TAKS Test: First Attempt

This week my oldest child took her first TAKS reading test for 3rd grade. She's had plenty of practice tests and done rather poorly on them. She keeps falling for the almost correct answer. Oh, not that I'm worried if she passed, but getting three questions wrong freaks her out.

Here's a sample of the story test she brought home this week:

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am a ten-year-old girl. I live in the Ballard neighborhood. I want to start a new P-Patch on my street. You might think someone my age can't handle a P-Patch. That's why I am working with a group of neighbors. We all have the same dream.

There are 20 neighbors in my P-Patch Planning Group. Sixteen members are adults, and four members are kids. We have taken field trips to four Seattle P-Patches and talked with the gardeners. The gardeners showed us how they work in their gardens. I've learned a lot. For example, I know how important it is to have good soil. I've even learned to use a tiller to stir up the hard dirt.

I have also learned what happens to the food grown in P-Patches. Every year, up to ten tons of food goes to needy people. I think that's neat! I would feel very good knowing that I grew food to help others. Some people on my street don't have much money. They would like to use the garden to grow food for their own families. I think that's neat, too.

My group found the best place for a P-Patch. I know P-Patch gardens should be at least 2,000 square feet. A church at the end of our block has been closed for three years. Nobody takes care of it. There are weeds all around. It's ugly and dirty and makes our neighborhood look bad. It would be nice to have a P-Patch there. The garden would look nice there, and it would be a nice place for neighbors to spend time together. There are no tall buildings around the old church, so the area gets plenty of sun. The sunflowers I want to plant there would be so happy!

Four people in my group know about organic gardens and will teach the rest of us. They will pay special attention to the kids (including me). So, we will learn how to be responsible gardeners. This kind of teamwork is a great idea!

Every person on my P-Patch Planning Group is writing a letter to you, too. I hope you will see how eager we are. We take the P-Patch program very seriously. Our neighborhood needs it!

Thank you,
Ellie Lewis.

She got the main idea question wrong:

1)Ellie wrote her letter mainly to-

X- show how much she knows about
making a garden.

correct answer was: give reasons why her group should
be allowed to start a P-Patch.

So she got pretty close there.

This question I really didn't expect

12. In which word do the letters er mean the same as in gardeners?

X- Flowers

Correct answer- Builders

It's a good question because students need to know that but I don't remember that ever being taught.