Sunday, March 24, 2013

Testing...testing...Ditto Rachel Lynette!

I spent a late night working on a set of multi-step word problems. Yes, it is my spring break, but I have all but decided to discontinue use of my districts adopted textbook. (I just fantasized about moving the stack of textbooks in my storage cabinet to our storage closet when I get back from break). The textbook just isn't engaging and when I use it, I have to send students to so many pages with SO LITTLE practice on the same type of problem that it is futile. I have used it all of 3 times this year I bet, but that's mainly because of the strong love for task cards <3 that I have developed this year.

Yesterday I was reading Rachel Lynette's post about (not) making test prep materials. Rachel says she has quit making task cards specifically for test prepping and I can only applaud her for this tough decision. I personally don't mind testing too much. During 4th quarter, I keep a cool head, prepare questions that look and sound more like the test, and do my best to encourage students. After reading many of the comments on the blog post, I have to be so APPRECIATIVE of my district this year. We have moved away from multiple-choice benchmarks in ELA and Math to open-ended assessments. You know, the kind you might actually design yourself if you had the time and had not been brainwashed by a system of multiple choice (easy to grade) assessment? Our benchmark assessments are created by a team of teachers (not getting paid extra, not trying to make money off of testing kids), not giant test-textbook corporations. And these assessments are constantly going through a revision process so that they will be better next year.

So, Rachel's post put me through a little reflection as my goal was to create some math questions to help my students get ready for the EOG's. Although you can call it test prep, I feel I am really polishing the skills they learned earlier in the year based on Common Core Standards. As "Test the Season" is upon us, my goals remain the same--provide challenging, relevant, fun math work for students. And after years of doing this, I know it comes down to a little bit of skill and a lot of survival strategies.

When I am faced with an EOG problem that makes my eyes go crossed a little (see below):

I can only imagine how my kiddos will feel looking at a problem like this. First of all, too much information, are you trying to trick me into picking 12? (The answer is 15 if I did my math right). This problem catches me off guard a little because I feel like we have been challenging our kids all year with multi-step problems and by creating rigorous unit tests. However, never have we put them in front of 4 hours worth of questions, said "don't ask questions," "don't talk to each other," "don't ask to go to the bathroom unless it's an emergency," and made what feels like almost all of the questions multi-step.

Upon closer look at this set of released questions, one would find that not all of the problems are multi-step, but I think that students will be so stressed by the other problems they will hardly breathe a sigh of relief when they get to the easier questions.

Unless...
                          Unless...
                                                 Unless...
 
Combine Rachel's post with word from my new principal that we shouldn't be "test-prepping" as the year winds down, and here I am. Here's what I believe:

* As the adults in the room we HAVE to prepare our students for the future (in the short-term, that means a test in May). Our parents expect it and our students deserve it.
* As the ones with the most experience, we must unlock the secrets of the test and unveil that for students. We must not allow them to sit in a fog of unpreparedness during the week of testing.
* We do not need to cheer for the test. We do NOT need to call it SURVIVING the test. We DO NEED to constantly mention HARDWORK, PERSEVERANCE, BELIEF IN ONESELF, and remind students of how hard they have worked all year and how much they have grown.
* We can teach (most) test-prep skills in a way that is transferable to many environments. 

In many places, testing~failure~ results in re-testing (sometimes 2 more times before the last two weeks are over). When faced with these unfair consequences, I believe we have to ethically do everything in our power to help our students achieve. This includes teaching with a sense of urgency ALL~YEAR~LONG, maintaining an engaging learning environment, and not betraying out students' trust with DRILL-KILL-SNOOZE as we get closer to the test.

If things were different, some of my beliefs might be different. But, the state of testing is not different yet. So while we "teachers in the trenches" keep fighting for it to change, we have to prepare our students for these tests while maintaining our CORE beliefs.

I also believe there is a time and a place for pencil to paper~packets of practice~work, mainly because of the beast of testing that our society enforces on our students, but that mode of reviewing skills does not have to (or need to) happen every day up until the test. So, it hit me (like it's hit me all year in waves), I need to focus my math word problem sets on themes that are relevant to students. I will try my best to make sure the products I am creating for "test-prep" usage are just as engaging as the products I create and use with my students all year long.

Keeping it relevant and fun, I have worked on word problems with a "School Supply" company theme and am working on word problems related to Washington, DC (so my kiddos can relive memories of our field trip through math problems). Here's a sneak peak at my School Supply MULTI-STEP Word Problem Set that is almost finished! Check back later today for an update and explanation of this product.
 

Clip Art/Image Credits:
Coverpage Purple Chevron Background
by Mrs. Dixon @ Teaching Special Thinkers
www.teachingspecialthinkers.blogspot.com
Silly Frames, Crayon Frames, and School Supply Clip Art by the 3AM Teacher
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-3am-Teacher

 

10 comments:

  1. Tamara,

    I love this post. I love it so much because you are honest and I can't agree with you more. Yes, we would like to see the testing go away and see more of an authentic way of assessing students. But as long as the reality is what it is, we are responsible for prepping kids to be successful, and that means plain ol' paper and pencil test prep.

    I have seen too many students become confused by multiple choice questions that I believe it is a disservice to them not to provide them with plenty of practice opportunities so they can be as successful as possible and not thrown off by those type of problems.

    I wrote a post about testing yesterday you might be interested in checking out. I'm glad I found your blog! I am your newest follower!!

    Kelly
    Koonce’s Korner

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    1. Kelly, thanks for stopping by! Testing is such an emotional topic once we really get into it, and I think a lot of people make comments about it that might not quite understand the realities. (Like principals saying we shouldn't be "test-prepping.") I think mine was envisioning kids doing nothing but drill and kill test-prep every day up until the test, but our test prep follows more of a "Test Talk" approach. In reading, it still looks like reader's workshop, we just analyze the types of questions we will see and talk about what those questions mean in our language, connecting with what we have already learned this year. I never want to feel like I could have done more to help a child be successful and making sure they understand what the test is going to look like is a big part of that.

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  2. What a well-thought out and thought-provoking post! I thought exactly the same thing when I was looking at (and creating) multi-step math problems. Are we really expecting students to be able to solve problem after problem like that? Many seemed above grade level to me.

    I especially like your "What I Believe" Bullet Points. You are so right - we are always cheering or surviving. How overwhelming for our children.

    Will be sure to pass your post along to my followers!

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    1. Hi Rachel, thanks for stopping by! I think you were so brave to write your thoughts about testing. It is such a complicated topic, and like I said, if things were different, I think many of us would behave differently in our approaches, but we also have to deal with the world that our students currently live in. I can only hope things get better for our kids and their future. I was just thinking yesterday about the grand scheme, larger picture all of our testing is forcing us to miss in our curriculums, it's not really important that my students know how to divide fractions, but that they KNOW HOW TO LEARN something new in math in general. With mathematical practices, I am trying to find a balance between both teaching how to learn and teaching the content.

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  3. I am a new teacher in Texas and this testing mania is horrid. I am suppose to teach with depth and rigor, well, hard to do when all I am given to use are test prep workbooks full of worksheets. I just finished reading two excellent books on literacy (authors Kelly Gallager, Chris Tovoni). I put away the worksheets last week and started reading picture books instead. The students are responding and finding all those isolated concepts like theme, foreshadowing, character development etc in a real STORY! Who knew! No one on my team suggested I use real books but they did suggest that I not "waste" time letting my student independently read. They can do that at home. Where is the research in that philosophy? I wish I could sit down with Arne Duncan and ask him where is the merit in all this testing craziness.

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    1. Mrs. M, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you put the worksheets away and turned to picturebooks. We have to make these decisions for our kids. We HAVE to provide a love of reading or they will never care about taking a test. And, we have to encourage a love of reading because that will be everlasting, and testing will not last forever in their lives. One of my biggest hurdles during this time of the year is to convince my kids that the reading test is just like reading their own books (this will be a tough sell this year as our test has been revised and the passages don't look so appealing). Testing should definitely MATCH more of what we do in the classroom, not be a separate beast. That's one blessing for me this year in testing, our common-formative-assessments (district benchmarks) are more like what we do in the classroom.

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  4. I'm teaching grade 1 and 2 in Canada, so our programs are a bit different. Still, similar discussions are ongoing about the best way to teach math, and being mindful that if we shift to our ideals and teach with a more holistic approach (which is my preference) my students may still leave my class and have to operate in other environments.
    In western Canada I've seen a complete removal of the more advanced outcomes from the primary program (money, time) in the efforts to free up more curriculum time to teach basic foundation skills thoroughly and properly. The other topics are picked up later once basic functions are well established. Time will tell if this helps!

    Susanna Westby

    http://WhimsyWorkshop.blogspot.ca

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  5. LOVE this post! I felt the same way when I saw the released items. Where in NC are you? I teach 4th in NC!

    Jess

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  6. Hi Jess, I am in Orange County, how about you? Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm glad some of this post resonated with you. I totally feel like our test quality has gone way down with the new released items, especially on the reading. I won't even get started on that! Thanks for stopping by. I'm headed over to your blog now ;)

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    1. I am in Cumberland County, I teach in Fayetteville. I agree with reading too! I was shocked when we first looked at the released items. Thanks for following...looking forward to sharing great ideas!

      Jess

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