Blooms Tools For Test Prep

On Tuesday of last week several teachers from grades K-8 met together to create semester tests in the areas of reading and writing.  Prior to the work time, two of our Central Office administrators shared some guidelines on best practices to use when thinking about test question creation.  One of the suggestions that was made was for teachers to begin asking higher level thinking questions during daily instructional time.  One IPad/iPod/IPhone application that will help with this is 

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called Stick Pick.  Stick Pick is a very simple application to use.  Pick a student at random just by giving your device a shake or tapping the screen.  After setting up your class rosters, you can even designate a Blooms level to get question stems from for each student.

Another suggestion that came from this meeting was to write out questions on index cards or keep them on a note pad for each unit.   The idea was to have the questions you wanted the students to think about planned before your unit.  In thinking about this, I realized you could again use your IPhone/IPad/IPod to help you.  There is a free app called Flashcards Deluxe.  You could program your cards with your questions and then flip through them on your cell phone or tablet during discussions of the content area.  You can enter your flashcards with the questions right on the device or upload them though the developer's website.  Keep each unit's questions right at your fingertips! 

By the way, both of these apps are totally free and are available for both Apple IPhones and Android devices. 

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To the right is an example of a flashcard as viewed within the app.  This one is a simple card but you can add pictures if desired. This question comes from a deck that I have prepared to help me when speaking to students about Internet Safety.