Minutes after writing my last post about self-control, I learned about another study suggesting yet another potential effective strategy. And I think this one is particularly intriguing….

In post titled “Thinking About Tomorrow,” Jonah Lehrer writes about a study that apparently shows that thinking about the future — even for a brief time — enhances self control:

While most techniques for fighting off errant impulses focus on reducing our emotional attraction to the reward – that’s why, for instance, Walter Mischel teaches kids to draw a picture frame around the marshmallow – this new research suggests that an even more effective approach involves activating vivid, episodic associations about future events. In other words, before we decide whether or not to make a big purchase, or take out a mortgage, or make a donation to a 401(k), or contemplate a policy devoted to climate change, we should spend a few minutes thinking about what we’re doing tomorrow.

I’ve been writing a lot about how I’ve been spending a fair amount of time with my students on goal-setting activities this school year, and how successful it has appeared to be with most of my students.

I’ve also been trying some more intensive goal-setting with a couple of students who are having particular challenges with self-control and focus. However, I’ve typically been working with them on much more immediate goals — what are they going to accomplish today. This has proven to be less-than-successful.

I’m thinking of continuing to try and have them each day think about their goals. But, instead of asking them think about what their goals are for that day, ask them to write about ones that are longer-term — this school year, a couple of years out, post-high school. I suspect the results can’t be worse than what I’m getting now.

I hope Lehrer is right:

We can’t always get what we want, but if we think about the future first, sometimes we can get what we need.

We start state testing in two weeks, and I’ve just begun to have conversations with students about them (you can see my previous posts about these tests at My Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad)).

I began on Friday after being inspired by an online survey Alice Mercer did with her students. She’ll be writing her own post analyzing the survey results. (By the way, I think doing surveys in classrooms where relationships exist, students will share their responses with each other, and then the whole class talks about it, are fine. In community organizing, we always felt that a survey was only good if it was used as an excuse to start people talking. Outside of that relational context, I’m less convinced of their usefulness because I think people will tend to answer what they think they should, rather than what they really think.)

I wrote this question on the board as part of our regular Friday reflection:

Do you think it’s important to try your best on your test? If so, why? If not, why not?

I’m pretty confident that students are pretty honest in their responses to these kinds of questions — we’ve been able to develop that kind of classroom culture. Because it was a shortened day, we didn’t really have time to discuss their answers, but will tomorrow. Here are some of them:

Yes, it’s important because it’ll decide the placement of classes you will take next year.

It is important because if you don’t try the people will think that you are dumb and put you in dumb classes.

I’ve been thinking very carefully about the points I want to make in my conversations with them. I don’t want to communicate to them that the tests are going to measure how smart they are. And I don’t want to communicate a message like “You should always try your best” because, let’s face it, as the old community organizing saying goes: “Not all things are worth doing well.” All tasks are not made equal.

A colleague and I were talking today about how sad it is that we have to spend so much energy trying to think of a true reason it’s in the genuine self-interest of our students to try their best on these tests. We don’t have that problem with anything else we teach during the year!

This is what I finally concluded:

As part of the class discussion, one point I’m going to make is that the test results, along with their grades, are going to be the first impressions that teachers are going to have of them — before they actually meet them face-to-face. And first impressions can last awhile. I will tell them that even though I question whether these tests are an accurate measure of their ability, even I find myself making pre-judgments on students before I meet them after looking at their grades and test scores. The test scores will have some impact on classes they’ll be entering in the future, but less so here are our school because I and other teacher will be making recommendations based on what we know about them. However, they know that students can move, and that many students do. When that happens, no teacher or administrator will know them at their new schools, and their class placement will pretty much just be based on grades and test scores.

In addition, I’d like them to remember that it’s always best to make decisions that keep options open instead of closing them. Doing the best on the tests will do that for them.

I’ve printed out individual bar graphs comparing how they’ve done in their previous two years. On the computer, they’re color-coded to show at which level each student scored — Far below basic, Below basic, Basic, Proficient, Advanced. In my print-outs, they’re black and white, so the level is not clear to the student. It seems to me that showing many of my students that they’re considered “far below basic” or “below basic” is not going to be very helpful. I’m planning on telling them the number they need to reach in order to reach the “next level” and asking them if they think they can do that; if they want to do that; and, if so, what can they do over the next couple of weeks to help them accomplish their goal. We’ve done a lot on goal-setting, and it’s worked well.

What do you think? I’m all ears to hear ideas on how to talk with students about these tests….

Later this week, I’ll be writing about individual conversations I’ll be having with each of my students leading up to our standardized tests in early May.

Now, though, I thought readers might find it useful to have a summary of key points I share in my post, My Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad). In addition, I’ll share my list of “Important Test Words” that I review with my students during the half-hour of explicit test-prep I do with them a day or two prior to the test.  As I’ve said before, our school does not believe in teaching to the test and, instead, feel that what we do during the year will develop life-long learners who will do well on the tests.

Feel free to offer additional suggestions in the comments section of this post.

GENERAL TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES:

Read each question carefully and more than once

Read the questions before you read the longer text

Underline important words in the text as you read

Do easy questions first

Skip the hard questions and come back to them later (put a mark in your test booklet next to the ones you skip)

Eliminate wrong answers and make your best guess

Trust yourself, your first guess is usually the best

If you do want to change an answer, be sure to erase the first one completely

RESEARCH-BASED ACTIONS THAT CAN PUT STUDENTS IN A POSITIVE FRAME OF MIND ON TEST DAY & “BRAIN-PRIMING” STRATEGIES:

* Give Peppermints to students during the test

* Prior to the test, have students write for a minute or two about a time, or times, when they were successful

* Have signs around the room that have the letter “A” very visible — such as an inspirational phrase like “You’re a Great Student!” surrounded by “A”‘s.

* Prior to the test, have students complete “sentence scrambles” that have positive messages

* Prior to the test, have students write for a minute or two about what they think a scientist does.

* Have students drink a glass of water one-half hour prior to taking the test.

IMPORTANT TEST WORDS:

narrator

figurative language

except

consistent

denotation

connotation

similar

theme

author’s purpose

tone

compare

contrast

negative

tendency

recurring

influenced

assumes

persuasive

primary

personification

traditional

tradition

excerpt

rhetorical

logically