A Teacher's Guide to Standardized Reading Tests: Knowledge Is Power

Lucy Calkins is generally a good writer with her heart and skills in the right place. This book is solid and helpful. I'm glad the professor in question assigned it, because it has helped...I'm sorry though that there is so much emphasis on evaluative testing that the need for this book will keep it and related volumes in print for the next 2,000,000 years. I just finished my second advanced degree (in Education) and I've found this little tome to be useful. My suggestion: repeal NCLB and let the teachers (who are, after all, the experts about teaching) be in charge of curriculum again and to heck with mandated assessments. Still, as long as there are those kinds of tests, this is the book to have.

Standardized testing got you down? Here is a fresh way to approach the task of test prep. Using 'Strategy' work (as taught in Strategies That Work, and Mosaic of Thought) and investigative work into what students are thinking, Ms. Calkin treats 'test taking' as a genre. I used her approach this year, and found it flowed seamlessly into our Reader's Workshop 'Strategy' investigations.

As a reading teacher,this book has done wonders to help me see where we are weak in preparing our students for taking standardized tests. It is written as a case study and is easy reading. Super ideas for helping your students understand what is expected of them and how to prepare them.