Motivators
Teachers can influence student motivation through language, routines, and _____ .
relationship building
Which strategy involves teachers demonstrating their thought process while answering a test item?
A) Retrieval Practice
B) Spiral Skills
C) Modeling Test-Taking Thinking Aloud
C) Modeling Test-Taking Thinking Aloud
According to the source, teaching test-taking routines helps improve accuracy and reduce this negative factor.
Anxiety
What is the third step in the five-step Growth Conference structure?
Set one concrete growth goal
A key finding for schools successfully recovering post-pandemic was the presence of:
A) High-stakes consequences
B) Positive teacher working conditions
C) Only high test scores
B) Positive teacher working conditions
Scenario: A student tells you they are convinced they cannot do well on the ATLAS test. Based on noncognitive factors, which intervention is most effective?
A) Tell them to study harder.
B) Affirm their ability to grow and teach effective learning strategies.
C) Increase their homework load.
B) Affirm their ability to grow and teach effective learning strategies.
Scenario: You notice students often make the same specific error when calculating ratios in a warm-up.
What high-yield strategy should you implement next?
A) Group the students by error type for reteach.
B) Give the whole class new, unrelated warm-ups.
C) Skip ratio practice until after the test.
A) Group the students by error type for reteach.
Scenario: A student is starting the test and feels overwhelmed by the length. Which test-day routine should they use immediately?
A) Answer every question carefully in order.
B) Begin immediately with positive self-talk.
C) Skim the entire test, answer known items, mark unsure, and return.
C) Skim the entire test, answer known items, mark unsure, and return.
**DAILY DOUBLE**
Scenario: You are facilitating a data talk. The student made progress but still scored low. What is the most crucial action to ensure the talk is hopeful?
A) Focus on the low score to motivate them.
B) Give them a peer’s successful action steps.
C) Affirm their ability to grow before setting a goal.
C) Affirm their ability to grow before setting a goal.
Scenario: A colleague suggests easing standards due to learning loss. While standards flexibility might aid short-term outcomes (like graduation rates), what long-term outcome is shown to suffer?
A) Student mobility.
B) College enrollment and persistence.
C) Teacher retention.
B) College enrollment and persistence.
ACT IT OUT: Choose a partner. One person plays a teacher, the other plays a discouraged student. Demonstrate how to connect a specific academic task in your subject to the student’s long-term career or graduation plan.
Apply the strategy of increasing relevance to support motivation and belief in meaningful work.
BEST PRACTICE SHARE: Using the concept of spiraling skills in short bursts, describe and share an example of a 5-7 minute warmup routine you use daily to build “micro-wins” for students.
Requires sharing implementation methods for daily micro-wins and retrieval practice.
OPEN RESPONSE/SHARE: Describe one way you intentionally incorporate mindfulness or the practice of calming tools (like 4–7–8 breathing or positive self-talk) into your classroom routine to make test prep more confidence-building.
Focuses on applying SEL strategies that reduce anxiety and promote confidence.
BEST PRACTICE SHARE: Describe or sketch out how you plan to track visible progress for a student goal. Ensure your tracking method clearly illustrates the one concrete growth goal and action steps, promoting hope rather than discouragement.
Requires sharing structures for visible progress tracking as outlined in the Growth Conference steps.
**DAILY DOUBLE**
ACT IT OUT: In your group, quickly draft and deliver a 30-second staff rally cry for the week before testing that reflects the core values of "growth" and "dignity".
Focuses on the objective of creating a predictable, unified, and supportive testing culture.