The Big Test (The Jitters Series)

Test anxiety can be a real monkey on your back. I felt it as a child, and I've felt it as an adult. It stinks. What Julie Danneberg's book does it build up a good head of steam, and then releases it in one huge whoosh of relief, something we could all use sometimes. I'd say this is an excellent book to share around testing time, and an excellent lesson in not letting our worry get away from us to carry with us our whole lives.

Mrs. Hartwell's Class has worked hard all school year and it has come down to the last big test. Mrs. Hartwell takes her class through the skills they will need to be successful on the test. Can they sit still and properly fill in the bubbles? Do they know what that a good breakfast is important? By the day of the practice test all of her student are anxious and nervous and have visited the school nurse and poor Mrs. Hartwell is feeling very bad for them.

I am the mom of anxious test taker. The poor kid gets so nervous, he is often not capable of showing what he knows. In a public school culture where the test is the culmination of the school year, this humorous look at Mrs. Hartwell's class happens all too often and it would a terrific show more jumping off point to discuss with students that those big tests they dread don't have to be scary. It shows the most important part of learning, how to have fun with it.

While the story is charming and quite fun, the star of the book is the illustration by Judy Love. Brightly colored in vivid detail, Mrs. Hartwell and her students practically leap off the pages. This is a wonderful class library shelf book for grades 1-3.

5 stars

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review show less

Mrs. Hartwell prepares her students for the big test by teaching them one more lesson over several test taking skills in order to "know how to show what you know". Even with practice, many of her students experience test anxiety up to the big day. Mrs. Hartwell's last lesson shows that taking time to "stop and relax" before a big test can help relieve these symptoms for a positive test taking experience.

This realistic fictional story does a great job acknowledging test anxiety among students with helpful skills and good habits to practice like morning-of-the-test-nutrition. The overall lesson of testing confidence is critical to introduce students in overcoming test anxiety. This book could be used all the way through college for a show more silly look on a relatable obstacle, but would be very useful introduced in primary grades. show less

With standardized testing happening in most schools around Canada and United States, there is often nervousness and insecurities surrounding these events. This is a great book for teachers to use with their students to help alleviate these feelings. In the story, Mrs. Hartwell takes a week to go over things with her students. She keeps telling them that they have learned a lot over the year and the test is a chance to show what they know. She keeps it low key and positive. When some of the students still become very anxious, she ditches her lesson plan and plans a day to help the students relax before they have to write the test the next day. The illustrations are great and very realistic. The details and colours are great and add to show more the story. This is a book that should be in every school library and primary classroom.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

Confusing. Is the surprise party the test, or is a relaxation exercise before the test? In any case, the facial expressions & body language are hilarious.

Mrs. Hartwell’s class (who look to be about fourth- or fifth-graders, but never defined in the book) is getting ready for the big, end-of-the-year test. Mrs. Hartwell is doing everything she can to get her students ready; teaching them how to sit still for long periods of time, showing them how to fill in the circles on test forms, and telling them about eating a healthy breakfast the morning of the test. But nothing she does seems to help with the anxiety that most of the students are feeling; many of them actually ask to go home early throughout the week because they don’t feel well. Julie Danneberg’s, “The Big Test” starts out by trying to be about young children and test-taking, but then falls off the wagon around page 19, show more when her Mrs. Hartwell literally throws her file labeled “Lesson Plans” in the garbage (which kind of feels like the author throwing out her file labeled “Storyline”). After seeing how upset her class is, the quirky teacher leads them down the hall to the library (where the students panic even more at the prospect of having to go to – ew! – the library. Yikes.) and opens the door to reveal that she has instead set up a kind of play room in which the children are not required to take any test. Logic, common-sense, and actions with consequences be damned. Judy Love’s watercolor and pencil drawings are interesting enough – she provides a lot of detail on each page and reader’s will appreciate her multi-cultural approach to drawing the students even though most of their names are like “Andy” and “Emily”. But her facial expressions start to blur, making it seem as though the class is made up of Jimmy Stuart clones – boys and girls alike. For ages 7-9. show less

The teacher was ready to give the test to all of the class. the children are taking the test so seriously and the teacher ask the to be relaxed in doing the test.
Age : 5-8
Source : Amazon