This comment, said by a 3rd grade boy after the completion of Reading 1 of the WKCE, has stuck with me for the past couple of days. The Wisconsin Knowledge Concepts Exam is a mandated standardized test that 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th graders throughout the state of Wisconsin take on an annual basis. Standardized testing is an interesting aspect of education. I have heard that in some schools, like many in the Chicago Public School systems (CPS), teachers pump their students up for "the test". They build up student confidence by teaching them the styles of question that will be on the test and covering academic content that will be on the test. They teach them how to fill in the bubbles, the trick about always answering a question even if you're guessing, and so on. In my classroom this year, we did very little of the above. We spent 15-20 minutes talking about what the test would be like purely to decrease student anxiety. Our main focus was teaching strategies to cope with text anxiety, like a lemon squeeze, fidgeting with a pencil, positive self-talk, and so on.
In my opinion, teaching to the test may produce higher test scores, but what are we really teaching our kids? Your value as a student depends upon the score you get from the computer that will process the bubbles you filled in. Even if you can't read the question, just make a guess, a shot in the dark, and maybe, just maybe, the magical testers will say that you're right. What ever happened to discovery? Exploration? What do the kids WANT to learn about? What is important to them? More and more, standardized testing is the measure of our success. Even our schools get report cards these days. Merit pay? Don't even get me started. I could work one-on-one with a child and raise their scores by 40%. If they started at 20%, even after all of my successful interventions, they're still only at 60%. If the state decides that you need a 65% to pass, that student fails. If that student fails, according to "them," I fail too.
I understand the value of measuring what our students are learning on a statewide scale. I can see that there is value in seeing levels of performance across a student body and how proficiency levels change from year to year. However, I do not understand measuring this two months into the school year and not getting the results back until the last two months of school. How does that inform our teaching? I learn so much more from my students when I have conversations with them, work with them one-on-one, check in at morning meeting or check out circle, or when I play with them at recess. (Gasp! We're not supposed to play with our kids at recess... we are supervisors ONLY. If you ask me, it feels unfair to everyone.) I don't need to measure them on a standardized scale to know what they know. I KNOW who they are as learners. I teach to their strengths and work with them on their weaknesses every day. I anticipate what will be a piece of cake for them and what will be a challenge all day long. That's my job.
Tomorrow, we have an ecological field trip to Olbrich Gardens. I'm not entirely sure what we are doing, but I know that most of my kids will love it. They'll be inquisitive, clever, funny, and respectful. We can take what we learned and apply it to the forest-stream ecosystems we've been studying in science, or the non-fiction animal texts we've been exploring in reading, or the plants and animals we've been seeing outside our classroom window. Making connections and asking questions- THAT is learning. Not anxiously filling in bubbles that determine our worth.
PS. I had the craziest day of my life today. My car didn't start, I took a cab to school, I took my CT's car back to my apartment to meet a tow truck, tow truck was late, I took a cab (late) to campus for seminar, my credit card was declined from the cab, I took the bus back to work, I took a cab back home, I paid the cab driver a double fare. Once I got home, I saw that my fridge had leaked and left a puddle on my kitchen floor. My car is still in the shop so I'll need to find a ride to school tomorrow. This is one of those days when you just need to love the little things. Yesterday, one of my students wrote this on the board:
That's democracy, folks. :)
Love,
Britt
No comments:
Post a Comment