MEXICO — Fifth-grade students in Jessica Sirois’ class sang, danced, did back-flips and gave other students at Meroby Elementary School’s pep rally helpful strategies to get through the Maine Educational Assessment testing Thursday.
Re-read, take your time, look for keywords, and cross out answers you know are wrong were some of the strategies they shouted out during their performance.
Greig Parrs’ fifth-grade class led the crowd of third- through fifth-graders with the chant, “Good, better, best, never let it rest, ‘til your good gets better and your better is your best!” They held up posters with words of inspiration on them.
“Are you gonna rock this test?” Principal Kim Fuller asked students as she and school mascot Pozzy the Pinto made their way through the crowd of students, who were dancing to fun tunes like “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Monty Moose, Oxford Federal Credit Union’s mascot, danced with the students and stirred up the crowd.
A video of a little girl making 16 attempts to get on her small pony before successfully mounting it was shown. Fuller asked students how the girl’s attempts related to their upcoming MEA exams.
Some of the responses included: “It may take a long time to find an answer but eventually we can find it;” “Persevere and keep trying and you’ll succeed;” and “No matter what, you can always do it.”
“We try to get the kids excited about taking tests, and a big part (of test-taking) is perseverance,” fourth-grade teacher Shane Smith said. Incentives such as going rollerblading at the recreation center and earning tokens to make purchases at the school store also inspire the students, he said.
Fuller said the rally was part of getting students to feel empowered to take the test and “to (let them) know we support them.”
“We do a lot as a school to prepare them for the test; there are lots of strategies that they can utilize, (and the rally) really is that last kickoff reminder, that (they) worked hard so far this year, and this is (their) opportunity to show what (they) know,” she said.
Fuller said she is also “really appreciative of the teachers and all the work that they’ve put in preparing the students for this test; long-term not just short-term, (such as) strategies to bring attention and get (students) excited.”
Each grade will have a week to take the tests, starting with the third grade the first week, followed by the fourth and fifth grades.
The students are tested mornings for 60 to 90 minutes in reading, language arts and math. The essay-writing takes place in May, Fuller said.
