The MAP® test is a growth assessment given to K–12 students that provides data to help teachers teach, students learn, and administrators lead. As students approach the spring MAP test, their teachers are helping them prepare. Parents can also play a role in helping their child get ready for the test and this post provides some tips.
First, if parents have questions about the MAP test, what it is, and how it works, we’ve posted a couple of blogs that can answer many of their questions:
- Answers to the Top 6 Questions Parents Ask About the MAP Test
- Answers to Six (More) Questions Parents Ask About the MAP Test
To help your child prepare for the MAP test, here are 20 things parents can do:
To Prepare for Testing
- Meet with your child’s teacher as often as needed to discuss his or her progress. Ask about activities you and your child can do at home to help prepare for tests and improve your child’s understanding of schoolwork. Parents and teachers working together benefits students.
- Provide a quiet, comfortable place for studying at home without distractions from TV or electronic devices.
- Make sure that your child is well rested on school days and especially the day of a test. Children who are tired are less able to pay attention in class or handle the demands of a test.
- Give your child a well-rounded diet. A healthy body leads to a healthy, active mind.
To Prepare for Language
- Talk to your child and encourage him or her to join in conversation during family activities.
- Give your child a journal or diary as a gift.
- Help your child write a letter to a friend or family member. Offer assistance with correct grammar usage and content.
- Select a “word of the week” and encourage your child to use the new word throughout the week.
- Plan a special snack or meal and have your child write the menu.
- After finishing a chapter in a book or a magazine article, have your child explain his or her favorite event.
To Prepare for Reading
- Provide many opportunities for your child to read a wide variety of books, magazines, and other materials. By reading new materials, a child learns new words that might appear on a test. Read aloud to your child, even when your child can read independently. Research shows that this is the most important activity parents can do to increase their child’s chance of reading success.
- Make time for frequent visits to the library, and let your child explore books that interest him or her.
- Ask your child’s school about a suggested outside reading list or get suggestions from the public library.
- Play games like Scrabble® , Spill and Spell™, Scattergories® , and Balderdash™ together.
- Work crossword and word search puzzles with your child
To Prepare for Math
- Spend time with kids on simple board games, puzzles, and activities that encourage better attitudes and stronger math skills. Even everyday activities such as playing with toys in a sandbox or in a tub at bath time can teach children math concepts such as weight, density, and volume.
- Encourage children to solve problems. Provide assistance, but let them figure it out themselves. Problem solving is a lifetime skill.
- The kitchen is filled with tasty opportunities to teach fractional measurements, such as doubling and dividing cookie recipes.
- Point out ways that people use math every day to pay bills, balance their checkbooks, figure out their net earnings, make change, and tip at restaurants. Involve older children in projects that incorporate geometric and algebraic concepts such as planting a garden, building a bookshelf, or figuring out how long it will take to drive to your family vacation destination.
- Children can learn to read and interpret charts and graphs such as those found in daily newspapers. Collecting and analyzing data will help your child draw conclusions and become discriminating a reader of numerical information.
Source. The post Preparing for the MAP Test | 20 Tips for Parents appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..