Like the age-old saying goes “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink”. That’s how it feels a lot of the time as a math teacher, especially when you are trying to get your students to actually use the study strategies you give them in class.
It feels like you have done everything you can to help your students prepare and there comes a point where you just have to let them go on their own. This is always easier said than done though, am I right?
We all know that test preparation is essential for student success in math classes. It teaches them valuable skills and helps them feel more confident and prepared going into a testing environment. In this blog post, we’ll be diving deep into how to teach study strategies and make your in-class review days more meaningful and worthwhile for your students.
Prepare an optimal learning environment
There are lots of ways that math teachers can set their students up for success before getting to test prep. All of your differentiated teaching practices that you implement throughout a unit make a huge difference in your students’ success.
For example, giving frequent formative assessments and feedback to students can help them gauge what they do and don’t understand in a unit. It’s important for students to be self-reflective and figure out a way to manage what they need extra help with.
Setting realistic and clear expectations from the start will help prepare your students and make sure there is no room for excuses. These expectations could be about your test formatting, reassessment policy, etc..
How to make the most of in class time
One of my favorite ways to start test preparation with students was by getting their feedback to drive our discussion and review sessions.
I would give everyone a study guide that had practice questions for the upcoming test and have them circle any questions they weren’t sure how to solve. Usually, they would all have similar questions, so we could take that time to review similar problems and I could answer their questions.
Then, when it came time for them to work on the study guide and practice, I told them to complete the questions that they circled first.
This worked really well because it involved everyone in the class and made them actually reflect on what their strengths and weaknesses were.
Another way that I got feedback from my students was by using notecards. I would still give them the study guide, but this time I would ask to reflect on everything.
They would write down one concept they understood very well, one they were unsure about, and one they had absolutely no idea how to solve. I would collect the notecards and use that to drive my review lesson for the next day.
I’ve found that test prep is really about meeting students where they are at.
Teaching study strategies and skills
There were two main issues I found with testing students: lack of motivation to prepare and not knowing how to prepare.
Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about a student not caring about their grade or wanting to prepare. I could probably write a whole blog post about why this happens and how it manifests in a math classroom.
However, in this blog post I’m just going to focus on the students who do want to study, but don’t know how.
Many students think that they can just look at their notes and the information will magically appear in their brains. Unless they have a photographic memory, this obviously is not going to work for them.
What will work for students is some guided study strategies. This can look like giving your students an index card to write notes or key concepts on to prepare for the exam.
I found that when I just gave my students a notecard they weren’t really sure what to do with it or what to write on it. For the first few tests, I would write all of the topics and concepts on the board that they would need to know.
Then, they would be able to go back through their notes and find vocabulary or practice problems to align with these topics.
Some students did really well with this and others didn’t get it.
They would just end up writing all of the topic names on their card, but nothing of actual value that would help them during the test.
This strategy took quite a bit of scaffolding and releasing of responsibility, but by the end of the year they had a better grasp on how to study.
More review activities and study strategies
- Use task cards to review concepts in a more interactive and hands-on way. Get your students working in pairs or small groups to complete practice problems. This is a great change of pace compared to a traditional study guide packet.
- Assign real-world applications. The more that students are able to conceptualize a topic and see its meaning. When students can see the meaning behind the math and interact with it, they are much more likely to remember it in the future.
- Pull small groups/individuals. Use support teachers to help you pull small groups to do more focused and targeted review. If this isn’t feasible during class time, you can encourage students to stay after school with you to do some review and get more personalized support.
- Give students access to online resources, such as Khan Academy, that can help them get extra practice outside of class. Your students can watch videos to help them work through the study guide or do extra practice problems that will give them immediate feedback.
As a math teacher, you know that review days are an important part of the learning process. They help students to solidify their understanding of key concepts and prepare them for upcoming assessments.
The study strategies mentioned in this blog post are not meant to be an end all be all, but rather suggestions to try in your classroom. The ultimate goal is to make your in-class review days more impactful and worthwhile for your students.
This will take some trial and error for sure, but once you figure out what works for you and your students, the results will be amazing.