I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Carson-Dellosa Publishing Group. I received a free product to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation, but all opinions included below are my own.
Raise your hand if you like “TEST” time! Yeah, I didn’t think so. As if weekly exams and pop quizzes aren’t stressful enough, there are the even weightier standardized tests that are just plain old nerve-wracking. In Texas, there’s the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, known as STAAR . STAAR tests measure the progress of students from 3rd grade to 8th grade, as well as high school. The going rule is, if you want students to make good grades in school, make sure they get a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast in the morning. Well, Carson-Dellosa Publishing Group – the 35-year leading supplemental education provider for teachers, parents, and students - has some some additional (proven) tools that help to ensure success at school and alleviate anxiety for parents, teachers, and students.
If you don’t already know, we’re homeschooling family, so we don’t worry much about tests. However, it has always been important to me that my children feel confident with the new knowledge and skills we’re learning each day, especially in math, plus some years we opt to take the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (available for homeschoolers) along with the Stanford test, so equipping ourselves with the Carson-Dellosa Spectrum Test Prep and Test Practice booklets is such a great advantage. Correlated to the Common Core State Standards, these grade-specific workbooks feature custom-designed practice that help students become successful test takers.
For review, I received the 4th Grade Level:
- Spectrum Test Practice
- Spectrum Test Prep
Spectrum Test Prep – The Test Prep workbook is structured around strategies. Did you ever see the movie Akeelah and the Bee, when the main character is studying for the spelling bee and is trying to learn as many words as she could? Her mentor finally told her that it was impossible to learn ALL the words, but he gave her a strategy for figuring out how to spell words overall, even the ones she had never seen or heard of before. Well, the Test Prep book is like that, in theory. The goal isn’t to teach your child every bit of knowledge he or she might need to know for a test (state standardized or otherwise) Rather, it introduces careful plans and methods for approaching the test as a whole as well as individual categories of skills for both language arts and math. It teaches your student how to follow directions, understand different test formats, and budget his time wisely. The book also includes Test Tips, Practice Pages, Strategy Review Pages, and an answer key.
Using the Test Prep booklet has been very effective with my 4th grader and will be a big help for us at home in our day-to-day schoolwork. Sometimes when we’re doing schoolwork, my daughter gets stuck on a problem, and she just needs direction in how to approach finding a solution. In the past, I don’t always know what to say to get her on the right track, so I end up helping until I’ve given her the answer! That’s why I love the “Strategy” and “Test Tip” boxes included on each page of the Test Prep booklets because they help me, as her teacher, learn how to lead her to discovering the answer for herself.
Spectrum Test Practices - The Test Practice book includes Lesson Pages with sample questions and examples, Sample tests (shorter tests with questions about one subtopic), and Practice Tests (comprehensive tests with questions about the entire content area). This book provides invaluable practice for getting a student familiar with the layout of a standardized test and the types of questions they will be expected to answer. The Lesson Pages include CLUES which are similar to the “Test Tips” in the Test Prep booklet, plus each Lesson includes a top-of-the-page example that you can work out loud with your child before he completes the remainder of the page alone.
I like that the Test Practice book has reproducible pages, so we can make copies and go through these tests more than once, and I can check progress. The workbook is focused practice for language arts and math, and after spending almost a month looking through the book and working the problems, my daughter has become even more proficient at tackling multiple-choice style programs. There are no frills – no illustrations, no cutesy graphics, no colorful ink markings. The test is black and white and the content is pretty straightforward, which is how actual standardized tests for this grade level are usually laid out.
I would recommend getting your hands on the Carson-Dellosa Spectrum Test Practice and Test Prep workbooks to give your student an edge in test-taking.
