The Moment I Realized Teaching Was About to Stop

I’ve never really done test prep. It’s not because I don’t care about the state exams. It’s just that my philosophy has always kind of been, if the students are doing hard work (reading challenging texts, analyzing syntax, wrestling with figurative language… you know things that I do in my class everyday), then they’re already practicing as much as they can, right?

Plus, I’ve always given pretty hard assessments anyway. For a long time, I worked in a district with a mandated curriculum and their prescribed tests were HARD! I actually had a PLC in that district (I’m a singleton now) and we truly struggled with those tests… should we modify them? should we grade them normally? should we even give them, at all?

We ended up modifying them, simply by taking questions out, AND grading them using a different scale. I’ll talk about that later.

Anyway, back to the point. For these reasons, “Test Prep Season” has never been a priority to me.

Well, when I started in a new district, the assumption for the role that I took over was that I would proctor the practice EOC (3-5 days) before my students took the real EOC (4-6 days)…. but then, we’d also have to do our district reading diagnostic (3-4 days) and give a class final (4 days for the whole school).

The testing calendar slapped me in the face. Four weeks of my calendar. I would basically have to stop teaching in April. Obviously, I don’t want to do that. That’s not my style and it’s not what is best for my students (take a whole month off for “test prep” before the summer slump sets in? No, thank you!). So I brainstormed how I might get out of the “test prep” portion OR present it in a way that might do double duty, instead.

And then I remembered those super hard tests from my old curriculum. I asked myself, “What if I make an EOC-style test based on the unit I’ve actually been teaching?”

And just like that, what could have been a season of random packets and disconnected drills became an opportunity to teach like normal… while still preparing students for the state test.

Why I Created an EOC-Style Assessment for Romeo and Juliet

We were already deep into Romeo and Juliet. My students had done research on the adolescent brain and its development. They had built background knowledge, unpacked figurative language, analyzed tone shifts, and wrestled with syntax-heavy passages in the play. Why would I abandon all of that to practice on texts they’ve never seen before? And I needed an assessment grade to go with the unit anyway.

An EOC-style assessment built around our actual unit allowed me to:

• Keep instruction aligned to state standards
• Practice the structure and rigor of the EOC
• Assess comprehension of the texts that we were already reading
• Continue building their literary knowledge

Instead of avoiding test prep, I was able to embed it into our real learning.

How I Used AI to Build the Assessment (Without Lowering the Bar)

Yes, I used AI to help generate the test. But here’s what that actually looked like:

• I looked at our state EOC practice test and copied several of the questions into my chatbot. Then, I copied sections of the texts that we had read in class. I prompted the bot to write questions like the ones on the practice test for the texts that I provided.
• I asked for questions targeting:
  • Author’s craft
  • Tone shifts
  • Syntax complexity
  • Figurative language
  • Inference and implicit characterization
  • Theme development across scenes
• I requested plausible distractors (because weak answer choices make for weak prep).
• I revised heavily.

And because I know the standards and my unit deeply, I could quickly tell:

• Which questions were too surface-level
• Which distractors weren’t rigorous enough
• Where the language didn’t match EOC expectations

For teachers nervous about AI, here’s my two cents: use it to save you some time, not to replace your expertise.

How Students Experience the Assessment

Now, again. This is HARD! I know it is but so is the EOC. They need to be prepared. But we do have to change the mindset a little bit. First, let’s talk about the structure that we’re going to use for the assessment. I’m going to do this test over several days.

1. Students take the “crazy hard” EOC-style test independently. I don’t anticipate everyone will finish the first day but, if they do, we’ll move on to step 2 early.
2. On the second day, they’ll meet in small groups to discuss their answers and debate the reasoning behind their answers. They’re not giving each other answers. They are working together toward a common answer.
3. Groups will have to agree on an answer for each question.
4. I will assign a group grade, using proficiency scores based on our Missouri state proficiency scales.

This will reinforce metacognition, force students to articulate and question their understanding and turn testing into a collaborative reasoning task.

This mirrors how we’ve approached reading all year, through explicit reasoning, discussion, and evidence… not silent guesswork or “getting answers” from the “smart kid.”

Why I’m Using Proficiency Scales Instead of a 100-Point Grade

Ok, here’s the big one. This part matters and it is a total mindset shift for everyone involved. The first time I gave one of those canned tests from my box curriculum, the scores were abysmal. Like so bad. We all freaked out. But then I started looking into how our state tests are graded. Proficiency scales are way different than the traditional 100-point grading scale.

With a proficiency scale, it’s not about the percentage of right vs. wrong answers. In fact, a student could only answer 60 or 70% of the questions correct and still get a proficient score. It all depends on which questions they answer correctly.

So, instead of just grading this test with a 20/30 = 66% D (yikes), I’m grading using Missouri proficiency scales. Each question’s point value will be determined by its Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level. Harder questions are worth more points! Duh!

I’m also going to explain this to my students so that they know how it works on the EOC, as well. We’ll break down what proficient actually means. We’ll calculate how their raw points translate to proficiency and discuss what mastery really looks like, with this test AND with their EOC.

How This Keeps Me “Teaching Like Normal”

The title of this blog post is intentional: Teaching Like Normal (Even Though It’s Test Prep Season)

I didn’t abandon my complex texts. I didn’t switch to random packets. And I definitely didn’t reduce the rigor.

Instead, I embedded the test format into our real content and preserved the coherence of my curriculum. I kept my students thinking deeply about our anchor texts and theme. And I modeled how it all transfers.

If we believe what the Science of Reading research tells us, that comprehension depends on knowledge, vocabulary, syntax, and reasoning, then the worst thing we can do in April is detach skills from content.

This approach honors both the reality of testing and the integrity of instruction. I’ll let you know how it goes, though.

If you’d rather listen to me explain this blog post, I would love to invite you to check out Test Prep Palooza with my friend, Laura Kebart. Besides my thoughts, she has a TON of other test prep ideas and philosophies from secondary ELA teachers across the grade level and location spectrum.