How would you introduce students to plotting points on a coordinate plane for the first time?

Immerse them in the experience. Using painter's tape(much better than masking tape for removing it cleanly) create a coordinate plane on the floor. Then make a game out of it having them move from the x negative and positive to the negative and positive . Have them go back to their seat and provide them drawing paper and have them draw the plane they moved through. Give them a game piece, or using their fingers and have them do the same thing in 2 dimensions. The next day, have them use that same drawing to label their lines with positive and negative numbers and the x and y. (Using graph paper will help them keep the numbers even spaced. Now using colored pencils have them mark dots/points of coordinates within the plane paying particular attention the the 0,0 or 0,-5 point types.

Beginning of the year activity -- turned test prep strategy!

At the beginning of the year a few years ago, I decided to play 4 corners with students with get to know you questions. I put up a slide-show with questions and the 4 possible responses. I set out the rules (no running, must choose one of the answers, keep within your own space, etc) and labeled each corner. When they made their selection, they could talk with another person or in a small group, why they choose that answer. Then they could share if there was another one they would have picked. If only one student was at a corner, I would go over and talk with them.

What I realized a few weeks in was that I could also do this with math multiple choice questions for practice (I taught primarily math at the time, but you could do it with other subjects too). Students then had to show their work for the answer or explain how they got it. I occasionally would throw in a question that had multiple right answers and would share that up front with students. They then could discuss in their groups if they thought any of the other answers were correct and how they knew.

"'I'm gathering evidence of learning.'
That shift in language in how I approach the assessment process opened so many doors for how l assess students and what I pay attention to in order to determine
where a student's at in their learning." --Tyler Rabin, educator

I read this quote recently on Edutopia (I went back to try to find the article but unfortunately, I couldn't find it. My notes weren't thorough enough I suppose!) and it helped me figure out how to frame this for teachers. Students don't need to be afraid of assessments and changing how we speak about them could change their mindset. How do you frame assessments for your students? Any tips on how to change teachers' mindsets around assessments or students'?

I have been reading a lot about assessments and assessing students to reduce anxiety for students. I came across this idea and I immediately fell in love with it. I also wished I would have seen this as a classroom teacher. What I love about it is that it gives students an opportunity to build their thinking capacity before testing and increase their thought process when working on questions. I know students can't do this before high-stakes testing, but I think using this will build students' confidence and expand their thinking.

Thoughts about this? What are some other strategies you have tried?

This is something I just recently started doing with my third through fifth grade intervention students: when we have an exit ticket, I will leave some highlighters next to the turn in bin. Students highlight their name when they turn in the assignment: green if they feel like they got it; yellow if they feel like they mostly have it; and orange if they are still struggling. This provides them some self advocacy and allows them to share with just me that they may need more help or that they felt great about the assignment!

What are some ways you practice self-assessment with students?

How do you ensure that students with severe speech and language articulation or receptive or expressive disabilities take appropriate routine assessments? For example a student that struggles with speaking fluently i.e. stutters may be omitted from one minute oral reading fluency benchmark testing. Students with specific articulation errors should also not be penalized for these errors during early literacy screeners and benchmark tests. Our district writes the articulations errors on the Acadience test booklet to avoid such penalties.