I spent way too much time trying to find just the right article and video to watch that might relate to my classroom situation. In doing so I read many interesting, informative articles and watched several videos. Probably the most interesting were articles about using video games to motivate students to want to learn and the depth of knowledge they can gain. Games have also proven to lower violence, improve school culture and improve quality of education. If you get a chance, they were quite enlightening especially for high school teachers.
The article How Should We Measure Student Learning? The Many Forms of Assessment contends that assessment is the heart of education. This is sad but true. Instruction is driven by testing in our school district. The article was so true in saying that teachers and parents use scores to gauge student’s academic strengths. The quality of the education system is judged by the community by looking at assessments scores. Many good points stood out in this article such as teachers teaching to the test at the expense of more meaningful learning activities. I don’t know how many times I have to cover certain material so the students will be prepared for the test instead of doing other beneficial activities that would probably better prepare them for life. The Edutopia staff emphasizes that standardized testing does not teach teamwork, collaboration, and moral character that will make a literate 21st century citizen. Ultimately this should be our goal as educators. As more districts experiment with project learning, etc. hopefully the ideas will spread throughout education that standardized testing is not the way to go.
The video I watched reiterated the ideas and concepts of the article. Some of the key terms I jotted down while watching included students being over tested and under examined. Standardized testing shows little indication of what kids can do in the real world. I scanned numerous blogs and found much of the same information. So it seems most agree on assessment issues. It just seems we don’t know how to come together to fix the problem that would make students better prepared for life. It is encouraging to know that steps are being made in the right direction.
It is hard for me to answer how this fits into my classroom. For those of you that don’t know, I mostly do data collection and analysis for grades K-5. I only teach 1 hour a day involving math intervention. And some days ironically I am assisting teachers with other tasks such as helping prepare students for the upcoming GRADE test which measures reading/comprehension skills. So I am starting to find it difficult when trying to relate these concepts and ideas into my instruction. It concerns me trying to decide on an inquiry plan. Hopefully through more research and my group member’s recommendations it will all fall into place. Dr. Clarke-thanks for your suggestion about developing a resource binder. Now I just need to pick a topic.
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Hey Dana- I am glad you found some helpful resources in your search. And you are right - there is so much out there that is anti-standardized test but very little in the way of what to do instead. I think that perhaps we need better tests or better approaches to assessment. I am thinking about your situation and one thing that you mentioned is how to teach students for both the test and for life. That got me thinking could you use some of your data to isolate a skill that your students need and then create a learning activity (or activities) that combine both test prep and life skills? I am thinking of something like if your students are struggling with money- something like creating a series of lessons where they use an imaginary checkbook and set up a little bank to learn about money and develop a skill (that is just off the top of my head). Just throwing an idea your way.
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