Are your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students taking the STAAR reading test online this spring? This is different for sure, but it is a great time to make the leap into online testing.
3rd AND 4th grade students haven’t ever taken a STAAR test, so testing online is all they will know. Additionally, by the spring of 2023, everyone will be taking the STAAR test online.
Check out these tips for the STAAR reading online test:
The Test Setup
The STAAR reading online test is set up in a convenient way for students to easily reference back to the passage.
The passage is on the left side of the screen and must be scrolled to view the entire passage. The questions are located on the right side of the page.
Students can flag questions as they are taking the test, so they can return to those harder questions at the end.
Online Test Tools
It is imperative to have students get on the practice STAAR reading online test before the big day. There are many tools offered to general ed students, and even more tools for special ed. students.
Perhaps, the most useful tool is the embedded dictionary. This tool makes it easy for students to look up a word right on the testing platform.
Additionally, students can use a guideline to help them read the text without losing their place. They can highlight important information. Also making notes is easy with the sticky note or notepad feature.
Students will be able to choose the background color to a color that pleases their eyes.
With all these options, you can see why it is important to let students play with the online features ahead of time.
The practice test can be view here : STAAR Practice Test
Strategies
Strategies on the STAAR reading online test will be different than the paper version. This can be a hard adjustment for teachers who have been teaching a long time.
Students can be directed to take notes on the notepad or sticky notes tool. Although, the sticky notes do run out at some point.
The highlight tool is also useful in helping students identify important ideas from the passages.
If you are the type of teacher who wants to see the strategies, direct your students to take notes on a piece of notebook paper.
The notes can be summaries of each paragraph or of the entire passage.
If you would like to read more on STAAR reading strategies, check out my blog post: 5 Essential STAAR Reading Strategies
Additionally, I have a student friendly resource that teaches students specific strategies for different types of STAAR reading question stems: STAAR Reading Strategies
Incorporating STAAR question stems into your daily reading will help your students get used to the type of questions they will see on the test.
FREEBIE ALERT: STAAR Reading Question Stems. Drop your name and email below for a list of question stems for teachers and question cards for students to use!
Practice
It’s necessary to incorporate practice that resembles the STAAR reading online test.
It can be tough to find digital test prep materials. This year I will be using my STAAR Reading Prep resource. It is a 12 day review that covers a variety of reading skills, such as summary, theme, text features, author’s purpose, etc.
Each skill has whole group notes that lead the teacher’s review, a small group activity, an independent activity, and exit ticket.
Teachers can also create digital reading passages from the STAAR released tests. Then place them on their online learning platform.
The reading passage should be made into a picture. This can be done by copying and pasting the passage into a 8 ½ x 11 powerpoint slide then saving it as a jpg.
The jpg can be inserted with each question and the question and answer choices can be copied and pasted as well.
All in all, the STAAR reading online test won’t be too much different than the paper and pencil version.
Technology is the way of the future, so it only makes sense for state testing to be done this way.
It will take a few years, but soon the paper and pencil test will be as ancient as the overhead projector. Taking assessments online is the way of the future.
Be sure to check out my blog post about the changes to the 2022 STAAR Reading Test: Understanding the 2022 STAAR Reading Test
If you’re looking for resources to help prepare your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students for the STAAR Reading Test, check out my blog post: STAAR Reading Resource Round Up
