Support Stuffies: Managing Test Anxiety

This week, we began spring standardized testing in grades 3-5.  Being the learning support coordinator, I am in charge of all the tests.  I think my mother who was a teacher and helped me through my test anxiety, would be having a little chuckle in heaven thinking about me being in charge of testing.  In this role, I also have to proctor students who have been evaluated and received a diagnosis for a learning difference: either ADHD, Dyslexia, Auditory Processing, Disorder, Dyscalculia, etc. This year, a group of eight 3^rd grade girls took the test with me and I coached them through as best I could.  There was a lot of anxiety in the room even though we had tried to make the students as familiar with the test as we could possibly do.  We also did not place a lot of importance on the test, but the children sense it is important, it does reflect on how smart they are, and it does matter.

We took two subtests a day in the morning and then they had a normal schedule the rest of the day.  I noticed that they played extra hard during recess this week.  It was good to get their energy out.  At one point during one of the harder tests, Quantitative Reasoning – solving problems with numbers, they all became quite agitated.  I decided this wasn’t a productive way to take a test, so I paused the test for all of them.  They took a bathroom break, got a drink of water, stretched, and we did some calming breathing exercises.  One girl said, “I need a support animal.”  I smiled, and then I remembered a basket of little animals I had in my office next door.  I got them and distributed them to the girls.  Their breathing collectively slowed.  Thanks to the stuffed bears, turtle, donkey, elephants, and rabbits ,the girls were able to return to the test and complete it.

I know testing is part of school life, and that we can’t get around testing because we need to make sure progress is made each year, but there must be a better way to help children who  learn differently and have anxiety.  I think exposing them little by little to these tests throughout the year would be beneficial.  We kind of surprise them with a 4-day test in the middle of spring, height of allergy season.  If they had tests more regularly, it would hopefully, eventually dispel their anxiety.  It would just be another test, and they would be building their stamina for paying attention and persevering.

As the students took the test, I worked on a poetry prompt from Ethical ELA’s April activity, VerseLove.  During the month of April, participants write poems from daily prompts.  The day of the support animal test, I was asked to write an Etheree, which is a ten-line poem from where each line contains a progressive number of syllables ending with ten syllables in the last line.  The Etheree is named after Etheree Taylor Armstrong, who was born in Hot Springs County, Arkansas on February 12, 1981. She was a founding member of the Malvern Poets Club as well. Her poetry has been published in more than thirty languages, and has appeared in the Congressional Record, and in Readers’ Digest. In 1967, she published a book of her poetry entitled The Willow Green of Spring, which unfortunately is out of print. I came up with this Etheree as the children were taking their tests.  I looked around the room, took a deep breath, and wrote:

The next couple of days of testing were more relaxing.  They didn’t need the support animals that waited patiently in the wicker basket for their next dysregulated children.  As the girls got more familiar with the testing procedures, they settled into the routine and were so excited when they got to the end. We celebrated with donuts, of course.  And one student asked, “Are you going to be with us next year when we are in 4^th grade? We need you as our support animal!”
I laughed and said, “That is entirely possibly, but now let’s just forget about the test and go out to recess!”