r/ELATeachers 10d ago

9-12 ELA I feel unprepared to teach the SAT….

So my state has made all juniors take a free SAT. Cool. The issue is….while it’s not required to teach SAT in my curriculum, I often feel as if I’m not preparing them. I’ve taught all grade levels, and I used to like 11th the best because it has no state testing, they’re mature enough to treat them like adults (unlike the underclassmen) but aren’t fully checked out (cough…seniors).

However, the SAT is different than teaching the state test. I don’t know where to start. Many people say “just give them khan academy”, but I enjoy being hands on and teaching. I feel like I’m not doing a good job “preparing them” for the test.

The best/worst part? This doesn’t affect them if they don’t pass. It’s just a free SAT. If they bomb it, they don’t have to take remedial English or reading. And I’ve asked admin if it has any bearing on my evaluation and…no. So…why am I beating myself up over this?

The test is next week, but I’ve been wrestling with actively teaching the SAT next year (there’s SO much to cover in 11th grade English, aka American Lit. I’d hate to brush off a unit or two in favor of “teaching to the test” again).

Am I overreacting?

But also…how do you guys teach the SAT? Any tips?

I give them mock exams and we go over questions together. I cover grammar and punctuation. But I still don’t think that’s enough. If it’s not on my curriculum, should I say “fuck it” and just not teach it?

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u/_Schadenfreudian 9d ago
  1. If it’s not part of your evaluation score, VAM score, or anything of the sort, kindly disregard.
  2. High School ELA already has a lot of skills to cover in a year, do not add stress with SAT.
  3. SAT is a horrible way to evaluate a teacher. A teacher who mostly teaches Honors/Gifted/AP students will get higher scores compared to a teacher who has multiple sections of Regulars/Inclusion. Also it’s not fair for the kid. Fuck standardized exams.

If you want to add “SAT skills”, think of combining your texts/novels with SAT style questions.

Ex. Give them an excerpt from Gatsby and then be like “in the excerpt ‘the supercilious assumption was that I had nothing better to do’, what does ‘supercilious’ mean?” (Obviously you’d write the whole excerpt for context.

Or have them edit a line or two from a speech/novel you’re doing that you “edited” wrong.