Success on The NWEA MAP Test: Part 1: The Intro Post

(Insert your grade level and students age as necessary)

I hope you giggled a little at those. I know that even thinking about testing "season" can stress me out and I need all the laughs I can get. Today I am here to start my very first blog series (pretty excited about that!) to share with you the things I do to help my students reach their NWEA MAP goal. And while I know that this series will be pretty specific to the MAP test, I hope there is something here that can help you. Plus I will be including some freebies as we go along too.

Why Should You Listen to Anything I Have To Say? 

Now, with as high stakes as testing can be you might be wondering why you should do anything I am about to tell you. 

Good Question.

These are my "credentials" if you will. 

1st:  I have been MAP testing my kiddo's for 9 years now, so I have been doing this for awhile. 

2nd: In those 9 years that I have been MAP testing we as a school went from a laisez faire attitude, to having it be part of our teacher evaluations. So I have been on all ends of the spectrum when it comes to testing. 

3rd:  I have had training when it comes to reading and interpreting all of the MAP data that you get after the fall test. We have had whole school professional development on it and I have done a few independent PD's on it as well. 

4th: In the past 3 years, which have been some of our most highly focused, I have had over 90% of my class meet their growth goals. At my school 90% is what it takes to be highly effective in the data category. So basically I am good at interpreting this crazy data output and figuring out how to help my students succeed.

5th: Finally, and the most important in my opinion, I am a *real* teacher and I am in a *real* classroom. We've all had PD from people who truly have no idea how things work in a classroom. Or had higher ups who try to tell us to do things that we *know* won't work. And while my classroom dynamics will be different than yours, the things I am going to share are all things I have actually done in my room. 

The Series

So! Here is my plan. 

The Intro Post

I've MAP Tested. Now What? 

Planning for Small Groups ( This may be a 2 part post as there is a LOT of info for this one.) 

Monitoring Student Progress

The Final Countdown

Answering Your Questions

I'm excited to share this with you. However, I am taking a page from my pal Angela over at Hippo Hooray for 2nd grade. She did not schedule a specific time or date when her interactive notebook series posts would go live. And I am not either. But I am hoping to have this series finished by the end of summer so that you have all of the information before starting back to school and testing. 

If you have any questions about MAP testing or info that you would like me to make sure to include leave a comment here or on my Facebook page. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Jean~