High School officials pull all the stops in test prep
CAIRO HIGH SCHOOL eleventh graders Sydney Miller, Quadre Bob, and Carley Gainous review testing tips and discuss important terms and concepts that may appear on the Georgia High School Graduation Test administered this week.
All sections of the state mandated test for juniors must be passed in order for the class of 2012 to earn the right to turn their tassels at the graduation ceremony next spring. Students must achieve a passing score in the areas of English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and the writing test, which was taken earlier in the year.
All week long, students have been filing to the lunchroom in unison each morning for a nutritious breakfast and reviewing the many student-made posters that line the hallways of each wing. The posters target key points and concepts for every subject area and have served as a continuous reminder of the testing dates.
“When they leave breakfast, they are going to do what we are calling, ‘a gallery walk,’ explains Cairo High School Instructional Coordinator Tammy Donalson.
“The students will walk down the hallway of the subject area they are being tested in that day and study the posters containing information that is relevant to the test— get last minute reminders of something they might possibly need to know for the test— and it’s also a time for the teachers to give one last ‘hurrah’ of encouragement to those students as they head off to begin their test,” she says.
Since all of the posters were student-made, the activity offered the students designing the posters one more review of the standards leading up to the test.
“Our students have been reviewing graduation test objectives for the last two to three weeks in every content area. I’m hoping that we have created a sense of urgency, yet, comfort (in regard to the test.)
“I’m also hoping that our students perform as well as we know they are capable of doing,” added Donalson.
