Test Taking Vocabulary

Carol Brewer
Jun 08, 2009

Learning the "testing" vocabulary is an important test taking strategy. Students need to recognize and understand these words for proficiency. Many teachers create lists of 'test taking' words and display them on "Test Taking" Word Walls. These Word Wall words are usually sorted alphabetically. A stronger sort for these words is by categories. For example, 'recipes', would include all the words associated with recipes; ingredients, utensils, knife, fork, spoon, mixing, fold, blend, etc. This type of sort allows the student to group the words for meaning and connections. It is suggested to start this test taking strategy early in the year instead of right before any benchmark assessments and state tests. If taught correctly with the proper connections, these words should be automatic for the students. Whenever they see the words, they know how to use them in context. A great brainstorming session for your grade level meetings is to think of different ways to implement the understanding and use of these words (activities instead of looking them up in the dictionary). The following matrix is one suggestion:

Refer to the "12 X 12" Test Taking Vocabulary in the Additional Tools section of Connecting Learning to Assessments Book and Flipchart.
This notebook and flipchart provides schools and teachers with a complete program for preparing students to be successful on all assessments!