I like the way Sir Ken Robinson talks about education and
learning being “organic” (Robinson, TED Talk, 2013). I know that to some extent, all teachers in a grade
level should strife to “be on the same page” so to speak while teaching
throughout the school year. However, with diverse student population, there has
to be some wiggle room for lagging behind or moving ahead a day or two compared
to your team members. In an ELL classroom in particular, there are days when
vocabulary in any of our 5 core subjects is more challenging than others. This
idea of organic education is even more interesting when he discusses standardized testing. There is a
place for standardized testing, Robinson (2013) says, but it shouldn’t dictate
teaching. We recently benchmarked in our district. It is amazing how dependent some teachers are in the results returned via scanned answer documents, rather than reading through the test and hand grading so that they can have a better understanding of what students missed. Better still, begin to determine or try to understand why they chose a particular incorrect answer. I find the incorrect responses to provide more valuable information than the correct ones. We want to be data driven, and I see a place for it, but it is
my belief that we can’t fix or improve the data outcome if we don’t know what
to tackle. As Apple states, I am not "opposed in principle to the idea or activity of testing," (Apple, p.24). I am realistic in knowing that there will always be some kind of testing accountability. Why, I was a 10th grader in Brownsville, Texas (Hoff, 1999) once upon a time, way before TAAS. I found it interesting that both Hoff (1999) and Sleeter and Stillman (p.32) talked about alignment when it came to standardized testing and textbooks. "Alignment" is certainly a buzz word that I have heard more than once when it comes to textbook adoption and test prep material. I have talked before about being on district textbook adoption committees, and I am currently tagged for our Science textbook adoption (thank goodness because the textbook we have now has been around for over 12 years!). Each textbook company presents their aligned curriculum, but what I realized in the last go-round, and going back to Amanda's Theme 5 introduction post, is that Pearson is the publisher for them all. So. Why put a textbook committee through the process of choosing an aligned textbook if the money is going to the same place no matter which we choose? Hoff also states "that test writers need to do little more than revise off-the-shelf products to satisfy the needs of states" (1999). If the test writers are not completely rewriting their tests, I suppose textbook writers can follow suit. Although I will say, the last two Texas standardized test remakes have been drastically different from the one before.
I believe that a national curriculum and therefore testing
could be appropriate in subject areas mathematics and science. Areas with
concrete conclusions, although I’m certain some would argue that point about
science. Social Studies could stand to be a national curriculum if it were
presented fairly across the board, but there are too many variables including
home state indoctrination. Does every state do this in the 4th and 7th grades, or is it just Texas? But I have to agree with Apple’s statement that
while “…the proponents of a national curriculum may see it as a means to create
social cohesion and…to improve our schools by measuring them against “objective”
criteria, the effects will be the opposite” (Apple, p.32). I see this happening
within our district where we surely have the same curriculum as the other11 elementary schools. Yet, with the socioeconomic differences within our city limits, test results, such as the benchmarking we did last week, come back presenting huge gaps in student achievement "...given existing differences in resources and in class..." (Apple, p.32) between schools. If we see it within a district, it must be amplified ten-fold across the country.
I like your commentary on the “wiggle room” for not all teachers being on the exact same thing at the exact same time. All students learn at different paces and your students might spend more time on one concept, but less time on another. The opposite could happen in the classroom across the hall. I am also so confused about administrators, curriculum writers, etc. when they create the pacing guides and they lay out expectations that teachers follow them to a t. They have to know that is not realistic. They have to realize that nothing is going to be followed to a t all the time with thirty plus children in a room. That is why I think all the people who make these decisions about education, whether it be principal, superintendents, or policy makers, should have to have been a classroom teacher before. Being a classroom teacher gives you the perspective you need to make decisions that directly affect the classroom. If you have had the experience, you will truly think about what you are asking a teacher to do. I honestly think that if all these decision makers had taught before, it would make the decisions a) more meaningful and b) more doable for the teachers to implement and follow. I know before I had my first classroom and I was just an education student, I had so many thoughts about things I thought I was going to be able to do and then reality hit when I entered my first classroom of forty-five students. I think that is a similar process these decision makers go through. They think it will be so simple and all teachers can do it, but if they had stood in front of a classroom before, they would know what in reality can be done and what cannot.
ReplyDeleteJust as you agreed with Sir Ken Robinson when he stated that learning should be “organic” (Robinson, TED Talk, 2013), so do I. This is an interesting point to discuss because, as you mentioned, teachers who are teaching the same grade level at the same school should have some commonality in what they are teaching and when they are teaching it. My Kindergarten colleagues and I meet on a weekly basis to discuss what unit we are on and what unit we will teach next. However, the most interesting part of our discussion is when we share the order in which we teach our literacy instruction, since we all have different beliefs as to what skills should be taught first. “Wiggle room,” as you refer to it, is certainly acceptable.
ReplyDeleteYou shared that you have a diverse population of students. I also work in a school district with a diverse population and I believe that the large amount of ELL students I have in my classroom do, at times, affect how quickly we can proceed through curriculum topics. Before moving on to the next math unit, for example, I want to be sure that the majority of - it not all of - my students fully understand the material.
Lastly, as you mentioned there is certainly a place for testing and I wholeheartedly agree with you that testing should not dictate our teaching. I know from experience I learn just as much, if not more, about my students' knowledge from informal assessments I conduct in the classroom than from standardized test results.
Lupita,
ReplyDeleteSo, does "being on the same page" mean being on THE SAME PAGE, literally? In lots of places it does. But what does that do to teacher agency and creativity? Sounds a lot like the moves towards deprofessionalization that we read about. But, why do you think all of this is happening? Do you think it has to do with Apple's (and Sleeter & Stillman's) conversation about power dynamics and maintenance of social stratification? Does it have to do with profit…for Pearson and others?
I also wondered, as I read your post, what is driving this need for "data"? What is the data for? Or, perhaps more pointedly, WHO is the data for? Is it used to really help kids that need help? Doesn't seem like it. Doesn't seem like it helps teachers. Curiouser and curiouser.
I loved your comment about learning more about your students from their wrong answers than from their right answers. Don't we all, generally, learn a whole lot (maybe the most?) from our mistakes? When did it become the worst thing in the world for a student to do something the wrong way on the path to doing it the right way?
Best,
amanda