Where Do We Go From Here?

When I began writing in this blog, my goal was to research the advantages and disadvantages which standardized testing have on students and teachers. I also intended on finding evidence to support whether standardized testing is an ethical way of “placing” students. Lucky for me, I learned much more than expected about both the negative and positive sides of standardized testing. Though my opinion on standardized testing has remained consistent throughout this blog, I was able to find a huge array of evidence to support my position concerning S.T.

Because the state awards scholarship money to college-bound Michigan students, standardized tests such as the MEAP have become slightly beneficial. Other standardized tests such as the ACT still smother students with unnecessary stress. The ACT also causes many students to obsess over their scores, ultimately damaging self-confidence for those students that don’t score as high as their sisters, brothers, or friends.

In addition to the direct negative effects which standardized testing has on students, I also discussed tracking in schools based on race. This pertains directly back to Linda Christensen’s discussion regarding the achievement gap between the African American students and white students achieving successful AP test exams. I have emphasized many times throughout this blog that AP classes can be a very beneficial depending on whether or not a student is intellectually motivated. The tracking system, which doesn’t allow specific individuals into AP classes based on standardized tests scores, is unethical. If a student is told he/she is not smart enough to participate in high-level courses based on their racial standing or score on a given standardized test, it can ultimately lead to the student’s complete disinterest in education all together.

I also discussed teacher versus S.T. expectations regarding student writing. Teachers often have a difficult time preparing students for the writing test on the MEAP, even though the MEAP grades almost solely on grammar, punctuation, spelling, and ability to support main themes in the paper. English teachers have a tough job because they don’t simply deliver information to students, but they have to teach students how to organize thoughts in a way which they can later be transferred to paper. While some teachers require students to write the standard 5-paragraph essay, others encourage students to write creatively. However, some people who grade standardized tests use rubrics which concentrate on looking for a specific type of paper, while other graders look for originality and thought. In reality, standardized writing tests really rely on whether or not the student is lucky enough to get a grader that likes his/her style of paper.

If I do, in fact, become an English teacher some day, I fear that I will be forced to face the inevitable fate that I will end up teaching a curriculum which conforms to the expectations of standardized testing. Especially after I wrote “Standardized tests put standardized students into standardized classes, ultimately shaping them into masses of standard people” (March 1). My biggest goal as a teacher is simply to be original and innovative. I want to find a way to effectively teach students to apprietiate literature while also helping them to earn successful scores on standardized tests. This blog, class + the bright ideas convention have given me some awesome tips, and I can’t wait to put some of them into action!

Putting Bright Ideas, Concepts, and Presentations into Motion

My experience at the Bright ideas conference was beneficial, that is, after I found the Union. I was shooting to catch Jacqueline Woodson’s keynote conversation, but unfortunately I didn’t know the area as well as I thought I did. So I spent tons of time driving around Lansing/Okimos/East Lansing. It’s alright though; when I got to the convention they gave me a name tag with a plastic sleeve which made me feel very cool and important!

The first presentation I attended at 11:00 was “Macbeth: Using Technology to Enhance the Teaching of Shakespeare.” The presenters included Lindsay Steenbergen and Jeff Patterson, both of whom are high school teachers at Portage Public Schools. The presentation was principally concerned with introducing new technology which can be used in the English classroom in order to help students relate to a given piece of literature. The introduction began by explaining the importance of three key concepts in understanding literature:

1. Motivation
Steenbergen and Patterson emphasized the fact that students often find the presentation of Shakespeare to be foreign and impersonal, and therefore are rarely able to hold an interest in it. In order to “facilitate connections between Shakespeare and students of today,” Steenbergen and Patterson suggested encouraging students to embody the literature and make it personal to them.
2. Embodiment
In order to better understand the text, students should be encouraged to “think critically about the character and place the character into real world situations” to which they are accustomed.
3. Textual Intervation
One of the most effective ways for students to understand a text is to rearrange what the author is saying in a way that makes since to him/her. Steenbergen and Patterson placed a great deal of emphasis on the helpfulness of textual intervention.

“The best way to understand how a test works is to change it to play around with it, to intervene in it in some way (large or small), and then try to account for the exact effect of what you have done. In practice- not just in theory- we have the option of making changes at all levels, from the merest nuance of punctuation or intonation to total recasting in terms of genre, time, place, participants, and medium” (Pope).

Source (from presentation): Pope, Rob. Textual Intervention: Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Students.

In order to put these concepts into motion, Steenbergen and Patterson suggested two methods that could be of use. The first was Steenbergen’s 10th grade class’s reenactment of “Macbeth” using video cameras and computer programs. She showed us a few examples of the videos, which were creative, entertaining, and appeared to portray the idea that the students had a decent understanding of the text. In addition to learning the text, students were also given the opportunity to use computer programs such as iMovie and Garageband (which Patterson gave us a short tutorial of) in order to create their videos. Steenbergen described a good method of organizing the creation of these videos in a time period of only 2-3 days:

1. Brainstorming
2. Creation of Script
3. Videotaping (home/school- Most high schools have at least one camera available for checkout in the AV department.)
4. Editing (iMovie, WMP)
5. Optional addition of music (Garageband, Fruit Loop)

Students were able to create some very entertaining adaptations of Macbeth such as “Real World: Scotland Edition,” “The Three Witches Psychic Hotline,” and “Jerry Springer feat. Macbeth.” Steenbergen also mentioned that she required her class to write a paper on Macbeth in order to evaluate students’ individual understanding of the text, the video project was simply a fun and refreshing way for students to gain interest in literature that might otherwise seem foreign to them.

Patterson’s English class is currently in the process of creating a networking bubble for the characters in Macbeth. Instead of using Myspace, Patterson created a Myspace-like template on Microsoft PowerPoint, in which he includes hyperlinks to other Macbeth characters on PowerPoint- ultimately giving it a Myspace-y feel which many students are able to relate to. The only downfall, however, was that the templates didn’t have a space for commenting between characters. Basically, the students could only post pictures and blog. Still effective, but definitely not as fun as using a real Myspace account!

The second session I attended at 1:45 was David and Bethany’s presentation “‘Whose space is it?’ Integrating Social Networking Sites into English Language Arts Instruction.” Like most young students, I am very familiar with Myspace, so I probably would have loved the opportunity to do an activity like this in high school. Unfortunately, most schools (currently) will not allow teachers to utilize Myspace as an educational tool based on the possibility that students may abuse that privilege by using their own personal Myspace pages during school hours. Though there are substitutes for using the actual online networking community, the other methods probably wouldn’t be nearly as effective as actually using Myspace. This is partially because Myspace offers the option to send secret messages between characters in addition to many features which are only featured on Myspace.

The presentation was not only convincing for me, but it seemed as though the individuals around me were responding well to it. I overheard a couple of people talking, one of which said he was the principal of a school. He spoke as though he was entirely convinced by the presentation, and insisted that he would like to allow the use of Myspace in English classes. If this idea could be proposed in a similar fashion to more individuals who dictate the standard methods used for English education, the decision to make Myspace unavailable in schools would probably be reversed. Although Myspace has been the root of danger for a few teenagers, English teachers can require privacy settings for their Myspace accounts, which will ultimately make the assignment 100% safe.

My favorite part of this presentation was Dave’s podcast regarding M.T. Anderson’s book, Feed. Creating audio trailers for books could potentially be a very effective way of advertising for authors and encouraging young readers to take interest in novels. If you haven’t already, you should check out the feed here. It’s really cute and gives great insight into the book, which I really want to read now!

You can also find the Myspace character communities developed by Dave and Bethany at these sites: The Great Gatsby, Feed . Kudos to Dave and Bethany on a job well done!

Lastly, I went to the 3:00 presentation entitled “Mini Lessons from Scratch.” Unfortunately, this particular conference was not of much benefit to me. The description said that the presentation was beneficial for all age groups, but I had a hard time making a connection based on the fact that the presenters related all three lessons to elementary school students.

During the first lesson we read a children’s poem and actively discussed what poetic methods the author used (alliteration, rhyming, etc). The lesson was incredibly rushed, and it seemed as though a great deal of time was wasted throughout because of side-talk and tangents.

The second lesson was on grammar. Basically, we read a portion of Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia, and worked in groups to turn the “informal language” (which was actually Ebonics) into “formal language.” I had a tough time with this particular exercise because I recently wrote a paper for my linguistics class regarding the idea that American society’s rejection of Ebonics in the classroom is actually not entirely ethical.

The last lesson concerned the methods which publishers use to make informative children’s books appealing (Using questions as headlines, colorful/thematic page layouts, intriguing illustrations, and bold-typed key topics within text.)
Unfortunately, this presentation wasn’t as interesting/beneficial as the previous two had been; it was very rushed, and very focused on students in elementary school. On a fun note, however, they gave us these cute little note cards which held the “Recipe for a Great Mini Lesson:”

Ingredients:
- 1 dab of connection
- cup of a single teaching point
- 1 scoop of active involvement
- 1 pinch of a link to taste
Directions
- Stir together.
- Let it marinate.
- Allow time for writers to write 20-30 minutes.
- Follow up with a dallop of share time.

Now that is something, with a little imagination and interpretation, that maybe I can use!

All in all, the Bright Ideas concert was very informative and beneficial. I learned about quite a few new concepts and ways of teaching which I had not considered before. I look forward to attending another conference in the future, but I next time I won’t miss the Keynote!

ACT Obsession + Standardized Writing and Rubrics

According to the Casper Star Tribune Wyoming has passed a new law requiring that all high school juniors take the ACT. In fact, the state dispersed one voucher to each high school junior which will allow him to take the test for free. This could be a positive thing, since the ACT won’t waste anymore of the students’ money, but unfortunately, some Wyoming kids are still obsessed with taking the test a thousand times:

“An ACT college entrance exam score of 26 may be outstanding for some students, but for high school junior Todd Cheney it’s not good enough. The 17-year-old junior at Kelly Walsh High School is hoping to beat his brother’s score of 31 when he uses his state voucher to retake the ACT for free during the June 9 testing. He also plans to continue to take the test as a senior if he doesn’t beat his brother’s score this time.”

My ACT score was lower than my big sister’s score, but I didn’t retake the test. I guess we never had the intelligence feud in my family. Unfortunately, if Cheney can’t get his score above a 31, he is going to have to face the fact that he’s just not as smart as his brother. After all, that is what standardized testing measures, right?

Many students stress out over preparation for the ACT. I recall my parents forcing me to take a three hour prep course. I also recall doing practice problems in a study guide which was the size of a phone book. I never stopped to realize that standardized tests are given to measure a student’s aptitude, not how much information she can cram the week before the test. A few Wyoming girls are cramming for the April 14th test right now. Fortunately, they don’t have to pay any money to waste 3 hours of their lives:

“Erin Lund, 17, and Jordan Merback, 16, both juniors at Kelly Walsh, are also preparing for the test. Lund has been preparing by reading ACT books from the school library, and she took the ACT practice test. She also took the PSAT last year. ‘You can never really be fully prepared for this,’ she said.”

Unfortunately, the voucher doesn’t cover the ACT plus test, which includes the new writing portion of the ACT. Teachers now have to push students into a standard way of writing in addition to a standard way of learning everything else. How are teachers standardizing students’ writing techniques? The answer, according to Alfie Kohn is the common classroom occurrence of rubrics. Teachers often give their students a rubric as a guideline for their papers. However, rubrics can severely limit a student’s quality of writing based on how detailed that rubric is.

“Mindy Nathan, a Michigan teacher and former school board member… realized that students presumably have grown accustomed to rubrics in other classes, and now seemed ‘unable to function unless every required item is spelled out for them in a grid and assigned point value’” (Kohn 13).

If that isn’t harmful enough to the student’s education in writing, Nathan also said that the rubrics ultimately cause students to “not have confidence in their thinking and writing skills and seem unwilling to really take risks” (Kohn 13). I suppose if standardized writing tests become more common among high school students, we are probably going to see an increase of rubrics, which ultimately guide students to write standard papers that will all sound alike. In actuality, the situation can be simplified with a claim made in Kohn’s article by writer Marilyn French:

“‘Only extraordinary education is concerned with learning’ whereas ‘most is concerned with achieving: and for young minds these two are very nearly opposites’” (Kohn 14).

Sources:
Casper Star Tribune – “Students use vouchers to take ACT for free”

Kohn, Alfie, “The Trouble with Rubrics”, English Journal, March 2006, VOl. 95(4), pp 12-15 Read the PDF File

Do You Know Your Punctuation (insert question mark here)

You’re a high school English teacher, inevitably getting kids ready for the standardized writing tests they are about to take. A reporter approaches you outside the school building and asks: “What is the most important thing in writing effectively?” Obviously, I’m not a teacher yet, but I could probably envision myself saying something like “syntax,” “overall organization,” or “imagination.” However, I would be in for a rude awakening because apparently, high-schoolers are having a really tough time figuring out how to use punctuation.

According to an article by the East Bay Daily News, recent statistics show that “less than 60 percent of incoming freshman [at Diablo Valley College] tested at remedial levels in English.” Now, colleges are running development writing courses which are designed to help these students catch up. The report also shows, what I think is a very strange response regarding the most important thing about writing effectively:

“College instructors ranked punctuating the end of a sentence correctly as the 2nd most important thing in writing effectively. High school teachers ranked that skill as the 31st most important thing.”

I always figured that students mastered the art of punctuation in elementary school. But apparently, this isn’t just a freak incident which took place at DVC. In fact, most colleges look for very different skills than those which high school instructors are teaching students:

“Teachers at all levels value organized, coherent writing from their students. But college professors more often rated punctuation as paramount, the study says, while high school teachers placed more importance on developing a topic and writing a great introductory paragraph.”

Personally, I had a different experience regarding high school writing versus college writing. College writing has never been particularly focused on the grammatical issues within my papers. In college, content is key. Now, many schools are taking a different approach to improve the weaknesses of freshman college students:

“Professor Alison Warriner of Cal State East Bay serves on a state task force to improve writing at the high school level. In 2005, state superintendent of public schools Jack O’Connell created a council to foster relationships between educators at the preschool, K-12 and college levels.”

So how do standardized writing tests help this issue? One might assume that skills obtained in high school are ones which ready students for standardized tests, and standardized tests play a large role in admission to college. Therefore, in a perfect world, a student who passes a standardized writing test should be ready for college writing as long as she knows how to use her semi-colons and commas. Too bad this isn’t the case.

The actual study which was reported by the Contra Costa Times can be found here.

Sources:
East Bay Daily News - Study: “High school, college learning divide continues”

Contra Costa Times – “High school instruction, college needs unmatched”