Photo Credit: Teacher Planet
This week's post will not include a quote but rather a cartoon that I find amusing. I hope it'll be acceptable.
Chapter 4 was interesting because it talked about standards-based assessments. Just recently, it was mentioned on the Facebook wall of our guidance counselor that she just attended a meeting regarding SAT-10 testing. Oh, boy! We have one week of testing instead of two weeks!
Testing! I had better step on it with my class to get those skills mastered to "teach to the test!" Mastery? Or is it exposure? I am just now reaching out to my ELLs especially one who I find struggling in most subjects. I had to add some more modifications so he is able to keep up with the class.
Here's on example. The Social Studies standards in the 4th grade pertains mostly to Guam History. I try to tie in these standards with our current adopted textbook which has no mention of Guam's history. SAT-10 tests our fourth graders in this subject area that they know the basic or lack of. I believe that Guam history should be taught in middle and high school.
On a positive note, we all want our students to know many things and be able to do things. That's a good thing but does it just stop there with what the standards want them to know or do we go the extra mile and give them more even if it is not on the test?
I know what you mean. I feel that teachers get so many conflicting messages about what they need to do and what students should know. Parents will tell us that they do not want us to teach to the test, but when they research schools they look for ones with high achievement scores, usually related to standardized testing. Administrators tell us that they want us to be creative in our lessons, to engage students, and inspire life-long learners, and then those same people force us to give up class time to teach "testing strategies" and to go over possible questions on the standardized test. Politicians say that teachers should not teach the test, yet many propose legislation that would reward teachers who have students who succeed on standardized tests. It is frustrating everywhere, but I can see that there are some frustrations that are unique to Guam- like the one you mentioned in your entry.
ReplyDeleteI can understand your frustration about the textbook situation. Especially working with ELLs and having in the past working with SPED students. It seems that we are not provided specific textbooks for these two groups of students and we have to basically modify the regular textbooks and use a lot of handouts. If we are lucky enough to receive ELL or SPED specific materials, it is usually only one set and the teachers still have to make copies for all of the students. When I taught SPED, I was stuck using books that were several years old and were collecting dust in the storage room. Some of those students were in the same class year after year, and, with the moving around of teachers, a lot of the students were exposed to the same books year after year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Lucille. We all want our students to learn many things and know how to do things and I believe that standards are just an outline of what the child should know by the end of that grade level. I hope I do not dig my own grave by saying this, occasionally I look at the next grade levels' standards and try to teach my kinder students what I can using certain standards that I can modify to their grade level. I feel like I am introducing them to the subject so that when they get to the next grade they at least have some sort of knowledge of the subject being taught.
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