I do not believe in the graduation tests. There has to be other ways that can determine students progress. An idea I had was students should take "exit" exams in all classes each year that are designed around what was learned that year based around the standards/benchmarks. If the student doesn't pass then they can try again next year. The set-up of the OGT is not a good assessment because if it is used as a graduation test, why is it given in tenth grade? Too much pressure was put on the students at Firestone to pass the ridiculous OGT; therefore, class time was spend worrying about prep work. I feel students loose a year of school because of the OGT.
Jago is right about testing. She does not want to waste her time testing students with multiple-choice questions, character matching, or true/false questions. These types of tests do not measure what students have learned. With literature, I believe in essays or creative projects, specifically essays when it comes to evaluation. I would not shy away from group projects, yet I would have students have the choice of working in groups or solo. Depending on the project, sometimes I would rather work alone.
Relating literature to the students' life may be challenging, but sometimes it can help them draw inferences better. The example about the election was good because it was transformed into a persuasive essay. I like ideas that can be used for multiple purposes (it saves time).
I think Jago incorporated the quote by Evangelista to show that there is more to teaching than just the aspect of wanting to teach. I may be wrong, but I got the idea that her job as a pageant queen wouldn't seem as intense as trying to meet the needs of every student in her classroom. If students want to graduate, then they need a caring teacher that is willing to work with them, so they can move on in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that way too much time is spent on test prep. I said in one of my previous blog posts that great lessons should be all the test prep a student needs. After all, if we aren't teaching them what they need to know for important tests, then what are we teaching them?
ReplyDeleteIf the information on the tests is different than the standards we go by, then why are they important?
There was way too much time spent on standardized testing. Standardized testing is so overrated and there needs to be a new way to test students to see if they are ready to graduate.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cynthia, the lessons should be created in order to prep students for the OGTs.
ReplyDeleteI also like incorporating more writing and/or creative assignments to gauge student learning. I also think these assignments create more engaged learners.
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