ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: APRIL 2023
As the school year continues, the yearly testing window will begin to open with school sponsored assessments followed by state mandated testing. If your child falls within this criteria (grades 3-11), you will find that there will be instances of your child experiencing anxiety, frustration, and avoidance behaviors.
The best way to assist your child during this time includes being patient, contacting the school for any resources or strategies that you can use in the home to help alleviate the feelings that they will deal with. Antecedent interventions (strategies to assist an individual before the behavior occurs) will be the number one strategy that I would suggest. Here are two strategies (of many) I suggest to assist your child during the testing cycle.
1. Teaching and reinforcing the “12 Powerful Words” by Larry Bell. I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Mr. Bell many years ago while the Principal at Sherman Elementary. Reinforcing and reminding teachers, students, and parents to ensure their child can articulate and provide examples of these 12 words helped transform our test scores from horrific to achieving overall academic growth. If students can not define and explain these terms, the likelihood of answering complex questions is significantly diminished, thus leading to poor test scores. These words MUST be displayed throughout your school, classroom, and home to maximize your full potential.
a. Analyze – Break apart
b. Infer – Read between the lines
c. Evaluate – Judge d. Formulate – Create e. Describe – Tell all about it
f. Support – Back up with details
g. Explain – Tell how
h. Summarize – Give me the short version i. Compare – All the ways they are alike
j. Contrast – All the ways they are different
k. Predict – what will happen next
l. Trace – list in steps
2. Provide your child with confidence! They don’t need to know whether you were a strong test taker in school! Your child must know that they are an “Academic Warrior.” An “Academic Warrior” faces adversity and challenges with the confidence to overcome all odds. You may be asking, what does this mean? Characteristics of an “Academic Warrior” include:
a. Confidence – confidence to give their best effort every day.
b. Strength – building strong mental toughness to withstand the amount of information your child must remember and apply.
c. Aggressiveness – never giving up in their pursuit of becoming a lifelong learner and its importance.
d. Discipline – “doing what you hate to do, but doing it like you love it.”- Mike Tyson
e. Being Active – not spending the majority of free time on video games, social media, or watching television.
f. Bravery – having the courage to help others achieve and be their best version.
Mr. Bronaugh is currently the owner of AB Education & Behavior Consulting LLC. AB Education & Behavior Consulting LLC utilizes over 20 years of educational experience as a teacher, administrator and Board Certified Behavior Analyst to assist schools and organizations to achieve at their highest level using applied behavior analysis techniques along with social & emotional learning. Mr. Bronaugh is also an undergraduate Adjunct Professor at Bowling Green State University where he teaches “Cultural Linguistics and Diversity”. You can find Anthony on the following social media outlets: https://abeducationbehaviorconsultingllc.com/