It's that time of year in Wisconsin. The leaves have all fallen off the trees; the winds have picked up and are whipping and howling. Most homeowners have succumbed to the chilly temperatures and cranked on the furnace. The days are short and the nights are long.

All of this indicates one thing; it's time for state standardized assessments. In Wisconsin students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10 embark on an annual journey through the pages of test books - reading and answering multiple choice questions, and writing constructed responses. My role as a literacy leader often turns to assessment administrator this time of year, and I recently made an interesting observation.

I'd like you to first turn the viewing lens on yourself and picture this. How often do you grab the novel you are reading at night before you go to bed, read the first paragraph or page, and realize that you have no idea what you have read? As a literate adult, you probably go back and reread, and often the second time through you get into a reading groove and are ready to rock.

Now, consider your students. We teach our young readers strategies to help them read for meaning, and many of them do go back and reread when they realize they didn't understand something in their reading the first time. But I wonder if it feels as natural in the midst of a standardized assessment? When our students are in reading workshops, they rely on our minilessons to anchor them and establish the tone for reading time. Reading the test directions just isn't the same. So I asked myself this question: Is there anything we can do to ensure that the minute we start the timer on the state test our students are in the groove? I think there is.

Getting in the Testing "Groove"

Recently while administering our state test to a group of fourth graders, I read through the scripted directions, asked if there were any questions, and made sure everyone was in the right spot to begin. I started the timer and they were off. As I monitored the room, I found myself tapping a lot of shoulders - encouraging students to get started, pointing to test booklets to redirect wandering eyes, trying to help kids find their groove. These students were losing precious testing time because they just couldn't get rolling.

I started thinking about how I could help the children warm up more quickly, and here are a few ideas I came up with:

1. Invite students to do some silent reading for a couple of minutes to work out the reading kinks from self-selected text.
   
2. Through a read aloud, share a poem or short passage with your students and just let them listen to you read. Follow-up with a quick question that will spark their thinking in the comprehension realm.
   
3. Contact your district or state assessment director and inquire about sample test passages and questions that have been released for practice purposes and consider working through a sample question prior to beginning.
   

The following day, I read the test directions to the students, made sure everyone was on the right page in their test book, and asked them to just listen as I read a short passage of about 200 words aloud. I followed up by asking the students what an appropriate title for the passage might be. Hands went up, a couple of kids shared their thinking, and I told the kids that they were ready to begin.

I spent about 2-3 minutes on this brief little warm up. I don't have any scientific data to support my observations, but every student appeared to get right down to business. I didn't have to tap a single shoulder, redirect any wandering eyes, and there weren't any wiggling bodies.

Later that same afternoon, I was administering part of the math assessment. One section of the test had a sample problem for us to work through, but another section didn't. I quickly came up with a brief story problem for us to work through, and the kids did a great job getting right back into their test following the quick break between sessions.

Some state tests might have a sample problem for you to work through with kids at the start of each session, but if one is not provided, think of how you can quickly help your students warm-up and get in the groove. Finally, before initiating any new warm-up strategy, make sure to confer with your district or state assessment coordinator to ensure that you stay within the parameters of the assessment.