Rating: 
Summary: Miss Malarkey helps relieve test anxiety!
Review: "Testing Miss Malarkey" was just purchased by a 5th grade teacher in our school. She read it aloud to her class with an enthusiastic response from her students. Now, we're planning to have this hilarious story read to all of our upper grade classes just before "THE TEST." There's not much to add to the other favorable reviews already posted here, other than to say that "Testing Miss Malarkey" might help to relieve test anxiety for students just prior to testing. As with all good children's books, there's humor, or a message, for both kids and adults. "Miss Malarkey" does this quite nicely. Personally, I got some chuckles out of the staff members' names. The cafeteria lady is Mrs. Slopdown, the art teacher is Mrs. Magenta, the PE teacher is Mr. Fittanuff, and the janitor is Mr. Surley. I look forward to adding this title to our elementary school library and to seeing it be enjoyed for many years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Miss Malarkey is Back!
Review: "The Test"...Miss Malarkey said it wasn't important, it's not on your report cards, there's no extra homework and whether you do well or not, you still get promoted to the next grade. Okay, so why is she biting her nails? And why are we playing Multiplication Mambo and Funny Phonics at recess? The principal is tense and worried about number 2 pencils. The cafeteria is only serving fish, brain food. In art we're practicing filling in small circles and in gym, Mr Fittanuff is teaching us yoga. It's even a little weird at home. After my mom read me my bedtime story, she made me complete a review sheet before I could go to sleep. Finally the day of "The Test" arrives..... Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley have written and illustrated a charming, witty story, both youngsters and adults will really be able to identify with, that pokes fun at all the standardized test-taking kids are faced with these days. Their easy to read, true to life text and funny, expressive artwork will have teachers, students and parents laughing out loud as everyone goes a little overboard getting ready for "The Test." And after testing week, as everybody and everything gets back to normal, Miss Malarkey's class decides that maybe "The Test" really wasn't that important after all!
Rating:
Summary: Miss Malarkey is Back!
Review: "The Test"...Miss Malarkey said it wasn't important, it's not on your report cards, there's no extra homework and whether you do well or not, you still get promoted to the next grade. Okay, so why is she biting her nails? And why are we playing Multiplication Mambo and Funny Phonics at recess? The principal is tense and worried about number 2 pencils. The cafeteria is only serving fish, brain food. In art we're practicing filling in small circles and in gym, Mr Fittanuff is teaching us yoga. It's even a little weird at home. After my mom read me my bedtime story, she made me complete a review sheet before I could go to sleep. Finally the day of "The Test" arrives..... Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley have written and illustrated a charming, witty story, both youngsters and adults will really be able to identify with, that pokes fun at all the standardized test-taking kids are faced with these days. Their easy to read, true to life text and funny, expressive artwork will have teachers, students and parents laughing out loud as everyone goes a little overboard getting ready for "The Test." And after testing week, as everybody and everything gets back to normal, Miss Malarkey's class decides that maybe "The Test" really wasn't that important after all!
Rating:
Summary: Every legislator should read this book!
Review: Any teacher who has taught even a year recently well understands the horrors of testing, and days when there are more teachers than students in the nurse's office. Testing Miss Malarkey deals with the testmania which is being inflicted on our children in a humorous, yet unfortunately accurate way. Schools may not be teaching how to color in circles in art class-but there are many which have eliminated art to make room for test prep. I would also suggest Susan Ohanian's
"What happened to recess and why are our children struggling in kindergarten"-the adult side of the story, but the same, sad tale.
Rating:
Summary: "Testing Miss Malarkey" Passes the Test!
Review: Having been on both sides of the coin, as a teacher preparing students for 'high stakes' tests, and as a writer of some them, I find this book to be right on the mark! I highly recommend it to students of all ages and teachers alike! The light-hearted approach to the subject of testing helps to put things in perspective. Research has shown that the attitude of significant adults-teachers, administrators, and parents, greatly impacts student self-esteem, expectations, and performance where testing is concerned. Use the book as a read-aloud to classses of any age, share it among the staff, and lend it to the parents. It has something to offer everyone, and truly passes the test!
Rating:
Summary: Someone who finally gets it
Review: I purchased this book in preparation for a presentation on standardized testing. It definitely added some humor to the dull subject. How amazing that a "children's" book can get the idiocy of high-stakes testing, but we in education can't do enough to lower the stakes. A must for any educator trying to make the point of how silly the tests are--or anyone trying to lower the anxiety level just before test time.
Rating:
Summary: Someone who finally gets it
Review: I purchased this book in preparation for a presentation on standardized testing. It definitely added some humor to the dull subject. How amazing that a "children's" book can get the idiocy of high-stakes testing, but we in education can't do enough to lower the stakes. A must for any educator trying to make the point of how silly the tests are--or anyone trying to lower the anxiety level just before test time.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: If you are a teacher who is giving a standardized test, this is the book for you! Our Media Clerk put this book in the staff lounge. It was an instant hit with us all! Reading about Miss Malarkey and her experiences with the "IPTU" test was just the "tension breaker" I needed! I found that I had said many of the same things to my students that she had! "No, this won't affect your grade" and "Yes, you will get to go to the next grade, even if you don't do well on this test." Bravo, Judy Finchler!!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: If you are a teacher who is giving a standardized test, this is the book for you! Our Media Clerk put this book in the staff lounge. It was an instant hit with us all! Reading about Miss Malarkey and her experiences with the "IPTU" test was just the "tension breaker" I needed! I found that I had said many of the same things to my students that she had! "No, this won't affect your grade" and "Yes, you will get to go to the next grade, even if you don't do well on this test." Bravo, Judy Finchler!!
Rating: 
Summary: Testing Miss Malarkey
Review: In Testing Miss Malarkey, Judy Finchler takes a look at high-stakes testing through an elementary student's eyes. The story uses humor to show the reality that standardized tests have on students, parents, teachers, and society. Unfortunately, much of the humor is wasted on children who simply would not understand the jokes implied in this story. Testing Miss Malarkey also focuses on the negative aspects of standardized testing, which may or may not have been meant by Finchler. Miss Malarkey is preparing her class for The Instructional Performance Through Understanding or I.P.T.U test. She explains that the test is nothing to be concerned about. It will not affect report cards or grade level placement. However, the students begin to notice Miss Malarkey acting strange. She starts biting her finger nails and focusing just on THE TEST. These behaviors also take over the principal and parents. The students begin to believe that in fact this test may be of importance. With the test day fast approaching, the children are drilled on their multiplication tables, book themes, and correctly filling in the answer sheet. When test day finally arrives, the school faculty has more anxiety than the students. The test takes two days to complete and when it is over school returns back to normal. However, all the stress and worrying pays off as the school celebrates a number one status as I.P.T.U. county champions. The whole focus of the school gets shifted into a complete frenzy over the test. Recess is taken over by Multiplication Mambo, brain food is served in the cafeteria, meditation exercise is learned in gym, and the principal is constantly loosing his toupee. This is actually the practice of many schools who use standardized-testing as a means of evaluating students. There is currently a debate over the usage of standardized-testing. Some claim these tests "lead to the abandonment of the best kind of teaching and learning,"when the whole focus of school is shifted to increase test scores (Noll 147). Teachers alter their lessons to make room to prepare students for testing, when the lesson would have been more beneficial. This is much the case in Testing Miss Malarkey, as the reader can see a shift in values from general education to simply test preparation. This book, coupled with the controversy over standardized testing, may result in the reader having a hard time finding and appreciating the humor is this story. Testing Miss Malarkey is obviously poking fun at the whole testing practice, but at whose expense? The whole community is wrapped up in THE TEST, so who is to blame? The students hear unconvincing statements from the teachers, but see the nervousness and anxiety throughout the school, and community. The title Testing Miss Malarkey is deliberate. As a teacher, it is Miss Malarkey's responsibility to put the testing in perspective, and be consistent with her actions. Her future may lie on the outcome of the examination, so the testing is shifted from the students to the teachers. Many schools, in fact, do use standardized tests as a means for determining their better teachers and letting the teachers with poor test results go. However, this is not an accurate measure. Standardized-tests are a means of measuring what students know over time, not what is taught to them in a year. So in all actuality, this book portrays many of the fears teachers face as a result of these kinds of tests. The teachers have more at stake than the students do, and teachers are well aware of this. Many teachers, as well as Miss Malarkey, spend many weeks of class time preparing their students for THE TEST. Martin G. Brooks and Jacqueline Grennon Brooks in Taking Sides, claim this is a major draw-back to standardized-tests. They state that "schools reduce the curriculum to only what is covered on tests, and this constriction limits students learning" (159). This is evident in the story, as well as US classrooms. Even in Miss Malarkey's art class the students were making posters for the test and practicing bubbling correctly for the test. This shows a major shift from an art lesson to an "anti-intellectual training practice that occurs under the banner of test preparation" (Noll 160). Time is being taken away from a situation where meaningful learning could take place to an event that simply is getting students ready for the test, in which no real lesson or skill is learned. After the test was done, school returned to normal. No evidence of higher standards or an improved accountability of public education was observed. The school celebrated its number one performance, a party was thrown, and we can assume Miss Malarkey kept her job, but nothing happened in terms of education. The test proved to be time consuming and headache causing. Could the time spent preparing for the test been spent on something more practical academically? Yes, it certainly could have. The book does a good job at showing the negative aspects of standardized-testing. I don't know if this was the authors intent, but it made a very strange case, showing how the whole classroom climate can be affected by one test, which has no bearing on the children what-so-ever, in relation to grading or their futures. This book helps prove the case of many educationalists who believe in the abolishment of high-stakes testing. Test preparation took away from the general curriculum to focus on test scores that had no bearing in the student's futures. Bibliography: Brooks, J.G., Brooks, M.G. & Noll, J. (2201). Taking Sides: Educational Issues. Guilford, Connecticut: McGraw-Hill.
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