Nearly twenty years ago Peter Elbow talked about the need for deviation in requirements. Not only in the requirements themselves, but how the goals are assessed. This week on NCTE I saw a link and thought it may have been a joke, but perhaps it was a sign. "Bridging Standardized Tests and Writing Instruction" is the name of the article. The great thing about being a teacher of the English language primarily at the high school level is the ability to be flexible and to create a curriculum that is highly adaptive to the students needs. Each and every student that we come into contact with will have a different approach to reading, and writing, and learning in general. The thought of teaching to a test breaks my progressivist heart. There are challenging ways to pursue enlightenment and heaven and hell forbid if they might actually be fun or interesting. Students need to be pushed but they don't have to be dragged through the mud. The more a student reads and enjoys to read the more idiosyncrasies of language and construction will be picked up on. I enjoyed hearing that there is a school of thought that there should be an assessment on the assessors as they should be judged on approximately how much of there teaching style and lessons is a derivative of the almighty test. Even though Elbow speaks in elevated diction in an attempt to make us all read up to his level, I can still deal with him enough to agree that there needs to be changes made to the goals and testing of the student today.
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2 comments:
I agree completely, teaching to the test is taking away from the teaching experience itself for both the teacher and the students, and where is the reasoning that says we as teachers can't make the learning process an enjoyable one?
The high school levels should not be as focused on the state tests as they are on developing the basic skills that the students will be using for the rest of their adult lives, but unfortunately it seems to be the other way around, at least here in New York state. As one of the very few states that still encourage Regents Exams and the subsequent mayhem that comes in the aftermath (awful scores, missed content, incorrect content, etc.) how can they put such high stock in the results?
In agreement with Carissa, I also feel teaching to the test is fundamentally wrong; however, I do not feel assessment and nationwide standards should be discarded.
Standardized tests focus on content that should be known by all students. Other than the form of the test, such as essay, multiple choice, etc. students should have little difficulty if they have been correctly taught all the areas of content they need to know.
Despite the need for assessment and standards, I do feel the tests are being weighed too heavily and put unwarranted strain on teachers, students, and the administration. High stakes testing has unfortunately led many to teachers to focus on passing test scores rather than skill improvement and content knowledge.
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