Preparing for ISTEP Writing

The ISTEP is a what teachers in Indiana spend the year preparing for. It's the test that holds teachers accountable for what students are supposed to be learning. The ISTEP compares the scores of students across Indiana. Almost every state has a version of this test as part of the "No child left behind" act that ensures all students have access to credible educational resources.

Most of the ISTEP is done using a multiple choice format. Students simply pick the correct answer out of the answers listed. The writing portion is completely different. Students get a piece of lined paper and they are asked to write enough to fill the sheet of paper front and back. But, there's a catch. No matter how eloquently written your child is, that piece of paper can be thrown away before a word on it even gets read.

The first step in grading this piece of paper is to glance at it. Those that grade the ISTEP take a look at the written portion to make sure that the paper is formatted properly. It has to be separated into specific paragraphs and indented. All the normal grammar rules apply. The difference is that if upon first glance, there aren't separate paragraphs with indents, the paper get tossed out. So, no matter how well written your child may be, they're going to get a score of 0 if they don't properly format the paper. Help your child to develop their writing skills so that they can score successfully on the writing portion of the ISTEP.

Limit Internet time. You might wonder what Internet time has to do with writing on the ISTEP. For the answer, just take a quick glance at almost any page on the Internet. Online writing follows a different format than writing on paper. For one, although paragraphs are separated, they usually aren't indented. Children who are more used to reading online than they are offline are used to looking at paragraphs without indents. It's not hard to figure out that if they constantly see writing this way, they're bound to use that style of writing.

Play writing games. One of the most important elements of the ISTEP is that it's timed. Children are asked to use a writing prompt to come up with something to write, but they have to do it in a limited amount of time. There's no time to space out or loose focus. Try playing a writing game with your child to help them boost their speed. For instance, you might each get a writing prompt, then race to see who can write 5 sentences the fastest. To make it a bit easier on the child, use the hand opposite of the one you normally write with!

Discuss the purpose of a paragraph. I noticed that when my son was writing, he wouldn't use a new paragraph. That's because he didn't really understand the purpose of the paragraph. He would transition from one idea to the next without any concept that those ideas could be better organized and separated. Use what they know or like to help them understand this concept. For instance, you might talk about a video game and how one challenge is separate from another.

Share the benefits of the elements of a paragraph. My son literally hates to write things out by hand. If he's using a word processing program, it's fun for him. It's the hand writing that he hates doing. He gets so frustrated when he writes, that all of his paragraphs run together and his words at the end of the sentences tend to be scrunched together. He struggles to get the required amount of space filled on his paper. His eyes literally lit up when I showed him how indenting paragraphs took up some extra space and how he didn't have to scrunch up his words, but instead could simple carry them over to the next line. Even capital letters in the beginning of sentences and proper words take up more space than letters which aren't capitalized.

There are plenty of ways to help your child to prepare for the writing portion of the ISTEP. Since it's timed, using races of some sort is a great way to have fun with your child as you help them to get ready for this test. You can do things like let them be the "teacher" and find all the mistakes in your own paper within a limited amount of time. Use silly topics to make this study time even more fun!

References: Personal and professional experience