Monthly Archives: April 2013

Back to the EOC Swing of Things

Well, it has been a hard month. I returned to work at the start of April, but keeping up with all of the changes and the blog fell to the wayside. As this is the EOC Swing, I wanted to get back to helping out others and posting as much as possible.
We get out for summer on May 22, and I will diligently work on uploading everything I have missed over the gap and adapting to the change in family arrangements and the loss of my brother.
For right now, I’m going to post a few files to help cover the gap.

What’s the best review pattern?
Well, I don’t have an answer to the best. I choose to use a very structured class schedule:
1. First, our bell ringer still follows the Caught Ya method, but I modify the sentences to meet specific needs of the students. Goal, 7-10 minutes. (Because this is changed based on the previous day’s instruction, there is no specific file to upload for you.)
2. Confused Vocab: This file includes five days of warm-up/bell ringer activities for use in English classrooms (10 minutes a day for five days). The plan comes with an outline, student handouts, a notes grid, and answer keys. You can find this file at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bell-Ringer-Warm-Up-EOCEOG-Prep-for-Commonly-Confused-Words
3. Foreign Words and Phrases: I have created a variety of supplies for this, but I am not yet ready to post them. I have videos for each of the terms with short review tasks to use at the start of the year, and then I have a set with five words a day in the fill-in-the-blank sets where students must use the correct word and justify their answers by identifying context clues which helped to identify the correct term. I will get this posted as soon as possible.
4. Skills Lesson and Strand Reviews – I basically review a specific term going SPI by SPI for key terms and vocab. I have posted the first one, Communication. Use this basic PPT and student handout to reteach Tennessee State English I Communication Standards with your students. This is a great way to put all of the information in the same spot right before the test date! Activity Description: T reviews the strand with definitions and examples on the PPT. Students track information on the included graphic organizers.
FREE Activity Posted: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/EOC-Swing-Communication-Review
5. EOC Item Sampler Think Aloud – I break the test into sections and review every question. These tests are available at http://www.tn.gov/education/assessment/sec_samplers.shtml.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any ideas, comments, or suggestions.EOC Swing Communication