GRIT: Balancing a Student’s Capacity to Grow & Pass a State-Mandated Test

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If you teach a tested subject like me, February seems to be the month that everyone starts becoming “invested” in what you are doing in the classroom and how it is preparing our students to pass their TEST. This time of year students are taking “field tests” and “benchmark tests” in addition to the normal common formative assessments. Administration wants to understand how this year’s students compare to where last year’s students were. Administration wants to see the data and know what is the projected percentage of passing students for this year. Administration wants to know the plan of what we, the teachers, are going to do for the students who didn’t pass, the students who did (but could do better), and the students who mastered it (but whose scores could be higher). It’s all of this, plus the uncertainty of how the TEST will actually look for your students because your state has changed the format… again.

For any teacher in this position, February feels heavy: heavy with numbers, heavy with expectations, and heavy with uncertainty. 

So how do you balance all of this weight instructionally in your classroom? 

That has been the question that I have been asking myself for the 8 years that I have been teaching a tested subject (as I am sure every teacher has asked since the beginning of time). After another winter break of some soul searching, some belting out “Anti-Hero” on repeat in my car, and maybe one too many Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes, I found the answer in the quiet of my classroom while staring at a blank planning calendar. The answer is (and always will be):  the Teacher! It’s you, it’s me, it’s us!

Here’s the thing: we are the professionals, we are the expert in the room. We know our students better than anyone; better than the data, and better than a score on some state test. So, we just need to do what’s right for our students, because it’s the right thing to do…every time. 

There is another name for this: GRIT. Per Angela Duckworth, “GRIT is passion plus perseverance for long-term goals”. Basically, it’s what we do, day in and day out. We make instructional decisions based on what our students need because we know it’s the right thing to do. It’s also not giving in or giving up when we are doubted or questioned about “how this lesson/instructional strategy is ensuring that our students pass the test in April”. 

My team of teachers are the smartest, kindest, and grittiest teachers that I know. With this new, gritty-er mindset, we looked at what our students needed. Based on some data, it was apparent that our students needed to build their reading stamina…big time. Our students also needed to practice writing using a structure that would help them be successful on their state test. We didn’t need to drill-and-kill them, we didn’t need to use only state-tested excerpts, and we didn’t need to underestimate our student’s capacity to grow based on a test score. We needed to trust our experience, trust each other, and we needed to trust ourselves. 

So to achieve this balance of building a capacity for learning AND working on those skills my students need to master in order to pass our state test, my team of teachers and I agreed to anchor this 9 week unit in book clubs. (As I am writing this, I feel like this is kind of an obvious choice. But, I feel like book clubs always seem to get overlooked as an intentional instructional strategy – it’s so much more than “just” reading.)

Here’s what it looks like in my classroom (the nitty-GRITTY):

• We selected 6 high-interest fiction titles for students to pick from. We decided on fiction because as 10th graders our curriculum focuses more on non-fiction texts, but we know that students enjoy reading fiction more and we wanted this to be as engaging for them as possible. 

• The novels selected all have a similar theme, which is necessary, because at the end of the 9 week unit, students will write an essay with a test-like prompt and will use evidence from their novel to support their thesis/claim. Here are the novels we chose: The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, Dear Martin, Refugee, Dry, and Unwind.

• We also decided to assign two different types of activities for students to do while they were reading. This was to keep them accountable, to keep them moving forward in their novels, and to, ultimately, help them with their essay. 

• Each day the students read, they record their start and end page in an excel spreadsheet. They also get to choose whether to add to their character notes OR answer a short constructed reading response (which also appears on our state test this year) . 

• Students get every other week (give or take) to read their novel. And yes, they do read in their novel every day for that week. On the weeks that we are writing or working on additional skills, reading is a warm up for students to do as they come into the classroom. 

• Towards the end of this unit, students will get to work with those that are reading the same novel on a group project: the character autopsy. Other than this group project, students are not meeting to discuss the book. (That is for “future us” and I also acknowledge that this is not a traditional book club format.)

Here are the materials students use in class:

Each student made a copy of these documents so that way they would always have access and us teachers could also have access to them. This is another way we are able to hold students accountable AND to engage in reading conferences with students who are struggling with the assignments or their novel.

• 2024 Book Club Reading Log – Having multiple students and multiple classes reading the same novels gets a little chaotic, so I decided to try using a spreadsheet to help them keep track of their place. After unsuccessful attempts at using a page in their notebooks to keep track, post it notes, and even different colored bookmarks by period, this seems to be working pretty well. 

Best part: I can open each of their reading logs and see just how many pages they are reading each day.

• 2024 Book Club ECR Prompts – For our state test, students need to be able to write an expository or an argumentative essay. They need to be able to look at a prompt and know which they are being asked and what each structure requires. So to practice this process, we are letting students choose either structure/prompt they want. This will be completed towards the end of this 9 week unit to ensure that students get as far as possible in their novels. 

Best part: It works with every novel we selected, and we get another opportunity to have students choose.

• 2024 Book Club Weekly Reading Responses – Every week that is set aside for reading their novels means that students will need to complete two reading responses. These reading responses come from Marilyn Pryle’s Reading Presence (highly recommend this book and her website). Students not only get a choice, but we have altered the reading responses each week to reflect where they should be in their novels and students are able to use the short constructed response strategy (ACE – Answer, Cite text evidence, Explain) they have been mastering since last semester. 

Best part: These reading responses are serving as common formative assessments for us and help us know immediately what students need intervention on this skill. 

• 2024 Book Club Character Autopsy Notes – Every week that is set aside for reading their novels, students are expected to complete at least two rows of their character notes. Ultimately, these notes will help students work together to complete their character autopsy at the end of this 9 week unit.

Best part: These notes will serve as the discussion points for students in their small group. It will force them to share, listen, and to come to a consensus, together. Which is really what working as a group should be teaching students. 

If you’re feeling gritty: 

To kick off this 9 week unit, we wanted to introduce the idea of GRIT to our students in hopes that they too would see how impactful it is in your life and in the classroom. Students watched Angela Duckworth’s TED Talk on GRIT, took notes based on a specific skill that our data showed they struggled with (8A – author’s purpose), they read two articles about it (which came from commonlit.org), and then used quotes from those articles to help them write an essay with a test-like prompt. 

• GRIT TED Talk Guide & Article Capture 

• GRIT Extended Constructed Response (Essay) Prompt

Overall, the feedback that we have received from students has been super positive. Students are enjoying “the break” they are getting to “just read”, their stamina is increasing, and their confidence is growing. 

Which is exactly how I have always wanted my students to feel; not only as they prepare for their state test, but how they should feel every day in my classroom. 

Just another gritty teacher in the classroom,

Ashley

I would love to know how you are balancing the demands of a tested subject in your classroom. What are some things you are doing to prepare students for your state test? You can connect with me on Twitter @Teaching_IsLife or on Facebook at facebook.com/movingwriters.

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Ashley Anderson is a 10th grade English teacher at Dickinson High School in Dickinson, TX. She is in her eighth year of teaching. Before entering education, Ashley was a Captain in the United States Air Force and managed marketing and communications for several private aviation companies. She loves cold coffee, doing sudoku, and cheering on her Gators (students) at all of their extracurricular activities. She lives with her husband, Chad (who is also a 10 grade English teacher and on her team at DHS), and her two daughters Avery (#AveryMonster) and Audrey (#BabyBop). Ashley feels blessed every day to be part of a profession with so much passion and commitment. She is excited and humbled to be part of the MovingWriters team.

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