Test Prep Starts Early

Grimes’ Adventure Camp Helps Kids Achieve

Giselle Salguero, left, and Blanca DeLeon, both fifth-graders, complete sixth gradelevel reading comprehension tasks Thursday on netbooks in Ryan Quintana’s class at Bonnie Grimes Elementary as part of Adventure Camp in Rogers.

Giselle Salguero, left, and Blanca DeLeon, both fifth-graders, complete sixth gradelevel reading comprehension tasks Thursday on netbooks in Ryan Quintana’s class at Bonnie Grimes Elementary as part of Adventure Camp in Rogers.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

— Six fifth-graders sat on the floor in Cheryl Inman’s classroom, their fingers wrapped around a mystery object.

They tasted, smelled and touched the object, then wrote descriptions: It feels “bumpy;” tastes “vanilla” or “smooth.” They opened their hands to find an animal cracker. Inman asked for a sentence.

At A Glance

What Is It?

For children in grades three through eight, the Augmented Benchmark Examinations are the tests required by the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment, and Accountability Program. Benchmarks measures grade-level proficiency in math and English and, in grades five and seven, in science. The tests were built around the Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks and data from the tests is used as a school performance indicator.

Source: Arkansas Department Of Education

“Oh, yum, it smells so good,” a student said.

Could they come up with a fifth-grade word?

“Delicious,” came the answer.

Inman is trying to prepare the students for whatever literacy questions they might face on the statewide Benchmark exams. Vocabulary is part of the equation, but her fifth-grade students need to know how to indent a paragraph and write in a descriptive, narrative or expository fashion for the essay questions on the test, she said.

As one of the 17 teachers for Adventure Camp at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School, Inman was challenged to make learning more hands-on for the after-school group. She took her group around the school in a previous exercise. They smelled garbage, heard children laughing and felt the rays of the sun. She handed out pencils and papers Thursday afternoon asking students to bring their five senses into their writing.

Schools are already focusing on preparing students to meet the challenge of the Augmented Benchmark Examinations, Arkansas’ statewide test for student achievement, to be given in April. Test scores are used to grade students and schools. Low-performing schools are identified by overall scores.

More than 90 percent of students scored proficient or advanced on the Benchmark last year at several Rogers elementary schools. Bellview Elementary School was ranked eighth in the state in mathematics and seventh in literacy by the Office for Educational Policy using 2011-12 Benchmark data. Lowell Elementary was ranked 24th in literacy in the state. Grade point averages for the two were separated by 0.8 percent. Eastside, Grace Hill, Bonnie Grimes and Russell D. Jones elementary schools were in the top 24 high-poverty, high-literacy schools in the state, according to the policy office. Eastside and Grace Hill also were recognized for mathematics scores.

Principal Debra Lewis credits Adventure Camp, a twice-weekly after school session, as part of the reason for high scores at Bonnie Grimes Elementary. The camp is paid for through Title I money, which is designated for improving achievement for economically disadvantaged children.

Adventure Camp will reach 105 children this year, its fourth year, Lewis said.

“We have to have some quality time to work with them,” Lewis said, “I think it makes a huge difference.”

Students are issued invitations to the camp based on prior test scores. Children at the camp are not the low-performing students, but the ones who need just that extra bit of confidence, administrators said.

“We’re targeting those kids who are in the middle who we generally assume are doing fine,” said Liz Harter, assistant principal.

Students said they enjoy the Adventure Camp program.

“Ruckus” was the favorite vocabulary word for third-grader Adrian Desantiago. Students in his group defined preset vocabulary word included in a Skippyjon Jones book, waving at teacher Heather Hart to stop each time she came to one of the words.

Melanie Hernandez, a third-grader at the school, learned reading strategies for the test, such as how to follow directions and read the title carefully.

“It makes it easier for you to read,” she said.

At Bonnie Grimes, the principal, assistant principal or counselor will meet with every third-, fourth- and fifth-grader to talk about the student’s progress, goals and strategies for the upcoming test, Lewis said.

The Benchmark test is unique to Arkansas, and as the state transitions to the Common Core curriculum, teachers are working to fill in the difference between the two. Common Core asks students to go deeper, but it also swaps concepts between grade levels, Lewis said. More than getting the right answer, children need to explain how they got there, she said.

New nationwide exams are being developed for Common Core. New tests are expected in the 2014-15 school year.

Grace Hill Elementary School also plans a Benchmark Bootcamp, said Principal Jennie Rehl. The school will focus on test strategies and content the week before spring break and the week before testing.

Children know how important the test is, Rehl said. A fifth-grader consigned to remedial classes by a low Benchmark score might miss out on electives. A little self-esteem can go a long way, she said.

“We’ve prepared them. They know more than they think they know,” Rehl said.

Some kids were picked as a “Benchmark buddy” by teachers at the school. Benchmark buddies are personal cheerleaders for children who need the push to succeed, Rehl said. It might be the gift of a pencil or checking in with a child, but the message is “we’re there for you,” she said.

Knowing someone has their back gives them courage.

“Every child needs to know that someone outside their family thinks they’re special,” she said.