Catlin Tucker: 6 testing engagement tips

State testing season wrecks classroom rhythm. Periods get chopped up, kids come in tired, and teachers end up with awkward pockets of time that are too short for a real lesson but too long for busywork. That is the problem Catlin Tucker is trying to solve. In an April 22, 2025 post, she laid out six ways to keep learning active during testing weeks without turning every spare minute into more test prep. ### What did Tucker actually publish? She published a blog post called “April Engagement Ideas: What to Do When Testing Disrupts Learning.” The premise is simple — testing season scrambles routines, but it does not have to turn the rest of the day into passive downtime. Her six ideas are meant to work in full periods or in smaller chunks between tests, which matters because the whole issue is unpredictability. ### Why is this a real problem? Because testing does more than eat instructional minutes. It changes student energy. Kids are often anxious before exams and drained after them. Teachers also lose the continuity that normal units depend on. Tucker’s point is that when the schedule gets fragmented, engagement usually collapses first — and that is exactly when students need meaningful work that feels doable. ### What is the first tip? The first strategy is student-led inquiry using the 5Es model. Instead of assigning more review packets, Tucker suggests letting students investigate a topic or concept connected to something they studied earlier in the year. The 5Es structure — engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate — gives that inquiry enough minutes into a mini investigation. ### What comes after inquiry? Creation. Tucker recommends multimedia projects that ask students to make something — a podcast, video, slide deck, or infographic. That matters because creation keeps students cognitively busy without feeling like another assessment. It also scales well. A class with one short block can storyboard. A class with does not. ### Where does collaboration fit? Two of her ideas lean hard on students learning with and from each other. One is peer teaching, where students explain concepts, strategies, or topics to classmates. Another is collaborative discussion and reflection. Those are smart testing-week moves because they are flexible, low-prep, and social — and social energy is often what disappears when schools slip into testing mode. ### What about student choice? Choice is one of the bigger through-lines here. Tucker includes choice boards as a way to let students pick from different meaningful tasks, and that can be the difference between compliance and real engagement. When the week already feels controlled by testing logistics, giving students some say in how they spend non-testing time can lower resistance and keep momentum alive. ### Why the hands-on angle? Her sixth idea is hands-on STEAM or design challenges. This is the clearest break from the usual “quiet seatwork after the test” routine. A design challenge gives students a concrete problem to solve, which is useful after long stretches of high-stakes, screen-based, individually completed work. It is the classroom equivalent of opening a window after stale air. ### So what is the bigger takeaway? Tucker is not really offering six random activities. She is making a case for protecting curiosity during the most compliance-heavy stretch of the school year. The thread running through all six ideas is exploration, creation, reflection, collaboration, and choice — not filler, not extra pressure, and not test prep.