Test Preparation: Managing the Stress

Standardized testing is at the forefront of everyone's mind. While we know that these tests should be just one of many assessment measures, they are high stakes tests for most schools and students. Either way, we do all we can to ensure students perform to the best of their ability.

You have prepared your students throughout the year through instruction and practice of content, reading strategies, and general test-taking skills. And surely in the past weeks, you have incorporated a variety of practice test exercises.

We know from a large body of research and our own life experience that stress can positively or negatively affect performance depending on our ability to manage it. The brain's ability to function is key. It is highly sensitive to changes brought on by hormones, food additives, oxygen, and water. As much as is still unknown about the brain, there are techniques that have been shown to have a positive impact on overall health and performance. Of course, we want to be sure our students are well hydrated and that they have proper nutrition on test days.

Be sure you also give ample attention to preparing students emotionally, physically, and mentally to deal with tests. It is critical that students learn to manage their own stress. There are simple, deliberate techniques you can teach your students today!

Deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and using positive talk/images are all tools that can allow students to manage their stress response. Teach, model, and remind students to use these whenever they feel the negative affects of stress.

1) Breathing Techniques can help activate the body's own calming response. Simply telling students to breathe deeply often results in a room of hyperventilating kids. There are simple techniques students can learn and use before, during, and even after stressful events.

1. Breathing deeply engages the diaphragm.
2. Teach students to breathe in through their nose and out through nose/mouth.
3. Their bellies and rib cages should expand when they breathe in and contract when they breathe out.
4. Simple counting technique: Breathe in to a count (maybe 5 to start), using the full count. Hold the breath for a second, and then exhale for the full 5. Guide students to feel their ribs expand, their diaphragm release, and their shoulders release down.

2) Muscle-relaxation. Teach students progressive relaxation techniques. This can be as simple as closing your eyes and tightening up and releasing parts of the body, head to toe. Different mental images work for different people. Students can do a few simple head rolls, shrug shoulders up and down, and even releasing their jaw where many people hold tension.

3) Positive self-talk/images. Students can practice simple self-affirming statements and images to visualize how they want to feel. This extends to how we direct students, such as stating the behavior we want rather than the behavior we don't.

Examples for reducing stress:

1. I am relaxed and prepared.
2. I feel peaceful and energetic.
3. I breathe out tension. I breathe in calm.

Like other techniques, using these types of statements needs to be modeled and practiced over time. All of the techniques should be the students' choice. Give students models and allow them to devise their own. Encourage students to try them all and practice those that they find helpful.

Putting it together: Students can combine positive images with relaxed breathing. There are many more physical techniques, including Brain Gym exercises and simple yoga postures.

The following technique is from Victoria Tennant, called Take 5. Ask students to use the fingers on their hand to memorize five calming steps. Tell them to "Make a fist to represent feeling stressed. Release a finger each time yoau say a step – thumb: "I notice how I feel"; pointer finger: "I accept myself"; third finger: "I calm myself", ring finger: "I notice how I feel now", little finger: "I tell myself something positive." Say "You now have an open hand to represent feeling relaxed and calm."

Educate yourself and your students about the impact of stress on the brain and body. Then teach them real ways to manage their stress. Learn the techniques, model them for your students, and give them opportunity to use and adapt them. Some of the methods may seem hokey to some, but they work. They may even help you deal with the stress of testing, among other things, yourself!! Peace!!

Student link-general tips for test stress: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/school/teststress/article10.html

For more on the effects of stress on the brain, as well as a range of techniques: http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/teaching/tennant.htm

Reference: Victoria Tennant, M. Ed. is an independent educational consultant. Her current workshops and curriculum materials reflect a synthesis of 25 years of studying and presenting implications and applications of brain/mind research. She is the creator and trainer of two interactive programs: Healthy Beginnings, Nurturing Young Children's Growing Minds™ and Calming Ourselves in Stressful Moments™ published by Comprehensive Health Education Foundation. Victoria is a licensed Brain Gym® instructor/consultant. For presentations and school in-services contact Victoria at vtennant@verizon.net.