Technology-enhanced items, or TEI questions, are pretty common on end-of-year state tests. The good news is that kids pick up on these skills pretty easily, especially if you incorporate TEI questions all year long. However, it can be hard to find resources that give kids targeted TEI practice with drag and drop, selecting multiple answer choices, manipulating objects, and similar skills.
With that in mind, I’m sharing some of my favorite resources for practicing TEI skills in the classroom. These work well whether you have an interactive whiteboard, laptops, tablets, or other devices.
Be sure to read all the way through for some free resources!
Boom Cards
My favorite TEI resource is the Boom Learning™ website. Students complete digital task cards using a variety of TEI skills like choosing “hot spot” answers, moving objects, and selecting multiple answers.
The best part is that the cards are self-checking, so students get immediate feedback. Plus, you can monitor students’ progress. Every teacher I’ve talked to says their students LOVE how interactive this activity is!
The video below shows an example of some types of TEI skills students can practice on the Boom website. (This is from my Math SOL 4.1 Boom Cards set.)
You can set up an account through the Boom Learning website and create your own decks or purchase ones already made for you. If you are new to Boom, you can get 10% off your membership by clicking here {affiliate link}.
If you’re interested in trying Boom, start with these free Boom card sets!
- Decimals on the Number Line
- Interpreting Remainders
- Virginia’s Geography
- Summer-themed Multiplication Facts
Google Apps
Google Slides™ is another great way to help students practice TEI skills. You can create a set of practice questions and share it with your students through a link, email, or Google Classroom™.
The picture below shows an example slide where students need to click and drag to change the heights of the bars in the bar graph to display the data in the table. (This is from my 4th grade Math SOL TEI Review.)
Students can also practice answering multiple-choice questions and choosing answers from drop-down menus in Google Forms™. This is a good way to practice choosing more than one correct answer since students will probably see that on state tests.
TEI Practice Sites
There are also some helpful websites that have TEI-type questions. Most of these are aligned to the Virginia SOLs, but they’d be helpful for anyone looking for some TEI practice in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade.
- IXL Learning: Reading (subscription-based, but you should be able to click on questions)
- IXL Learning: Math (subscription-based, but you should be able to click on questions)
- Interactive Assessment
- SOL Pass (requires a subscription, but a trial option is available)
- Jefferson Lab (uses released test questions)
- TestNav (downloadable software)
Grab These TEI Posters
These free TEI questions posters are great to display to remind students of some of the TEI question types they can expect to see.
You can also find more TEI practice resources in my TpT shop!
I hope this list helps you to get started working TEI practice into your teaching. Lots of exposure to TEI questions throughout the year will really help students feel confident about seeing these types of items on those end-of-year tests!
1 Comment
Great post.