Posts on “ test prep ”

As the end of the school year approaches, students need to review lots of material they’ve already learned. Why not use BrainPOP to help? In this new lesson plan, you’ll find ideas for helping students reflect on their progress and areas of strength and weakness, and review key skills and concepts. This lesson can be used in preparation for standardized testing or even unit tests in various subject areas. Preview the lesson and determine how you can adapt it for your class and differentiate for student needs. If your students have mobile devices, you may want to teach them in advance how to download the BrainPOP app. You may want to re-use this lesson plan throughout the school year for different subject area assessments. Encourage students to explore the movies and quizzes on their own, and check out topics that are relevant to their interests (including those topics that are not covered on a test.)    

Jaclyn McLaren is a 6th grade Earth Science teacher at Webb Bridge Middle School in Alpharetta, GA. I have been teaching 6th Grade Earth Science for six years and we have been able to use BrainPOP, thanks to a PTA grant, for the past five years at my school.   The teachers at my school use the resources on a daily basis.  BrainPOP brings an innovative educational experience to our classrooms where the students look forward to learning in this creative way.  They enthusiastically focus on the fresh new ideas offered during these movies and continue on to the final questions with much anticipation. This year though I wanted to do something different as a test review.  I was thinking how I could incorporate BrainPOP into my classroom.  Then it came to me, I would have students create their own videos on topics taught in class.  The students would get in groups and I would assign them each a different topic discussed over the school year.  I decided to incorporate this idea for use as a year end review.  The students overwhelmingly agreed how exciting it would be to create their own videos on topics taught in the class.  They formed… Read the Rest»

April’s free webinars offer something for everyone! Join us Wednesdays at 4:30 pm EST (unless otherwise noted) for one or more of these diverse offerings. On April 6, our Tatum Murphy teamed up with netTrekker’s Danielle Abernethy for Search & Rescue: Earth Awareness Resources From netTrekker Search & BrainPOP. On April 13, see for yourself whether or not Test Prep Can Be Enjoyable?! On the 20th, BrainPOP’s David Grandison Jr., Production Manager and social media guru, explores the use of social media and collaborative learning to build 21st century skills in Breaking Down Classroom Walls With Web 2.0. And on April 27, Moby, Moby, What Do You See? shows you how to create real and virtual scavenger hunts that weave in BrainPOP resources to enrich whatever topic you’re teaching. Get the details and RSVP for these webinars – space is limited. Did you miss the April 6 webinar or want to browse past webinars? Visit our Archives. Are you interested in sharing your expertise in a BrainPOP webinar? Get in touch; we’d love to have you.

Yesterday we were joined by student teacher Megan Hoke, from Atlanta, GA, as a special guest, facilitating “Using BrainPOP to Study for Teacher Certification Tests.” Since student teachers often have limited experience to draw from, and are expected to perform in a high pressure environment, Megan thought BrainPOP was a powerful tool for learning and reviewing subject area content, as well as teaching strategies. Megan was fabulous, and offered tons of good ideas. You can access a recording of the webinar. Feel free to pass it along! Here are some ideas that came out of the webinar. Tools for Reviewing/Learning Content (Standards Tool!) BrainPOP review vocabulary on Activity Pages watch videos with CC to learn/review content use POPQuiz before watching video, preview ?s or quick assessment take quiz after video use quiz to review before going on to a new topic BrainPOP Jr. watch videos with CC to learn/review content use Word Wall (Big Word Wall is organized by subject!) Draw/Write/Talk About It offer writing prompts with graphic organizers — these could easily be questions you might get or offer ideas for teaching content Tools for Teaching Strategies Ideas for Grown Ups – offers background info and teaching strategies BrainPOP… Read the Rest»

It’s that time of year again… I’ve been out visiting schools (one of my favorite things to do!) and remember the toll test prep pressures took on my students and me. My grade level really found BrainPOP helpful in changing attitudes towards test prep and making it a more enjoyable experience for all involved. I’ll spend the next week or so sharing some of my own tips, and I invite you to share yours as well! POP QUIZZES! *BrainPOP Jr. models the process of elimination by x’ing out wrong answers. You can model the same thing for your students with BrainPOP, and use both the online and printed versions of both quizzes for hands-on student practice! If you’re using an interactive whiteboard, get those students up there getting rid of the obvious wrong answer(s), and practicing any other annotation you teach. *Help students develop test taking skills by having them practice writing their own questions and answers. One of my favorite things to do with my interactive whiteboard was to use the windowshade tool to cover up the question, leaving only the multiple choice answers. By analyzing the answers, students learned how to figure out what the question must be…. Read the Rest»