Category Archives: Issues

Assessment, Issues

Tests: Authentic Assessment?

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Should we revisit testing as a means of assessment?

No doubt, students will need to be prepared for college (or, if you teach middle school high school; if you teach elementary school, middle school), and most colleges still using testing as a primary means of assessing students.  After all, when you have a lecture class with 300 students, it is not feasible to use alternative methods of assessment.  Perhaps the biggest argument in favor of keeping tests is to prepare students for the college environment.

I looked over my unit plans, lessons, and assessments this semester, and I realized something interesting.  I have given very few tests.  Most of the tests I have given have been summer reading assessments.  I have relied primarily on the following means of assessment: quizzes, essays, and “authentic assessments.”

My quizzes are typically five-question, short answer quizzes over reading assignments so I can be sure students are doing the reading I have asked them to do.  Students typically do either well or poorly on them based on how well they have read.

Essays are a staple of the English curriculum, but perhaps even more so at my school, with its competitive college preparatory environment and focus on developing writing skills.  My goal has been to assign at least four essays for each class this semester.  I have mostly realized this goal, largely through better planning using UbD to construct units.  I also allowed most of my classes to choose an essay they wrote this semester to revise for a higher grade, as I believe revision and reflection help students see writing as a process.

My “authentic assessments” have come straight from UbD and include crafting a résumé for Beowulf, writing our own Odyssey in order to demonstrate understanding of Homer’s, writing a letter to Arkansas Representative Steve Harrelson regarding his state’s apostrophe dilemma, and creating a comma usage manual for Rogers Communications (that $2 million comma error had to hurt!).

As I indicated in a previous post, I simply ran out of time this semester in order to truly do what I wanted to do with each unit.  I do have fewer minutes per week with my students than I would like — I average 45 minutes per day with each class, which is substantially less than other schools where I’ve worked.  However, what I have learned about the authentic assessments is that they were not only much closer to the kinds of tasks students will be asked to do when they begin their careers than tests.  How many tests have I taken as part of my job?  I can’t think of any.  I did have to take a test to get my certificate.  I had to take another to exempt from a computer skills course required in my state.  No principal has ever asked me to take a test for any reason.  If you take a look at the kinds of tasks I asked students to do to prove to me they internalized the essential questions we were exploring as part of our units this semester, I think you might discover that the tasks were more engaging than the standard test.  The tasks also asked students to think, internalize, apply, analyze, and synthesize information and present it in a unique fashion.  In short, I think they were taxed to think critically on a much higher level in Bloom’s Taxonomy than a standard test would require.

Are tests going anywhere?  I doubt it.  And I do believe that students should know how to take a test and how to study in order to do well in college, but I also think it behooves us as educators to offer them opportunities to demonstrate their learning with authentic assessments that enable students to truly show us what they know and practice working on the kinds of tasks they will be asked to do as part of their careers one day.  At any rate, it’s something to think about.  Though I have had fewer tests in my class this semester, I don’t think my students have learned less or been less challenged.  If anything, they have been more challenged (particularly with regards to writing).  However, I do still plan to give them a final examination.  Still, I think it would be an interesting challenge for all of us to examine what we are accomplishing through tests and ask ourselves if we are really preparing students for life beyond school.

Issues, Teaching Writing, Technology, Wikis

The Best Laid Plans

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Some weeks ago, I shared exciting news that my students were collaborating with a girls’ school in Israel on a joint wiki writing project. Just as we got our wikis off the ground, a teachers’ strike in Israel put our plans on hold. The strike has now lasted more than a month. If it is not resolved before the winter break in about three weeks, the project will be on hold indefinitely as my students will be writing a research paper from January to March.

I know that the teachers I am working with are saddened about this turn of events, and I think we all agree that the timing of our collaboration was unfortunate in light of the strike. However, I think our situation poses an interesting lesson for all of us who are interested in embarking upon global collaboration in our classrooms.

What do we do when the best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft a-gley?

And what does it say about the project that the kids are still chatting through the discussion area of the wiki and friending each other on Facebook even though the project is on hiatus?

Issues

Urban Posters 2

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It looks like UrbanPosters.com shipped my order today, almost exactly three months after I ordered it.  I still have not received feedback regarding the lateness or the multiple e-mails, or the BBB complaint, and I suppose I don’t expect to now, as they will feel they fulfilled their end of the bargain.  I am not satisfied, however, and will still not order from them again.  Three months for posters they said they had in stock is ridiculous.  Amazon does better with out of print materials than that!

Crossposted at Much Madness is Divinest Sense, the Pensieve, and Our Family History.

Issues

UrbanPosters.com

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Consider this post a public service announcement.

Back in mid-August, I ordered two posters from the website poster outfitter UrbanPosters.com. September came and went, and they had not arrived. Furthermore, the company did not respond to numerous e-mails regarding my order. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but the company has yet to respond to that complaint as well. I’m out about $27, which is not a lot, but much more disturbing to me than the fact that I lost money is the fact that the company ignored repeated requests and a BBB complaint. I have rarely received such shoddy customer service anywhere. I would urge you strongly not to do business with this company and to spread the word around.

Crossposted at Much Madness is Divinest Sense, the Pensieve, and Our Family History.

Issues, Technology, Web 2.0

Any True Crime Fans?

I guess fans isn’t the right word, is it? I mean, that sounds kind of like you “like” the fact that crime exists. At any rate, my husband is a true crime writer, and he will be appearing on a special for Court TV — MyCase.com:

The internet provides a startling new look into the mind of a criminal. Profiles are posted on personal web sites, motives revealed in online blogs, and premeditated plans detailed on email. There’s a new type of investigator following the trail: the Cyber-sleuth. They will show us that, online, we are closer than we realize to clues and insight into criminal minds. TV-14

You can learn more about it at his blog.

Issues

The Power of a “High-Five”

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On Tuesday, I participated in a parent/teacher/student conference with one of my tenth graders (I also taught her last year), all of my colleagues who also teach her, and the guidance counselor and learning specialist (in addition to, obviously, the parent). I had recommended that this student read Stephenie Meyer’s novel Twilight, as I thought she would particularly enjoy it. She confessed she didn’t like reading for pleasure much, but with that kind of recommendation, I think she felt compelled to give it a try. She loved it and quickly started in on the sequel. Her mother just wanted to tell me she was so grateful, but what was so moving was that she did it in front of my colleagues. I didn’t really know what to say.

The learning specialist then sent an e-mail to our entire faculty — an e-high-five, if you will. She summarized what happened at the meeting. For the next two days, my colleagues were congratulating me for inspiring the student to read. I felt absolutely great. What a nice way to celebrate our successes — by publicizing that high-five in the way she did, the learning specialist made me feel great for just doing something that I do all the time anyway.

It’s funny to me how doing something I do all the time can have such a huge impact. But that’s what teaching is, and that’s why I love it.

Issues

Green Space in the City

Some of my students made the news today: “Teens take over parking area to make a point” from the AJC.

Two of the students mentioned in the article, Julian and Jonathan, were in my class that did the Brave New World projects.  They haven’t presented their projects yet, but I know that their utopian society is eco-based.  Julian’s mom sent me the article.  Sometimes I think Julian would have been much happier if he had been a teenager in the 1960’s.  They’re great kids!

[tags]ecology, education, students, news, green space[/tags]

Issues

Working with ADD

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ADD permeates my life. My husband and daughter are both ADD, and I frequently teach students who also have ADD. I think I have a higher tolerance for ADD behavior than many people do; I have noticed, for instance, that others frequently seem to be irritated by a student’s behavior while I am scratching my head in wonder at their irritation. In fact, I feel awkward when things in my classroom are too focused or quiet. It has become glaringly obvious to me over the last few weeks just how little tolerance most teachers have for ADD behavior in their classrooms.

ADD, whatever its causes, is a reality of teaching school. How to deal with students who have ADD is the question.

I think perhaps this question is more difficult for elementary school teachers. I have my students for 90 minutes in a day at most. It can be exhausting when several display signs of ADD in just that short period of time, so I imagine it is difficult if the time is stretched out over a whole day. I’m sure its frustrating. I think it’s easy to forget that children with ADD truly have trouble controlling impulses, and it’s easy to blame them for behaviors that they have trouble controlling. And frankly, maybe it’s easy not to like them.

When you’ve worked with a child of your own, struggling because she just can’t seem to please no matter what she does or trying so hard to pay attention but failing, maybe you see things a little differently.

I have a little more patience than a lot of teachers I know, so some of the things that have worked for me might not work for others, but for what it’s worth, I have successfully used the following strategies in working with students who have ADD:

  • I don’t punish for calling out, but sometimes I acknowledge that a certain person has his/her hand up, so I want to call on him/her first, then the child that calls out can have a chance to speak.
  • If a student needs to get up and stand in the back of the room, go to the restroom, or get a drink of water, I let him/her.
  • If a student needs something to play with — a squeezy ball or some other kind of fiddle toy — I let him/her. I do better myself when I have one.
  • If a student is drawing in his or her notes, I don’t assume he/she isn’t paying attention. I doodle in my notes at meetings all the time. It actually helps me focus as I listen to details that I don’t need to write down. I have also been known to doodle while on the phone so I can focus on the conversation.
  • I frequently use a child’s name in lecture or discussion in a non-punitive way. For example, “Did you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald had the last lines of The Great Gatsby engraved on his tomb. Isn’t that interesting, Carol?” or “I don’t now about you, Jake, but I think Mercutio is kind of smart.” The student whose attention is drifting is brought back into the conversation, but not in a way that puts him or her on the spot in a negative way. Most of the time when I do this, they smile at me.
  • I have tapped desks and written sticky notes — “Stop talking” — to students on occasion, too, but those moves are not in the top of my repertoire.

It can be really draining to be surrounded by ADD, but I have found that I like dealing with students who struggle with attention. I prefer working with students who have struggles in general. I guess I like a challenge, or maybe I just like the way it keeps things interesting.

How do you deal with ADD in your classroom?

[tags]add, adhd, classroom, education[/tags]

Issues

The Power of Positive Communication

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Last week, my ninth graders started working on a project associated with their summer reading novel A Lesson Before Dying. One group in particular was really doing a good job, going beyond the links I had given them to find interesting ways in which racism subtly impacts our society. In fact, they learned some things I didn’t know, and I was really excited when they shared it with me. Because I was impressed with their work, I decided to send e-mails to their parents letting them know.

Unfortunately, the positive note home hasn’t been a regular part of my repertoire in some time, and I had forgotten its power. Think about it. Most of the time, the first communication parents receive from teachers is about a problem in class. How great would it be to be approached for the first time by a teacher with a pat on the back for your child? I don’t know about you, but if I ever got such a note from my children’s teachers, I would be on their side immediately. I would be so grateful they took the time to tell me good news that I would support them for the rest of the year. Of course, that’s just my opinion, but maybe it would work like that for other parents, too.

I decided that I need to bring positive notes into my schedule. It takes only a few minutes to send one, but its impact can return many times over. I want to write about two e-mails a week, and I hope that at some point in the year, I can send a positive note about each student.

Teachers don’t have to dig for reasons to send notes home. Every student does something deserving of praise at some point in the year. My only ulterior motive for doing this is that as a parent who frequently hears nothing but bad about my middle daughter, who is in the process for evaluation for ADHD, it would make a world of difference if I felt like her teacher did see she had some good qualities. It’s frustrating to have a bright, funny, loving child who struggles in school and conflicts with teachers. I guess now that I’ve been in those shoes, I know how I’d feel if I ever received a positive note, and I suppose I determined that I would follow the Golden Rule on this one. It isn’t that I expect to hear from my children’s teachers — I probably won’t. But it does make me feel pretty good that I’m trying to do something about my students’ notions that if their parents hear from a teacher, it’s always bad news.

Why don’t you think about making positive communication part of your repertoire, too?

[tags]communication, teaching, education[/tags]

Issues, Technology

Technological Illiteracy

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Karl Fisch wrote a post Tuesday — “Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” — that really, really resonated with me. He was spurred to write it after reading Terry Freedman’s post “Oh, Sir, You are too Kind.”

I am in utter agreement with Karl and Terry. It’s time educators (and everyone else, for that matter) stopped displaying a bizarre sense of pride in their technological illiteracy. Not knowing how to do simple things in MS Word — such as moving between table cells and saving a document, in a scenario Terry describes, is inexcusable. In our society, dependent as it now is on technology, teachers who are incompetent with technology are jeopardizing their students’ success. I am not saying we all need to be at an expert level, but I’ll ask the same question Terry did. What message are teachers who can’t even create and edit a simple Word document sending their students?

It is especially frustrating to me when educators dismiss technology — “Oh, I just don’t know how to do any of that, ha ha!” To plagiarize the same argument Karl and Terry made — would you brag like that about not being able to read? Not being able to read as an adult in our society creates a sense of shame and embarrassment on the part of the non-reader, and a sense of outrage on the part of those who can read. It should not be acceptable in our society to be proud of not knowing something. I won’t go so far as to say that technologically illiterate teachers should feel shame and self-loathing, but they needn’t brag about their lack of knowledge either. There has to be a middle ground. A point at which, say, a teacher realizes his or her incompetence and decides something needs to be done about it — and not just running down the hall to the teacher who does know something about technology. As Karl said, teachers have to make the effort to learn. We accept nothing less from our students.

Teachers have to realize at some point that exhibiting ignorance with this sort of pride is not OK. It is OK not to know something and to try to fix that, and I would hope that most teachers would do so. I don’t know everything. That’s true. At the end of my life, I still won’t know everything. I would hope, however, that when I reach the end of my life, I will never have exhibited pride about being ignorant of anything.

[tags]technological illiteracy, education, technology, teaching[/tags]