High Stakes Testing Preparation in the Social Studies Classroom: Critical Thinking Skills In addition to coaching students in general test-taking skills, social studies teachers must ensure that students can transfer literal understandings of the content objectives to interpretive and applied understandings of the concepts. Teaching content standards along with test-taking strategies will enhance student performance. Throughout your testing preparation, incorporate the following activities to prepare students for the higher order tasks required on high stakes testing. Relate events in time. Create chronological time lines of major events. Continually update time lines with new units of study. Refer to these time lines often for visual reinforcement. Outline main ideas to highlight key information and concepts. Assign outlining exercises with reading selections. Pare down textbook information through concise listings. Distinguish between fact and opinion. Provide students with opportunities to present and defend personal viewpoints. Debate issues to foster healthy skepticism. Explain why specific answers are correct. Re-teach incorrect answers. Recognize bias. Discuss political cartoons from historical and personal perspectives. Explore and analyze advertisements and media coverage of political issues. Identify key terms that indicate opinion versus fact. Make comparisons and correlations. Relate historical events to more contemporary events to promote recall. Connect information to personal experiences. Use graphic organizers to visually represent relationships. Identify cause-and-effect relationships. Create tables to analyze consequences of events and actions. Use graphic organizers to visually represent cause and effect. Draw conclusions. Ask questions to summarize information. Apply information to new and different issues. Recognize the contributions of others. Identify personality traits of individuals who have shaped history. Ask students to assume the identity of significant historical figures to appreciate their sacrifices, dedication, and loyalty. Connect lives of others to personal experiences. Express problems verbally. Use brainstorming to encourage diverse responses. Practice open-ended questions. Encourage students to explain and/or defend answers. Incorporate all levels of thinking into daily activities, assignments, discussions, and homework. Carefully integrate categories of recall, analysis, comparison, reference, and evaluation. Provide opportunities to demonstrate learning. Offer daily practice in interpretation and application. This article was contributed by Mollie Crie, a veteran educator with the Bedford Country Schools in Forest, Virginia.