As part of our professional development focus on assessment, my colleagues and I were asked to read from our choice of several articles (many of which came from the November 2005 edition of Educational Leadership, which focused on “Assessment to Promote Learning.” One article I found particularly interesting was Tony Winger’s “Grading to Communicate.” If…
Have you ever used Rubistar to create rubrics? I just found out about this site this week. It’s AMAZING! Go check it out. It took me a matter of minutes to create rubrics for a Power Point/oral presentation and a reading journal I want my students to do as they explore the Harlem Renaissance.
I have been looking through Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins’ Understanding by Design: Professional Development Workbook most of the day today. I am working on a unit on the Harlem Renaissance using the ideas behind UbD, and I would appreciate feedback. You can download the unit (one page) in MS Word. I am most concerned…
Our school was fortunate to be involved in a meaningful professional development opportunity led by Jay McTighe today. I think it might revolutionize my teaching. McTighe’s contention is that we as educators think about what objectives we need to assess — state or school standards, for example — then we think of activities. What we…
From the Eugene Register-Guard: For North Eugene High School’s incoming juniors, Advanced Placement English will no longer be the domain of the academic elite.In a bold attempt to boost student success by raising expectations for all, the school is requiring all 260 juniors this fall to take a rigorous, yearlong AP language and composition class….
Will Fitzhugh answers some of the questions raised by College Board vice-president Wayne Camara in his article in Journal of College Admission, Summer 2005. Specifically, why is it that readers for the SAT are instructed to ignore factual errors in essays? Fitzhugh rightly wonders how to “reconcile this with Wayne Camara’s statement that ‘The essay…
The New York Times (free registration, or BugMeNot) reports that even when teachers are enthusiastic about new teaching methods and would prefer to implement them, they feel too much pressure to teach to the test — in this case, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, or MEAP. Becky Karnes, a 16-year veteran high school English teacher…
A poll conducted by Educational Testing Service (ETS) demonstrates Americans’ lack of confidence in their public schools. Some figures, courtesy the Santa Cruz Sentinel: Only 9 percent of Americans believe high school students are being academically challenged by their course work. An overwhelming 76 percent of adults surveyed believe the country will be less competitive…
The Montgomery Advertiser reports that students are increasingly unprepared for college, and many blame standardized tests. It should come as no surprise to any teacher that our nation’s focus on standardized testing is hurting our students’ success in college. Instead of teaching real critical thinking skills and writing, we teach to the test out of…
