Yesterday my students took the ACT. Not only is it a college placement test, the ACT also counts as our state’s required test for the year. It is a lot of pressure on my juniors, but as their English teacher, it is also a lot of pressure on me. Of the five test sections they take (English, math, reading, science, and writing), I am responsible for covering three of them.
We spend all year dabbling in practice activities for the English and reading tests. Most of the practice is just helping students get familiar with the quick timing they will need to work with; after all, we really don’t give timed tests anymore. After the first semester finishes, we ramp up the practice, talk explicitly about strategies, and watch videos we made that cover all the ins and outs of test day. With so many snow days this year, I just barely had enough time to have my students do one practice timed-writing before test day.
On Monday, I choose not to do any prep. I told my students there was nothing extra we could do to make them more prepared than they already were. I reminded them to bring a calculator, and sent them on their way, hopeful they would get a good night’s sleep, eat a filling breakfast, and not forget their student ID.
Even though we all know proctoring tests is the most boring thing teachers do, test day came and went in a flash. After everything was collected and our students came back from lunch, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. My students could finally relax too.
As I saw each of my students that afternoon, I would give them a little cheer: “You did it! Congratulations!!” And then I would see the smiles. There was confidence in their responses and lots of “I know I did great” or “I felt really prepared.” There were also a few responses telling me “That was tough” to which I would reassure them that I know they had worked hard. I too got a few words of reassurance from my colleagues, congratulating me on getting our juniors to this point.
Today, my students’ thoughts were a little more put together, and we had conversations about if they would retake the ACT and where they felt like their teachers had not prepared them enough. The confidence remained, but, for now, we just wait for those scores and keep our fingers crossed.
I am looking forward to taking a break from all the test prep this year, but I am not done with the ACT quite yet. There will be data to analyze, changes to make before we meet next year’s juniors, and then we do it all again next year (hopefully a little better).
Photo by Tara Winstead
Rachel Perugini
I am originally from Pennsylvania where I earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Shippensburg University. In 2012, I moved to Arizona to teach on the Navajo Reservation; I liked the state so much I decided to stay. I taught language arts, reading, and journalism for three years at Many Farms High School. During that time, I earned a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction for Reading. In 2015, I moved to Flagstaff where I currently teach 10th and 11th grade English. I have been an avid reader all my life, so I love that my job gives me that chance to read amazing books with my students all day long.