TOP 11 TEST
TEACHING TIPS
FOR FCAT
Presented By:
Mrs. Tina Walls
LMS Reading Coach
Test Teaching Tip # 1
Students don’t go back to the
text to answer questions.
All students must go back to verify the best
possible answers. Multiple choice distractors are
all plausible.
Give open book tests to practice going back to
the text to retrieve information.
Allow students to underline, use symbols, like
stars or dots to mark the location of information.
Test Teaching Tip # 2
Students return to only one place in the
text to get information instead of
including information from multiple
places in the text.
99 % of the question on FCAT are
Think and Search questions.
Teachers need to reinforce QAR’s and practice
scanning the text to locate information
various places.
Test Teaching Tip # 3
Students confuse Florida Writes with FCAT
Reading by writing a personal narrative
in response to a FCAT Performance
Task.
Students overanalyze the question.
Reinforce that FCAT Reading NEVER wants a
student’s personal opinion or experiences.
Teachers must not accept these responses as
“score-able” Give multiple opportunities to
improve responses.
Test Teaching Tip # 4
Students don’t use key words in MC or
PT responses. (e.g. how, why).
Teachers must review question stems.
Practice circling key words.
There are clues in the stem that will give
the location of the answer.
Test Teaching Tip # 4
Students don’t use key words in MC
or PT responses.
(e.g. how, why…..?)
Teachers must REVIEW Question
Stems.
Practice circling key words.
There are clues in the stem that will give
the location of the answer.
Test Teaching Tip # 5
Students only restate questions with no
new words added. They receive a zero.
Example: Birds and fish keep warm
differently in winter.
Teachers must insist that new information is
included in the response. Even one new
word shows a glimmer of understanding.
Practice with FL DOE Released Tests.
Utilize the FCAT Instructional Rubrics to
spend time improving student responses.
Test Teaching Tip # 6
Students repeat the same
information when answering
performance tasks.
Every performance tasks includes several
concepts and support for those concepts.
Practice going back into the text to teach
students how to add more information.
Practice peer proofreading to delete
repetitious information.
Test Teaching Tip # 7
Students write comparisons that
are incomplete.
Example: The fish keep warm in water
but birds don’t. This response receives
a zero.
Teachers must model complete comparisons
orally and in written format.
The example included should be considered an
incomplete thought.
This skill is very teachable!
Test Teaching Tip # 8
Students use pronouns in a way that
shows ambiguity.
Therefore, use of pronouns or indefinite
pronouns should be limited or eliminated.
Example: One won’t eat and the other hides.
Discourage the use of pronouns in written responses.
Even the most well intentioned student will score a
zero even if the information is true.
Students should be specific about who or what is
being compared in their responses.
Practice improving responses.
Test Teaching Tip # 9
Students choose the wrong distractors
on Multiple-Choice items.
Model reading the question stem before reading
the distractors and locate the information in the
text.
Practice answering using one- sentence
summaries.
When the students return to read the distractors,
the correct answer is obvious.
Test Teaching Tip # 10
Students are using quotation marks
inappropriately or not using them at
all.
Direct quotes from the text maybe used
however, they must be used with
paraphrased support to receive a full
score.
Test Teaching Tip # 11
Students do not go back re-read
their answers after completing the
test.
The test is liberally timed. Do not give
students the option to read a book or draw
after they finish a test. They will choose the
book instead of going back to check answers.
Regularly practice endurance when
administering “mini” and “mock” assessments.
Test Teaching Tip
the end