Test prep doesn’t have to mean packets or pressure. In this episode, we redefine test prep as helping students remember what they’ve already learned through simple, low-stakes retrieval practice and reflection. We share why traditional review often falls short, how strategies like brain dumps and quick recall prompts strengthen learning, and how starting small right now leads to calmer, more effective test prep later.

Prefer to read? Grab the episode transcript and resources in the show notes here: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/podcast/test-prep-strategies-for-elementary-teachers/

Resources:

1. Powerful Teaching book
2. Bulb subscription
3. Grow light
4. Join The Teacher Approved Club (power questions included!)
5. Connect with us on Instagram @2ndstorywindow
6. Shop our teacher-approved resources
7. Join our Teacher Approved Facebook group
8. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!
9. Leave a comment or rating on Spotify

Related Episodes to Enjoy:

1. Episode 185. 6 Easy Tips for Simplifying Your Test Prep Season
2. Episode 183. 2 Smart Test Prep Strategies You Need to Use with Your Students
3. Episode 182. Boost Your Test Prep with These 3 Retrieval Practice Activities
4. Episode 121. How to Plan Your Test Prep Around What Content Matters Most

Mentioned in this episode:

Is your class acting like spring break erased every expectation you've ever taught? Try the Teacher Approved Club free for 10 days and get this month's training on keeping expectations alive — plus last month's Quiet Your Chatty Class Challenge. Join at https://secondstorywindow.net/trial

This is episode 246 of Teacher Approved.

You're listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping

educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. We're the creators behind Second Story

Window, where we give research based and teacher approved

strategies that make teaching less stressful and more

effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from

each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

We're so glad you're tuning in today. Let's get to

the show.

Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today's

episode, we are redefining what test prep actually is, because

it doesn't have to mean packets and stress, and we're sharing a

teacher approved tip for adding a little bonus prep time to your

week.

But let's start with try it tomorrow, where we share a

quick win that you can try in your classroom right away.

Emily, what's our suggestion for this week?

This week, try using intentional think time. So when

you ask a question, instead of immediately calling on someone,

ask students to just think about it for 10, even 30 seconds

before you take any responses. Now this will take some

training, because some students are going to shoot their hands

in the air immediately, since that's what they're used to

doing.

Right. So when that happens, you just gently remind

them, you know, have this in your brain ahead of time,

because this will happen, I just want you to think right now. I

will let you know when I'm ready to hear your ideas.

And what's great about this is it improves the quality

of responses. When kids aren't racing to be first, they

actually have time to form a complete thought. And you'll

probably find that way more students are prepared to

participate, because it's not just the fast processors who get

to answer anymore. I think some kids, once they see everybody

else's hand is shot up, they stop even trying to figure out

the answer in their mind.

Absolutely. This is such a simple shift that can make a

really big difference. If you try it, come tell us how it goes

in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. And if you like this tip

or anything else we share here on the podcast, would you please

take a second and give us a five star rating? Ratings and reviews

help new listeners find us, and we really appreciate every one

of them.

Okay, we know it's still February, but yes, it really is

time to talk about test prep.

Ah, the two little words that make most teachers

shoulders tense up a little bit.

Yeah, just a little bit, maybe, a lot a bit.

A lot a bit.

Test prep makes our minds immediately jump to packets,

worksheets, Jeopardy games, drilling skills, over and over,

and maybe stopping real instruction so we have time to

get kids ready.

And when you assume that that's what test prep has to

look like, it's no wonder it feels overwhelming. But we are

here to tell you that test prep does not have to be an intense

slog. You can help students get ready for assessments in a way

that everyone enjoys and still prepares the kids for what's

ahead.

That's what we're digging into today, we want to challenge

some assumptions about what test prep is and offer a different

way to think about it. And that's why we're starting with

this now.

Yeah, February is probably not the moment you

usually start thinking about state testing. You are probably

nowhere close to being done with teaching your curriculum.

Yeah, because it is still really early. Most people

probably haven't even had Spring Break yet. But even though you

haven't taught all your units yet, some of what you taught

back in September and October is already just a vague memory for

your students, because that's just how brains work.

And what happens if we wait until April to start

reviewing is we end up in that frantic cram-everything-in mode,

which is stressful for everyone, and it's honestly not that

effective. All of the worksheets and repetition that we call test

prep are not really test prep. They're tools we use to help

with test prep.

And they're not even very effective tools, which means we

need a different definition of what preparation actually is.

It's not about showing students the material again. It's about

helping them remember what they've already learned.

That's really a different goal, and it requires some

unique strategies.

Yeah. So let's start by taking a look at something we

call the recognition trap. This is sneaky, and it's why a lot of

traditional test review doesn't actually stick in your kids'

brain.

Think about what review often looks like in an

elementary classroom. We pull out the anchor charts, we

rewatch a video, we play a Kahoot where kids can look at

their notes, and it feels productive. The kids are saying,

Oh yeah, I remember this. They're engaged. They're

participating. It seems like it's working.

But that oh yeah feeling isn't really remembering. It's

recognition. And we might use remember and recognition as

synonyms, but they are not the same thing. When students

recognize something, they're thinking, this looks familiar.

But tests are not asking students to recognize

information, they need to remember it. That means pulling

information out of their brains with nothing in front of them.

When we plan our review activities, it seems logical

that offering extra support, like letting students reference

their notes or a textbook should make review extra effective, but

that little safety net completely undermines the

effectiveness of the review that we spent so much time and energy

putting together.

So what actually works? The short answer is practice

remembering. Give students low stakes opportunities to pull

information from their memory without any support. This is

called retrieval practice, and it is the most effective

strategy that we have for helping learning stick.

And I have to tell you something funny. I was listening

slash watching the Good Hang podcast with Amy Poehler the

other day, and she was talking about something, I don't even

remember what it was, like they were trying to remember someone

who was, who played something in a show, something like that. And

she went to reach for her phone, and she goes, Oh, wait, no,

you're supposed to try to remember what it is before you

ask, or before you search, before you look it up. You're

supposed to try to remember. It's better for your brain if

you do that. I was like, Yes, that's true. Good job, Amy!

Not to say that I am good at doing that before I go and

Google things, I should try harder. But I loved that she

said that. I was like, Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And of

course, like here on the podcast, we are not going to go

super deep into the science today, but the basic idea that

Amy is talking about is this. Every time you work to recall

something from memory, you strengthen that memory. The

effort of trying to remember is what makes information stick.

And what maybe Amy realized is is that you don't

even have to get the right answer for this to benefit you,

even if you're wrong, just trying to come up with the

answer, is enough to boost understanding. The struggle to

remember is what builds the pathway.

Which totally feels opposite, like it doesn't feel

good to try to remember something and then get it wrong.

Yeah, when it feels hard, we think something's wrong, but

the hard is actually the goal.

So if you're new to retrieval practice, don't let

the official name scare you. It really can be as simple as

flashcards.

And another simple strategy that I love is a brain

dump. You just pause your lesson or activity, ask students to

write down everything they can remember about what you've been

teaching to that point, and then you just continue with the

lesson.

And you don't have to grade these. You don't even have

to collect the papers. Students can keep them to look back on

later. It's kind of cool to see how much they know after a few

weeks. Or they can just go straight in the recycling bin.

Brain dumps are so versatile, they work for any

grade and any topic, whether your students are drawing

pictures in kindergarten or writing full paragraphs in fifth

grade, the concept is the same. And bonus, there is no prep

involved with this.

Oh, such a win. Another retrieval practice comes from a

book called Powerful Teaching by Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain.

This book is chock full of helpful learning routines, and

they share one that I really love called Two Things. You give

students a simple prompt, like write down two things you

learned so far today, or two things you remember from

yesterday, or two things you'd like to know more about.

And like with a brain dump, you can drop this in the

middle of a lesson and then just move on, or you could use it as

an exit ticket or as a warm up the day after the lesson.

With strategies like brain dumps or two things, the

key is helping students see this as a learning tool and not a

form of assessment. Cheer them on if it feels challenging, let

them know that struggle means their brain is working hard,

which means they're learning.

Meaningful review really does not have to be complicated.

Keep it short, keep it consistent, and keep it as low

stakes as possible. Do not grade these.

No, please do not grade these unless you are absolutely

required to, and then just make it pass fail so the focus stays

on the learning and not the points.

This really couldn't be easier. The hardest part is just

remembering to actually do it. When you are in the flow of

teaching, it's really easy to forget to pause for some

retrieval practice.

And that's why we created a resource called Power

Questions. It's designed to make this kind of practice painless

and easy to maintain. The idea behind this is simple. After you

teach a lesson, you jot down a question from the lesson on a

slip of paper and drop it in a basket. Over time, you build up

a collection of questions that cover a bunch of different

topics.

And then when you have a few minutes, maybe you do this

as part of a warm up, maybe you save it for before lunch, or as

a transition, you pull a question from the basket and you

have your students answer it. Because the questions come from

lessons that you have taught days or weeks ago, your students

have to work to actually remember, and that's our

retrieval practice. And that's where the learning happens.

Now Power Questions is currently only available inside

the Teacher Approved Club, because that is this month's

bonus tool for our club members. We have included blank question

slips that you can print and cut out so they're ready when you

need them. There's a label for your question basket to make it

a visual part of your routine. Plus it has a cute, super cute,

superhero theme.

It really did turn out so cute. When we're designing

stuff, like, we don't have a design background, so there's

always a little bit of like, I'm not sure how this is going to

go. But it came together so cute.

Yes.

The question slips provide a great structure for

your review, but we know that structure always needs a little

bit of spark to balance it out. So we included some fun bonus

prompts that we called power ups. These are all desk friendly

activities that can be done in a minute or less, think things

like tongue twisters or slow motion movement challenges like,

pretend to be a melting snowman.

I love that.

They're quick, but just a little sprinkle of fun can go a

long way toward keeping your kids engaged. And the more

engaged the kids are, the more they can learn.

We had so much fun thinking up these prompts, and

we also include a seven page Teacher's Guide that walks you

through how to fit this in your day without it becoming one more

thing to manage, plus every possible thing you might wonder

about setting this up. We really thought about it for you, common

problems you might run into, troubleshooting, all of that.

It's all in the teacher's guide.

And if paper isn't your thing, we included digital

slides too. It works the same. You just record a question after

a lesson and then come back to it later. But with the slides,

you can display the question for students to see.

Yeah, which is super handy. And then club members

also get access to a bonus training this month that goes

deeper into the learning science behind all of this. We explain

how the different pieces work together to help create durable

learning and share some practical tips to help keep it

manageable.

Okay, now you've got some good tools for incorporating

retrieval practice into your regular schedule. So let's talk

about another layer to this process, which is helping

students recognize what they actually know.

It might not sound like much, but this is actually a

really important part of test prep, because students often

think they understand more than they actually do. Researchers

call this the illusion of knowing, and it happens to all

of us, not just kids.

Oh, for sure, I do this all the time, even on just a

small scale. Like, how many times have I scanned the

directions on the back of the frozen food box, confident that

I knew what to do, because I have cooked frozen food before?

But then I have to retrieve the box because I already have

forgotten the temperature it needs to be cooked at. You know,

honestly, it might happen every time I cook.

I know, I'm always scampering back to that trash

can, wait, what did that say? Because it seems so easy you

don't pay close attention, and that's why you can't remember if

it's 375, or 425, for your chicken nuggets. I know you're

eating a lot of chicken nuggets, Heidi.

Well, for chicken nuggets, it's gotta be what, 400

at least, I would think.

I mean, probably. But do either of us actually know? We

just think we know. And that's exactly what happens to

students. When something feels familiar, when we recognize

that, our brain interprets that as understanding. We think,

yeah, I've got this. But recognition is not mastery, and

that false confidence can really trip students up.

That's how everyone sits through a review, nodding along.

You think everyone's got this, and then they get to the test

and realize they were not as solid as they thought.

And so that's why feedback is so important.

Feedback interrupts that false confidence. It gives students

real information about where they actually are.

And just like retrieval practice, feedback is so easy to

add to what you're already doing. With brain dumps, for

example, after your students write down everything they can

think of, have them swap papers with a neighbor and try to add

something new to what their partner wrote. That quick

comparison helps both students see what they remembered and

what they missed.

With the two things strategy, you can have students

share one of their two things with a partner or with the

class. Hearing what other people wrote helps them confirm they're

on track or realize they need to revisit something.

In the teacher guide to our Power Questions resource, we

walk you through how to lead a quick discussion about students

thinking. Questions like, who tried it a different way, or

what was tricky about that question, get students

reflecting on their learning.

Even if you don't pair reflection with retrieval

practice, it can still impact learning all on its own. In one

study, college students who simply rated their understanding

after a lecture and reflected on how they could improve, ended up

scoring nearly a full letter grade higher than their

classmates who didn't do the reflection.

That is huge. Just the act of pausing and thinking

about your own learning makes a measurable difference. So here

are some reflection questions you can use with your students.

You might ask which part felt easy, which part made you pause?

Or what would you tell a friend who missed this lesson?

Rate Your confidence from one to five. Now let's check and see

how you did. Or what's one thing you're solid on and one thing

you need to review?

These questions help students become aware of their

own learning. They start to notice what they actually know,

versus what just feels familiar, and that self awareness is

powerful. When students can name what they're shaky on, they can

do something about it.

Okay, so let's pull this all together. Test prep doesn't

have to mean packets, pressure or pausing instruction. Oh, look

at the alliteration. Real preparation is helping students

remember and reflect.

Start now, even though it is only February, with short,

frequent, low stakes practice. All your kids need are

opportunities to pull information from memory without

support and increased awareness of what they actually know.

And if you want to go deeper, inside the Teacher

Approved Club this month, we're diving into the learning science

behind all of this, how recall, spacing and reflection work

together, and exactly how to use them without overwhelming your

day.

Club members get the Power Questions resource, which

includes everything you need to start this kind of intentional

practice right away, plus the bonus training that walks you

through all of the whys and the hows. If you have been thinking

about joining our club, this is a really great month to do it.

We will drop a link in the show notes.

Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where

we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters

and simplify the rest. This week's teacher approved tip is

to add a bonus mini prep to your schedule. I bet everyone's

excited to hear about this one.

Yes, and we have talked about this idea before, but it's

been a little while, so it bears repeating, because I think this

can be so helpful. So in a related discussion, back in

episode 242, we suggested planning some independent

activities for students at the end of the month as a little

bonus planning time. That way you can effectively plan the

month ahead, and, you know, maybe catch up on some grading.

Hopefully your end of month bonus prep can be an hour

or two, or maybe even a whole afternoon. But today we want to

look at how to add a smaller pocket of prep to your weekly

schedule.

So when I was teaching second grade, the 30 minutes

before lunch on Fridays was officially phonics review time.

And what did they do for phonics review, Heidi?

Well, my students watched a Between the Lines video while

I planned the week ahead.

I love it, Between the Lines is awesome.

It holds up. But that way, when my Friday afternoon

prep time rolled around, I already knew exactly what to

work on because my list was ready, it made me so much more

productive.

So the tip is to look at your schedule and find one block

of time in your week where you're normally teaching in

front of students, and find a way to turn that time into

independent learning time instead.

Now, you do not need to announce this to your principal,

and I know we have some principals who listen to this

podcast. So if that's you, maybe stop listening now, so you have

some plausible deniability. But like I said, on my official

schedule, before lunch on Friday, was phonics review, and

if anyone had walked in, they would have seen my students

fully engaged in reviewing phonics with an educational

video. It's not like we were watching Charlie Brown.

Yeah, right. It's not like you're just putting any

sort of filler up, you chose with intention.

Yes, it was academic, educational content, but it

freed me up to claim those 30 minutes, and that completely

reshaped my teaching life, I'm not exaggerating. For the first

time, I broke free from that day to day planning hamster wheel,

and I started preparing more strategically. And yes, I could

have done this planning after school, but by Friday afternoon,

or really any afternoon, by any afternoon, I was just toast, and

I wanted to get home. I didn't have the brainpower for

strategic planning. I had brain power to run copies. So I needed

to split those work tasks into a time when I had the energy and

focus for managing it. Doing it in the morning meant that I

could deal with all of the details. It gave me a better

shot at being the kind of teacher I wanted to be, instead

of the overwhelmed one I was a lot of the time.

And this bonus prep does not need to be long. Even 20

extra minutes a week can have a huge impact on your productivity

and your happiness as a teacher, if you're intentional about how

you use those minutes. It might be a video. It might be a review

game that they can do without you. It might be silent reading

or a listening center, whatever works for your class.

All right, to wrap up the show, we are showing what we're

giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your

extra credit?

I'm giving extra credit to the new old Muppet Show. It's

so fun to have it back again, and I love that they did an

almost exact recreation of one of the old openings for the new

one. It was just, oh, it's so nostalgic, but also like feels

fresh at the same time. I don't know if it's just a limited run

of episodes, or if it's gonna stick around, but definitely

check it out. It's a super fun watch for the whole fam. I think

those of us in our generation have the love and nostalgia of

growing up with the Muppets, but kids these days love it just as

much. So we all enjoyed it.

Oh, that's so fun. I've been seeing so much stuff online

about it. I'll have to check it out.

Yeah, it was on Disney Plus, but I think it was also

just like on ABC.

Oh, okay, good.

What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Well, my extra credit goes to the potted bowl garden

subscription I got for Christmas. It has been such a

joy. I am not a plant person, because the long term care of a

plant is more than I can face. You have to prune it and repot

it and manage the light. And I'm barely keeping myself alive. But

this little bulb garden is so fun because it is a short term

commitment. Everything arrives potted. Just take off like the

little straw packaging on top. You water it when it's dry,

watch it grow, and then it's done.

I love it.

And I did buy a little clip on grow light. I guess I'm

a gardener now, because my house doesn't get much sunlight, but

that is all the work I put into it. But it's just so fun to wake

up in the morning and see the new blooms that have bloomed.

Blossomed?

Popped up.

There we go. It makes me so happy. I can finally be a

plant lady without having to be a plant lady. The bulbs are from

Holland bulb farm, and I will put a link to them in the show

notes, as well as a link to the grow light.

Well, I am so jealous of your bulbs. So now I really,

really want these. I should have asked for them for Christmas

too.

Start your list.

I guess so.

That is it for today's episode. Remember, test prep

doesn't have to mean packets and stress. Small, consistent

practice starting now will serve your students so much better

than cramming later.

Try a brain dump or two things question this week and

see how it goes. And if you want the full system for making this

easy, check out Power Questions inside the Teacher Approved

Club. We will have a link to that in the show notes. Thanks

for listening, and we'll see you next week.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I'm

Heidi.

And I'm Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow

or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an

episode.

You can connect with us and other teachers in the

Teacher Approved Facebook group. We'll see you here next week.

Bye for now.

Bye.