TEI Practice


Happy December everyone! Only a few more days until breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak. Woo hoo!

I know when everyone returns in January you will be kicking it into high gear to review AND teach new concepts. Rest up my friends :)

One thing that many of my teachers expose their students to (especially when they return from the holiday break) is TEI practice. Technology Enhanced Items (TEI) will appear on our SOL tests and are not the traditional type of testing questions. Instead, they are computer-delivered items that drive higher order thinking which involve special interactions for collecting responses. Some examples of TEI questions include:
  • text dropdown menus
  • drag and drop
  • multiple selection
  • label an image
  • numeric entry with units
  • text selection/highlighting
  • editing text
  • equation builder
  • drawing an object

Exposing students (especially 3rd graders taking the SOL test for the first time) as early as possible to these types of questions is important, not just for conquering testing. We need to show how questions that arise in our everyday world do not always require ONE answer. Sometimes we find multiple answers that are correct to everyday problems! Often times answers come in many different forms. Many TEI questions mirror this philosophy and if students do not correctly choose ALL of the correct answers, then the question asking for multiple answers is marked entirely wrong. That can be hard for a little one to understand! Therefore, exposure is KEY.

I stumbled upon these AWESOME Google Slide templates on Pinterest that mimic many of the TEI type questions. For those of you who use Google in your classroom, check {THESE} folders out. Templates are available for both math and reading questions!
Thank you Justin Birckbichler @Mr_B_Teacher for creating this awesome resource!
You could easily combine these slides into one big presentation and make your own "test" for students to take and turn into you via Google Classroom or a shared Google folder.

For those of you who are not big Google users, you can still get your students practicing by visiting TEI inspired websites. There are TONS out there in the cyber world. Therefore, we need YOUR help! Let's start building a collection of FREE TEI practice sites that you have tested out with your students and find to be useful. There are a ton of amazing subscription based programs schools purchase for in school use. However, it would be nice to have a list of FREE web-based practice sites for students to use in school and to send home for extra practice.

We would love for you to check out the spreadsheet of TEI sites that have already been shared. If you know of a site that you do not see listed, PLEASE visit the Google form at the end of this post and enter it for our spreadsheet. 

Here are the responses we have received so far (I added a couple to get things started):

 

If you have a TEI practice site that you don't see on the spreadsheet above, PLEASE enter it in by filling out this form:

 

Thank you SO much! Have a wonderful holiday break :) Merry Christmas!


6 comments

  1. What a huge help Julie!! Passing on to my colleagues now.
    Carla

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  2. Wow - Thanks so much for sharing this! I am also passing this on:)
    Nikki

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    1. Of course! Hope it is useful and we can add more to the spreadsheet :)

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  3. I believe the creator of those Google Draw TEI templates is Justin Birckbichler from Warren County. He shared with me last spring when we were becoming Google Certified Educators. His twitter handle is @Mr_B_Teacher

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    1. THANK YOU, Valerie!!! I am going to seek him out and thank him :)

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