Today's experiment in test review

Erosion Stations from The Science Penguin

This year I have discovered the amazingness of a fellow Texas teacher, The Science Penguin.

I started using her products this fall and have probably purchased every thing I thought I could use from her TPT store. The graphics are great, the notes are awesome and easy for students to follow and everything fits neatly inside a composition notebook.

The state test is just a few days away and I can tell my advanced students are growing tired of the review we have been doing.  Last year I loved what my district developed for review.  It was hands-on, involved critical thinking, and kept the students from becoming bored during this crunch time. 

This year is a different story.  A new group of kids and new personalities.  So I decided to modify the district plan by introducing another product I purchased from TPT.  The Erosion stations unit actually contains 9 stations but for my purposes and time limitation I have chosen 4 that my students will complete today, the Read It, Explain It, Analyze It, and Draw It. activities.

The students seemed to be much more engaged today then they had been last week.  Some of their artwork was fabulous.  They were talking about changes to landforms, using academic vocabulary and reviewing the information in a fun way.  Overall I think the choice to use these stations was a success.

To follow up tomorrow, students will complete a foldable and reflection in their ISN and take a "Readiness Assessment."  A 10 question quiz on the TEKS.  We will go over the questions together and studnets will have the opportunity to ask for clarification.