Gilmore Chapter 5- Can We Leave Yet?

I love lists, I love structure, I like when I receive a little piece of direction because Lord knows I am one of the least focused people that have walked this Earth. With this little background in mind I really love Gilmore’s strategy of giving students a check list of revision strategies, and that this list can be adjusted depending on the amount of time each student has left. I think this is a very constructive and useful method.

For instance it is very difficult under pressure to think clearly, specifically while doing something like a standardized test in which the outcome of this test could mean scholarship money, your college future, and so on and so forth. I get nervous just thinking about it, and its been years since I’ve been in that situation. By giving students an easy and simple list I feel that it helps students recall material that has been given to them throughout their education, and now is the time to actually apply what they’ve learned. Who would have thought?

Furthermore I think another idea that Gilmore brings up is to know the test and know the readers. In high school I was very blessed that my teachers did do a great job at preparing us for AP tests. I think its essential that we have information readily available for students, and can provide lessons in our curriculum that is relevant to these type of tests. For example, my teachers in high school often had us do practice tests a few weeks before, and scored them accordingly to the methods specific for that test. Likewise we were able to reflect as a class on how we did, where we excelled and where we could improve. I also like Gilmore’s idea about having students be the “reader” and going through essays and setting up your room like a testing center. While I may change up just how many papers students look at it, I think this is a great exercise for students, because it can physically show them what readers do and don’t want to see on their papers. I think this is a really constructive testing strategy that I would like to incorporate in some form into my future classroom.