ending on a good note

wow....I can't believe it's been so long since my last post, and I wholeheartedly blame the testing mania that suffocated the last few weeks of school prior to vacation. It's extremely discouraging to waste time on testing methods that are clearly out-dated and provide no valuable information on student learning. I used to hold a more politically correct stance that there is some, limited value in standardized testing, but really, honestly, there is not!

**I promise this post ends on a much more uplifting note!

I was mandated to administer a mid-year math exam to 6 and 7 year olds that was heavily literacy based--ie, if you can't read, you can't do the test independently...and if you are a beginning reader (which most are at this age), it is not appropriate to be expected to use reading as a tool to figure out other problems--the problem beg readers are focused on is reading!!! So I--one human being--had to read directions one by one to almost half the class. Having said that, even my fluent readers did not perform well because the test also included mostly "trick" questions--inappropriate because primates who have only been introduced to new material within a few months prior do not possess a deep enough understanding of the content to think about it flexibly enough to answer "trick" questions. And finally, a word about multi-step directions--it is not developmentally appropriate to expect children at this stage of development to first complete an incomplete chart of data (that has no personal relevance), analyze the data, and then answer three wordy questions about the data. Did I also mention the test included a fill in the bubble for the correct answer question? And that the answer to the question (which was about completing a pattern--circle, triangle, square, circle, triangle, square--the correct answer being circle--so most of them colored in the circle rather than the bubble next to the circle.

So my question is, if we all can at least agree that the validity of information these types of standardized tests is limited, then why are my primates and I forced to sacrifice so much valuable learning time to prepare for, administer, and then correct these tests? And even better, I can look forward to even more wasted time "analyzing" this inaccurate data so it can "inform" my instruction. Give me a break!

OK, testing frustration aside...because there really is nothing I can do about it and probably shouldn't be blasting it so openly, but some truths just cannot be silenced!...I got a lovely e-mail from a primate's mom today. They took a family trip to the American Textile Museum today and got to work on big looms, learn how fabric is made, and the mom also mentioned that her child spoke very eloquently about our weaving project--using vocab learned in class. Really wonderful to hear about this family's interest in our project & how they are extending the learning outside the classroom into the real world. Despite the hopelessness surrounding bus availability (and affordability), I am going to look into a possible trip to the museum with the primates. It would be a wonderful extension of the project--if it doesn't happen, though, I strongly encourage a family trip! I plan on making one with my family!

New Survivor began last week, so I'm taking a break from my obsession with the Winter Olympics (has it been fabulous or what?!) for at least an hour tonight.