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mama2many
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 11:26am | IP Logged
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My 7yo, who is a struggling reader, is FREAKING OUT about the CAt test.. how do I prep her for this (I am the proctor b/c she would do REALLY poorly with someone else)??
She CAN read, but she struggles with smaller words, and puts letters into words that aren't there..plus English is hard to read/learn! (it's our only language, but it's got some crazy rules, ya know)
Anyway, how do we take this test w/o freaking her out?? I know it's not a pass/fail, but she's sensitive and worries about her "score"
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Krystin
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KackyK
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 1:01pm | IP Logged
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Read it to her. That's what I have done. A very wise seasoned homeschooler mom friend told me this...
These tests, we pay for them, they are OURS. If you don't like how they scored first time around, then take them again. You can take them as many times as you are willing to pay for them (think SAT-ish here). The school system does not know how many times.
In regards to reading it to them, think about what they are testing. Vocabulary...they want to know if they know the meaning of the word. It isn't a test to see if she can read the word. Mechanics, same thing. Comprehension...some people may disagree, but in our house a lot is read out loud and then they narrate back - comprehension.
The test isn't about - can your child read? This is why you can see how tests can really screw up some children in a large school setting. They can "know" all of it, but like you said "freak out" with the stress of performance. Then they are judged on that "freak out"moment, not their true knowledge. Hope that helps.
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KackyK
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mama2many
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 1:07pm | IP Logged
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Thank you!!! She CAN read, just lacks confidence and the test scared the stink out of her!!
**whew** (I didn't wnat to be a rule breaker and READ it aloud, when I KNOW she'll totally get it if I do, kwim?)
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Krystin
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Aagot
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 2:48pm | IP Logged
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I agree with Kacky! Also, your dd will discover that the test is easy and that will give her confidence for next time.
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 3:20pm | IP Logged
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Oh, boy- I had this last year with my ds. Completely freaked out. Crying.
I would have ditched the whole thing if not required by law.
I split the test over two days, with lavish praise and a little treat after.
The test went much better this year.
I also love Kacky's words of wisdom!
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 8:27pm | IP Logged
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I'm just curious, why are you doing testing so early? Is it mandated by your state? I live in NY and we have to do standardized testing, but we can wait until grade 4 or 5. That's what I did. When testing time came I chose the PASS test, which is untimed and gives you very detailed test results. My oldest is in 7th grade now and will do the CAT test this year. Even The Well Trained Mind doesn't recommend testing until grade 3. Couldn't you put the test off for a few years?
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 8:56pm | IP Logged
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It's required in my state starting at age seven.
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 9:11pm | IP Logged
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Do you really have to use the CAT test or could you use another test?
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KackyK
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 10:26pm | IP Logged
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In VA you do have to test if you haven't gone with a religious exemption. In VA you don't have to use the CAT, you could use something else. However my experience has been from personally doing the other test or hearing from others, that the CAT is the least stressful and "easiest" of them all.
Also remember, there is no set time for how long it can take you to actually finish the whole thing! Take your time!
Oh and in VA, they want to be sure your kid is at least above the lowest of the public schoolers...so it's like they'd "pass" with something like a "29" or another number that crazy low. They need to know the basics just better than the ESL public school kids.
And small tidbit another friend told me...before you ever send it back in, xerox copy the test booklet, God forbid that thing gets lost in the mail! Then you'll have a backup you can just reorder and fill in her answers again for her without doing it all over again, kwim?
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KackyK
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kristinannie
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| Posted: May 19 2011 at 10:37pm | IP Logged
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Is a portfolio not an option?
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 6:03am | IP Logged
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A portfolio is not an option here. It has to be a nationally recognized standardized test. This year I scanned in the pages of the test before I mailed it.... it is fairly long, and I can reproduce the answers from the scanned pages if I need to.
Bur overall....  to you, test!
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 6:06am | IP Logged
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Oh- wanted to ask, also.... I did not look at the test in depth beforehand to see if my ds would "know" everything on it. We did not do any review for it.
There was one area in the grammar part that we had simply not covered this year. It was only a couple of questions, but it was something he had not seen before.
Do you check the test first and review all it covers with your dc?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 8:50am | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
Do you check the test first and review all it covers with your dc?
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I normally just use the Spectrum booklets to prepare for it.
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KackyK
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| Posted: May 20 2011 at 9:27am | IP Logged
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Yep I have totally checked. I figured hello! how often do we hear about public schools teaching to the test, you know, if we haven't covered two digit division and its on the test...then we put off doing the test by about 2 weeks and bone up on it.
I'm not sure if in VA you can do a portfolio, I think you can. I fear those because say one year we have a great year, get a lot done, looks good and then the next we have a baby, we have pneumonia in the house, etc and the bare bones is done for the majority of the year. The portfolio then looks not as good as the year before. I'm worried about how that looks. Maybe I don't need to be, but that's why I've never gone that route.
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SallyT
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In NC, where I live, we also *have* to test yearly. Of the tests on the approved list, we do the CAT because it's easy to get (I order ours from Seton), and I can administer it. I read it to my 7-year-old this year, because otherwise there was no way.
This was our third year testing, and on the whole, I think it's pretty darn basic. I don't remember encountering anything we actually hadn't done -- or if we did, my kids either just skipped it or guessed. A handful of missed questions isn't the end of the world.
And as I've remarked to my kids, their scores aren't a measure of their abilities; they're just an indicator of things we have and haven't covered, or of things that are easier or harder for them, or of the fact that (as in the case of my son last year) somebody just really could not give a rat's rip about Kate Greenaway as a topic for a reading-comprehension exercise and therefore ran his eyes over it and answered some questions like he'd just flown in from Mars and got on with the rest of the test.
A friend of mine has a woman come to her house to administer the Woodcock-Johnson test, which is also approved in NC and which sounds cool -- this mom comes away knowing a heck of a lot more about her kids' learning styles than I do after administering the CAT. On the other hand, she may also have more of a budget for this kind of thing than I do, but I've considered asking her if she'd be willing to go in together on a testing day. I would be really interested in that kind of whole-child evaluation, just to see if it lines up with what I think I know about my kids.
Anyway, don't stress about the CAT. We spread our testing out over three days, so that each child only does about half an hour to 45 minutes of testing a day, depending on age, and that makes it much more palatable. With the youngers, I approach it basically as a game, and when it's all over, everyone gets some kind of treat as a reward for playing along. And as I emphasize to my kids, all it is is a tool for letting us know what things we may need to work on, plus an exercise in the skill of standardized-test-taking, which will be useful in later life. But that's it.
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mama2many
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| Posted: June 01 2011 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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we did the test.. she cried daily.  but I think she did well.. she freaked about the math. and now that the test is done, she isn't freaking about math anymore 
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Krystin
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Aagot
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| Posted: June 01 2011 at 1:00pm | IP Logged
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Krystin,
You might consider giving her tests like this every month. Not the whole thing of course, just something that looks similar. It might innoculate her against the stress.
Just a thought.
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mama2many
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| Posted: June 01 2011 at 3:08pm | IP Logged
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that might be a good idea.
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Krystin
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SallyT
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| Posted: June 04 2011 at 3:36pm | IP Logged
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Well, the ice is broken, anyway. Next year it might not feel like such a big deal.
My kids always want to know their scores, which I hadn't really planned on sharing with them, not wanting to emphasize the "here's a number and it is you" aspect of things, but my *not* telling them made them think they'd "flunked." So now I do share their scores with them, but emphasize that all the numbers mean is that learning is a work in progress. I really don't want them angsting out about the results!
Glad you got through it. Hopefully next time it'll seem like old hat to her.
Sally
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Topic: CAT testing help??
