Try This Fun Strategy to Review ANY Subject With Test Question Slap Down
I don’t know about you, but it gets on my nerves when my students complain about having to do tasks.
“Ughhhhhh.”
“This is boooooring.”
“Why do we have to doooo thiiiis?!”
“Mrs. Marks, why do we have to come to school to learn? Why can’t I just have one long, never-ending brain break?”
Okay, I didn’t actually get that last comment, but they might as well be saying that. Although, I can’t really blame them. Sometimes school is boring, and pretending otherwise is, in my opinion, claiming that students should be robots and not think for themselves. Test review IS boring!!
But it doesn’t have to be!!!
Test Question Slap Down is a strategy my school introduced me to, and I tried it on my kids. They seemed to enjoy it much more than doing it the boring way and sitting still in their desks. Though I made my slides last-minute (they were kinda ugly tbh), I made some nicer-looking slides to go along with this strategy so YOU don’t have to. Keep reading to learn more about it and download this resource to level up your classroom.
What can his resource help with?
Several great things, actually! Especially if you think aloud while doing this with the kiddos so they can know your thought process.
📝Process of elimination.
The game will ask the students to choose the “worst” answer and the “distractor” answer before choosing the correct answer, so this is a great way to get your students to use the process of elimination.
We did this game the day before a test to review strategies, and several of my students used this strategy while doing the test without me even having to ask! They did great.
📝Thinking through questions.
Many of my students choose answers without thinking it through all the way. However, this game forces the students to slow down and truly think about why an answer is wrong, or why it’s a “tricky” choice that’s trying to distract us from the answer.
📝How to articulate their thinking.
This will be true especially if you think aloud with your students. They have to justify why an answer choice is the worst, why it is the distractor, and why it is correct. If you model to your students why you think something is wrong or correct, they will learn how to think through it themselves.
📝What to look for in the correct answer.
Along the same lines, this game will help students learn what to look for in the correct answer. “Worst” answer choices are usually way off-base. “Distractor” answer choices are usually only half-right because they’re tricky and are trying to throw you off. “Correct” answers have text evidence (if this is an ELAR passage you’re reviewing) and are wholly correct.
📝Engagement and Participation
I hate having my students passively sit in their desks, which may or may not allow them to absorb the information. Test Question Slap Down allows the students to become more active participants in the learning activities.
What’s included?
It is an editable Google Drive download with 22 slides.
A slide with a giant list of Google fonts to use.
A “Materials Needed” slide.
A “To Get Started” slide.
A Directions slide with pre-made directions as well as a blank one for you to type your own if you want to be spicy 🌶 and change the directions a bit.
A slide to place a screenshot of your passage if you want to display it.
15 slides to place your questions. There are 15 because there are various styles to choose from.
Materials Needed
📝Questions to answer (ANY subject).
📝One piece of paper for each student.
Alternatively, if you’re planning on doing this strategy often, you could print out cards with ABCD on them so you don’t have to waste time making them each time you do it.
📝Scissors for each student.
The students will fold and cut their paper into fourths and write the answer choices (A,B,C, and D) on them.
📝A way to partner up your students (if you want this to be a group thing).
Consider downloading my partner cards to do this!
Directions
Long story short, the goal is to figure out what the answer to the question is using the process of elimination. As I’m an ELAR teacher, I used a passage and questions from it, but this strategy can work for questions of any subject.
Students must first decide on the “WORST” answer, then slap down the corresponding card. So, if they decide the worst answer is “A”, then they will “slap down” the “A” card. They must then justify to their partner why they think that is the worst answer. Note: students may have different opinions on what the worst answer is, and that’s okay.
After, the students must follow the same process for the “DISTRACTOR” and the “CORRECT” answer.
I always have my students end with answering the question on their own paper or Chromebook and write their justification using the sentence stem: “I chose ___ because ____.”
Have fun!
If you download this resource, let me know what you think by leaving a review! Also, I would ✨LOVE✨ to see pictures of you and your kids having fun! Tag me on TikTok or Instagram! My handle is @teachandachieve on both platforms.
Questions, comments, or concerns? Drop any of those below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.
Until next time!
-Aimee ♡
