8th Grade STAAR Review

The power point used during the planning day is linked below. To access it, please click on the button that says "Rockin Review Presentation". The 1-2-3- Planning Guide is on page 21 of the Rockin Review pdf file below. The Review Quick Start Guide is also linked below.

All strategies listed below have been tried and used successfully with 8th grade students. Some pictures are present to show the strategy taking place.

This strategy was adopted from Lead4ward.

Students roll dice to see which process skills they will use with various stimulus. Students can work in parnters or groups. Any stimulus can be used. The ones in this link are cumulative and not unit specific.

Students put together cause and effect relationships. Each pair or group of students gets a graphic organizer and students put the people, events, etc. in the correct cause and effect relationship.

If the box has a line through the middle, there are 2 causes before the effect.

Map and Roll:

Students roll a dice to determine what question they answer. Example: if a student rolls a 1, they are to say what the title of the map is. If there is not title, students are to create one.

Map Analysis:

Various maps with questions are laminated. Using a wet erase (old school overhead projector markers), students answer questions about the map.

The first picture below is of students working through the map analysis materials. The second picture is of the map and roll activity.

Directions were taken from page 111 of 7 Steps to a Language Rich Interactive Classroom by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman.

Based on one of the tasks in the board game Cranium, this strategy requires each student to use modeling clay or play dough to represent a concept, object, or process. Students can be given a broad category or specific vocabulary term. Ideally, students would sculpt behind folders. One at a time, each student reveals their sculpture and the other group members try to determine what the sculpture represents.

This strategy is wide open and can be used with lots of different content.

The following 2 pictures were done done as a culmination activity after studying the Causes of the American Revolution. Students had to explain how their sculpture was a Cause of the American Revolution.

This can be done with any unit test, old benchmark, released STAAR, etc.

Divide students into teams. Decide where their home base is and where they are "running" to. Based on the number of teams, this is the number of sets of questions you will need. Each set of questions should be a different color (run off on different colored paper). This make it easier to hand off a new question.

Start each team with 1 question. The team answers it and "runs" to you to answer the question. If correct, hand the student another question. Once they have received the next question, the student "runs" back to their team. If the student answers the question wrong, provide a small hint and the student "runs" back to their team to think again about the question and the correct answer.

Keep handing out questions until one team has answered every question correctly.

Students categorize various events, people, places, ideas, etc. into the correct era. Have students put the eras in chronological order.

You could print off the era labels and events card and laminate for sorting.

Another option is to get clear or opaque shower curtains, using a dry erase marker, make boxes for the various eras. Students can sort the cards into categories this way as well. Another option for the era cards is to put them on cardboard and have students sort.

The first 2 pictures are of students categorizing with the laminated cards and era labels. The middle 2 pictures are of students categorizing using the shower curtains and cardboard blocks.

Another idea: use the era event cards and have students categorize them into PEGS. (political, economic, geographic, social). The last 2 pictures are of students sorting the cardboard bricks with event cards into PEGS on an shower curtain.

Think Sesame Street's "Which One Doesn't Belong?!" If you are unfamiliar or forgot, the video below has the song and the idea to Odd One Out.

Students look at 4 images and decide which one doesn't belong and why. The thinking about which one doesn't belong is key. Hearing the students' thinking is the important piece of this strategy.

Extension for students: make the answer a couple different options to extend the thinking.

You can laminate the page and have students circle the "Odd One Out" and then write their why/thinking on the page using wet erase markers.

This strategy is another great use for released STAAR questions, old benchmarks, unit exams, etc.

You only need questions with stimulus. You cut the question apart from the stimulus. Students match the question with the stimuli. After it is match correctly, students explain why they chose that stimuli and then answer the question.

Students match an event, person, idea, etc. with description. After all cards are matched correctly, students pick 4 cards and explain how they are all connected.

Other uses with cards: students pick 2 cards that are opposite, student identify cause and effect relationships, students categorize cards into eras, students categorize cards into PEGS (political, economic, geographic and social)

Create Venn Diagrams with hula hoops and have students complete the Venn diagram with the strips provided.

Each Venn Diagram has titles for each side and characteristics shared by both sides and characteristics applied only to one side. Teacher checks the work and listening to the thinking of the students as to why they put the characteristics where they did.

Pre-Tip: Run each Venn diagram on a different colored paper and put in small envelopes labeled by color. Students work through each color/envelope.

Hula Hoops can be bought at the dollar store or borrow some from your PE teacher on campus.

Using manila file folders, glue, staples, etc. this is a way students can review content in preparation for History STAAR.

In addition to using the material on the folder, students can also put any handouts, notes, quizzes, etc. used during the review.

-Stapled to the front over was a place to write students' names, and qr codes to various review documents they could look at when they went home.

-Written on the front cover was PEGS. Students categorized various parts of content into these categories.

-Stapled to the inside left (blue paper), a list of Eras and some things that were part of the era as well as the Era Hand Turkey drawn at the bottom.

-Stapled to the top half of the inside right, a list of cause and effect relationships (tan paper)

-Glued to the bottom half of the inside right, a compilation of hint cards of all the processing skills (pink paper). This helped students if they got stuck at a station using the processing skills.

-On the back, the territorial acquisition map.

Possibilities are endless with this! You could also include: timelines, vocabulary cards, connection dots for students, qr codes for digital anchor charts, learning laps, etc.

Prep Tip: Assembling the folders is a lot smoother if multiple people form an assembly line to get the job done. 3 people assembled 320 folders in 4-5 hours (done over a period of 2 days)

The button below take you to a smore of Region 17s Social Studies Specialists ideas on review paper bags, folders.