Thoughts on Assessment

       

            With its focus on assessment, last week’s class and assignment was a real eye opener to the realities of making an objective test.  I personally have never made a multiple choice test before this assignment, and now I clearly understand the difficulty involved in making a good one.  Last year in my Ed Psych course there was a segment on assessment and some students made up very poorly written multiple choice tests.  I say that because I have always believed a test is unfair when given choices that hinge on one word.  After spending hours trying to come up with good, solid, fair questions; I understand why the students simply used very similar choices.  However, this is beside the point of the larger issue.  Is an objective test fair?  I believe they can be and sometimes they are necessary to check student reading.  I have always believed that a reading quiz should be easy for a student who has read the material.  Since experiencing the time involved in making a good objective test, I do think that time would be better spent on planning assessments that are not based on “shallow” learning and simply memorizing soon-to-be-forgotten facts.

            This brings me to authentic assessment.  On hindsight, I think I went about it all wrong.  I drew up a persuasive essay assignment based on student’s interpretations of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” first.  Then I did the rubric.  It was drawing up the rubric that forced me to go back to the essay assignment and clarify my directions.   At least I hope I was clarifying, by that point, I was starting to feel like everything was a muddle.  Finishing the rubric was a satisfying feeling because if I would choose to use the same assignment, I can return to it.  But much more importantly, it can be used to give to students ahead of the test.   In that way they know exactly what they are going to be graded on.   

            Overall, I think Smagorinsky hits the nail on the head when he writes about “extended definition” (78).  I like his focus on learning as a process that develops and how focusing on a theme allows for students to learn through writing both reflectively and through various genres.  This is where the rubric becomes very important for providing the format for clarity and what we expect of the students and then how we teach it.  Learning complex and abstract concepts happens as a process and I think we as teachers need to be clear in a rubric in what our expectations are and clearly demonstrate to the students how we plan to get there.  Writing a rubric feels painful, but is really useful for bringing out weaknesses in directions for an assessment and/or when expectations aren’t clear to the students.  And finally, I think well thought out assessment practices provide the means to have a class that does not focus on grades, and that ultimately is the basis of a good class where true learning can take place.

           

Remain Optimistic Despite Readicide!

Kelly Gallagher’s book is thought provoking.  Skimming quickly through the first chapter,   I had the initial thought “wow, this guy is fairly pessimistic.”  However, on looking more closely at the text, I re-read and went to his introduction to the book.  In his introduction Gallagher changed my initial impression.  His focus is for educators to take a hard look at what lies behind students’ lack of reading.  Rather than focus on the usual factors of things such as poverty, T.V., and lack of parental-involvement to address why he teaches.  He writes, “Why have I remained optimistic?  Because school is where I have the opportunity to discuss books with my students.  At school, students are given both time and a place to read interesting books” (4).  Gallagher’s use of the word opportunity and school really jumped out to me as an important connection.  School is an opportunity for students, and I think that is too often forgotten.  Gallagher exposes many of the pitfalls of NCLB and the negative consequences of high-stakes testing, which I think has caused more disillusionment and pessimism toward formal education.  In turn, I am more interested than ever in seeing what does happen in 2014.  As more and more schools do not meet proficiency, what will be the political consequence?  As pre-service teachers familiar with current best-practices, will we see dynamic changes in teaching approaches?  What will happen in government spending for school districts?   There is no doubt that it is an exciting time to be in the field of education and that it challenges me to remain optimistic and look for the good in the current educational (and political) environment.

            At the end of chapter one, Gallagher noted a study of schools by Judith Langer.  He writes that “Langer found that schools exhibit three distinct instructional approaches, patterns she named (1) separated, (2) simulated, and (3) integrated” (25).  Without doing a fine-toothed recap of all Gallagher’s points, I thought it significant that he found Langer’s research significant that the schools that vary instruction the most perform the best.  This is significant to me because if reinforces the importance of varying instruction.  Instruction that falls in a steady routine and focuses too narrowly on teaching to a test and “shallow” learning not only deadens the both students and teachers, but also fails more students.  No one student learns the same, and to ensure student success it is vitally important they read as much as possible and are given the most opportunity to read.

            Gallagher’s “Endangered Minds” brings out more important challenges for teachers.  His important points about the classrooms challenge a teacher to learn to know both the students as well as to find some understanding of their prior knowledge.  Given the increased number of ELLs students and diverse students, it is really important to become knowledgeable about students’ prior knowledge.  For me, the most important takeaway from Gallagher’s second chapter are his points about becoming an advocate or “discussion director” for your school.  I like this because it is a proactive approach that other teachers and administrators will know what is important to you as an English teacher.  I also really like his ideas for “article of the day” and his points about a book flood and fighting against summer reading loss.  These points all challenge a new teacher to work toward becoming involved, knowing our students, and promoting reading.  Gallagher’s points about reading across the subject areas are challenging because it emphasizes how little reading is done in a school day and the work that is cut out for us as English teachers.

            As far as final thoughts go, I think if we accept Gallagher’s challenge to make “expert readers” of our students, we will become expert teachers because it will require that we do our utmost to work against knowledge loss and reading loss that Gallagher emphasizes.  Also, I can say that during my level I observations I was in two different schools that have SSR classes.  I distinctly remember how impressed I was by the way the students engaged in their reading.  There still is reason to be optimistic.