Acting and Assessment

     Two weeks ago, the fourth graders in our class took the Florida Writes Test.  My co-teaching partner and I oversaw a reading lesson in which the fifth graders read and acted out a play from their reading textbooks while their fourth grade classmates were completing their test.  The play that the students acted out was an African story about a fisherman that tricked other salespeople from the market into giving him baskets and other merchandise.  He told them that a bridge that they needed to walk across to get to the market would break unless they lightened their loads that they were taking to the market.  He told them this lie because he could not find any fish to sell at the market in order to earn money to buy the goods.  The other salespeople ended up finding out that the bridge was not fragile and they played a similar trick on him in order to get back at him.  Overall, the students did a GREAT job acting out the story.  Most of them were very into character, read well, and used props found in the room.  Also, the fourth graders in our class completed their writing test and fingers crossed they did great too!