a letter to my students

Last-Minute Advice (and Thoughts) from Room 2**

Dear English II students,

    With the state test quickly approaching, I thought I would write you all a letter to share my last-minute thoughts and advice.

    First of all, let me say that I am very, very proud of you all. It takes a lot of personal discipline to focus on mastering these skills, and I have seen many of you shine in the last few weeks. You have put a lot of hard work into preparing for this test, and it has certainly paid off. Every day I am so impressed with how much each of you has improved when it comes to state test questions – I have no doubt that your scores will be much higher than those of last year's classes. (In fact, I can't wait for the scores to come back, and to see how you all knocked them out of the park!)

    My number one piece of advice? Relax. You've worked hard, you know this stuff, you are all going to do very well on that test --- as long as you don't stress out about it. I've said it before, and I will say it again, the students who fail that test are not the “dumb” students, they are the students who think they can't do it, who just give up and randomly guess because they don't take the time to just figure it out. Take your time, use your head, and trust that you can do this.

    Now, on to some more concrete advice:

    1. Please go to bed early Thursday night (really). If you normally fall asleep at midnight, try to make it eleven. If you go to bed at 10:30, make it 10:00. Whatever works for you. Doing this will give you that extra boost in the morning that you'll need when you first open that test booklet.
    2. Make sure to eat something in the morning. I don't care if you haven't eaten breakfast in 12 years – get a few bites of food in your stomach. There is too much research on the importance of breakfast to test scores that you simply can't ignore it. On the other hand, if coffee and donuts will make you full and sick to your stomach, stay away and eat something smaller, or healthier, instead. Don't forget that I will have breakfast in the classroom available starting at 7:30 -- even if you aren't hungry you are welcome to stop in for some last minute encouragement!
    3. Write all over that test booklet. It's yours, and no one else's. You can underline, jot notes, cross out wrong answers, or draw a picture to illustrate a paragraph. All of these things will keep you AWAKE, will keep you MORE FOCUSED on what you are doing, and will help you ANSWER CORRECTLY.
    4. If you bring a cell phone to school Friday, it better be COMPLETELY off (not just on silent!) and sitting in the bottom of your bag, away from where anyone is sitting. Do not ignore this piece of advice, or you may cause every single person in the room to receive a failing test score. (The really smart people in here will not bring their cell phone anywhere near the testing room).

Last but not least, congratulations. You've worked hard, and we have come to the end of our state test preparation. After we take the 3rd quarter exam, I promise you that you won't see another multiple choice test or quiz in English II (and we won't do a single state test question either!) Feel free to stop by my room on Friday when you finish with your test – I would love to hear how it went.

Good luck on Friday! (Though you won't need it!)

Ms. Morrison