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