Monday
February 18, 2013
How do I assess students for *understanding* rather than memorization?
As I look back at my time in high school, I feel that a lot of my teachers made the mistake of thinking that because I had memorized the material, I had truly learned it. However, once done with the unit and test, the material became a distanced hazed; disappearing almost as fast as my cramming the night before had allowed it to come. I was in advanced classes and did well in them all, but I realized that I wasn't really learning anything. I couldn't apply what I was doing to real life situations. It was not until college when I learned how to study to learn and not study to memorize.
So, as I get closer to my own secondary classroom, I want to learn more ways to incorporate knowledge and understanding into my assessments. Not just ways in which the students have memorized the information to pick choice a, b, c or d on the multiple choice test. Chapter 4 discusses both formal and informal types of assessments that can be implicated in a classroom in order to determine what students have or have not learned. In regards to formal assessment, the books talks about standardized tests for your class. Here is where my interest peaked. How do I make a standardized tests that enables my students to show there full understanding of a topic. Multiple choice? True or False? A student could have a lucky guessing streak and have a high chance of at least getting a C. When I was in high school, I simply memorized the main points of each lecture and apply those memories during the test hour. Once done, those memories faded away and I continued on with my day to day life. What is the perfect test? Quite a loaded question, I'm aware, but I digress.
I believe the problem of coverage focused learning occurs when students begin to teach toward standardized tests that they are held accountable for. At what point are teachers giving the chance to truly teach so that their students will learn and excel; using that knowledge outside of school and in college? Chapter 4 discusses the penalizing of teachers who do not reach a certain passing rate for their students on the test. Unfortunately, these tests do not necessarily say if students understand the work or not. These tests, again, call for memorization of facts for the subjects of math, science, reading and writing. For the students without the best of memories, they are stuck with remedial classes and failing test grades.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Literacy Matters; Writing in Content Areas
Reader Response Number One
Content Area Reading/Writing: Chapter One
In Chapter one of Content Area Writing (CAW), authors Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman and Nancy Steineke bring to light the known idea that students are writing more than ever before in this Millennia. Students are creating websites such as their personal pages on Facebook and Myspace, creative writing blogs and text messages; all of which they use to express themselves in ways that they cannot do in any other way. However, the book speaks of a "writing crisis", in which students are not focusing enough on academic writing that will help them achieve professional goals in the future.
When reading this alongside chapter one in Content Area Reading (CAR), I was amazed at how relatable both chapters were to each other. Chapter one of Content Area Reading focused on the need for teachers to create active and engaging lessons that incorporate both reading and writing in ways that students can explore and enjoy. When comparing this to the other chapter in Content Area Writing, I found that the way to get to students to bring in their outside enjoyment of writing is to engage them in unique concepts that will allow them to express themselves in that same way academically.
In the end, students just want to be able to relate to the work that they are doing. They also WANT to learn. They crave knowledge in a way that interest them. As a teacher, it is our job to find intriguing ways to do just that. Content Area Writing speaks about writing being "part of a better life", and makes the claim that being able to "bring words to life on paper" makes someone simply feel better and acts as a release. By providing different ways to create this outlet within the classroom, not only will the students overall writing improve, but they will enjoy academic writing much more.
Of course, simply stating all of these facts is much easier typed and said than done. There are different things that come into affect within the classroom that may affect what we as teachers can go over or include in our curriculum. More and more it seems that we are teaching towards a standardized test that allows little to no room for engaging activities. CAW speaks of the different standardized tests that call for more writing instruction in order to improve the writing scores on these tests. However, there simply isn't enough time in a day! Teachers have a curriculum full of different things they must do in order to meet the required standards for their students. When do they find the time to teach towards these tests? Also, these tests do not truly tell us if a student can write or not. When they present prejudice and imperfect tests (as stated in the book), they receive imperfect answers. This is a true problem when thinking about improvement in ones classroom.
When reading this alongside chapter one in Content Area Reading (CAR), I was amazed at how relatable both chapters were to each other. Chapter one of Content Area Reading focused on the need for teachers to create active and engaging lessons that incorporate both reading and writing in ways that students can explore and enjoy. When comparing this to the other chapter in Content Area Writing, I found that the way to get to students to bring in their outside enjoyment of writing is to engage them in unique concepts that will allow them to express themselves in that same way academically.
In the end, students just want to be able to relate to the work that they are doing. They also WANT to learn. They crave knowledge in a way that interest them. As a teacher, it is our job to find intriguing ways to do just that. Content Area Writing speaks about writing being "part of a better life", and makes the claim that being able to "bring words to life on paper" makes someone simply feel better and acts as a release. By providing different ways to create this outlet within the classroom, not only will the students overall writing improve, but they will enjoy academic writing much more.
Of course, simply stating all of these facts is much easier typed and said than done. There are different things that come into affect within the classroom that may affect what we as teachers can go over or include in our curriculum. More and more it seems that we are teaching towards a standardized test that allows little to no room for engaging activities. CAW speaks of the different standardized tests that call for more writing instruction in order to improve the writing scores on these tests. However, there simply isn't enough time in a day! Teachers have a curriculum full of different things they must do in order to meet the required standards for their students. When do they find the time to teach towards these tests? Also, these tests do not truly tell us if a student can write or not. When they present prejudice and imperfect tests (as stated in the book), they receive imperfect answers. This is a true problem when thinking about improvement in ones classroom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)