Click, scroll, click. These are the sounds that fill a quiet classroom as students complete state assessments. We are all familiar with the state assessments and how stressful they can be as teachers struggle to help the building make AYP. It is important to help prepare students for these tests, because they will suffer from failing scores later on in their schooling career.
But is there a time when too much emphasis has been placed on the state tests? What if students pass the assessments? Does that mean that students are ready for the next level? What is being left out of students’ educations to ensure that they pass those ever important state assessments? These are just some thoughts I have considered over the last few weeks as state assessments have begun in my building.
Last week we read Burke’s article “Teaching English in a ‘Flat’ World”, and I felt that some valid points were made. In the article, Burke pushes for teachers to move beyond tradition. This does not mean he wants to abandon tradition, rather he is asking teachers to include what is traditional but to not limit themselves to just that.
What does this look like? Well, Burke has many ideas on what to do. I will sum it up with this statement. As teachers we must look beyond the end of the year or then next year. We must take into consideration the future years of our students. Even if they do not plan on going to college, there are skills that our students need to be successful in any career. As teachers it can be hard to look beyond the year we are teaching. After all, our goals are set (either by us or our schools) to help move students forward in the next year.
What if Shakespeare, Cummings, and Wadsworth are not state assessed poets? Does that mean one should leave them out, even if introducing eighth grade students to these poets will serve them better in the future? My CT felt that this information along with several other pieces of my poetry unit were crucial to introduce our students to. It was my CT’s theory that it was better to prepare our students for their long term futures than just their short term futures.
This may seem like some to be an obvious conclusion to come to. Burke’s article suggests that this is not always the case. Having an introduction to classical and modern poets will help my students in the future. Those students with even a small background knowledge of Shakespeare are more likely to be successful in reading his works later.
Of course, this is not exactly what Burke was discussing. But he was trying to point teachers in a direction that takes them away from just teaching to THE test. I know that I am not alone in this belief, but I also know that there are teachers on the other side of the fence. Some of them wonder why they should bother to teach material that is not on the test. It makes sense, it really does. But let me ask you this, does the state assessment (the way it is now) test whether students are “collaborators and orchestrators, synthesizers, explainers, leveragers, adapters, green people, personalizers, and localizers” as Burke discusses? The simple answer is no. The state assessment cannot test how students work together through multiple choice tests, but I think we would all agree that working well with others is a skill required in all professions.
How do you find a balance between state assessments, content knowledge, and life skills? How do we as teachers make sure students have a foundation, walls, and a roof for the future? I think it is by following Jim Burke’s advice and moving beyond tradition. Maybe some of you have other ideas to add to this or have comments on my ideas.
