Today is officially the one month countdown until my last day of school. Crazy, exciting, and scary all at the same time! I could say, "where has the year gone?!", but I can just look back through all my posts to see all the work, time, and energy that has gone into my kiddos this year! And, it has been a GREAT year!
Along with the month countdown comes anticipation and stress over the EOGs so I have started my EOG small groups with third and fourth graders (my co-counselor does fifth grade) as well as classroom guidance lessons. I am especially excited because I get to use an iMovie that my book club made as a technology project once we finished the book, Because of Mr. Terupt (see my post about that here). Three of the students wanted to make the video to help others learn how to cope with stress once we had discussed their favorite strategies for so many weeks. It is really cute and can be viewed below: (sorry for the videography in some parts....it is a fifth grade production and we are low-budget...ha! :) )
My lesson with fourth graders focuses primarily on multiple choice strategies and coping with anxiety based on needs assessment feedback from my teachers. We start out by brainstorming the words they think of when I say we are going to have a lesson about the EOGs (Note: They are not POSITIVE words 90% of the time in my classrooms). Then, I give them a pre-survey that determines the students' prior knowledge of multiple choice strategies as well as their confidence in passing the EOGs. I have them fill out the same survey at the end of the 45 minute lesson to chart growth. See my two pre and post survey examples below:
R= Re-read
U= Underline keywords
C= Circle numbers
K= Know what the question is asking
U= Use time wisely
S= Show your work and solve the problem
S= Slash the trash (process of elimination)
I also highlight the strategy of drawing a picture even though it isn't part of the acronym since it is so helpful to students who are not as strong with computation. All of the students get a chance to complete their own math question using the strategies, and I choose one student to come to the Smartboard and show their strategies to the rest of the class.
The second goal of the lesson is to focus on test anxiety, and I begin by assessing where the students are on an anxiety scale of 1 to 10. The students use post-it notes to show where they are on the scale. We emphasize the difference between taking the EOGs seriously and being prepared versus being overly stressed and unable to do your best due to anxiety. Another benefit of this activity is that it gives me a chance to really see what students I may need to follow up with individually or in informal lunch groups.
At this point I show the student-made video to the class and we start talking about and practicing deep breaths, set routines, exercises, and positive thoughts. For the set routines discussion, they get to volunteer to come to the board and decide whether the choice would make them feel "FANTASTIC" or "FRAZZLED". The students also get to be involved in writing the positive thoughts they would choose for that strategy. 
It has been a fun lesson, and my post-survey data has been great! I have had about 98% of students increase the number of strategies they know in the classes I have presented to so far. Most students have already reported that they feel confident about passing the EOGs on the pre-survey, but a handful of students in each class have changed their answers from NO to YES that they have confidence they will pass the EOGs following the lesson so I know it's making a difference! Feel free to download my EOG Smartboard lesson as a freebie HERE if it will be helpful to you. I would love any comments you have if you download it. THANKS!
Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela
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