Normally, When I start to write this blog I read the chapter and try to pick out three different things in the chapter that stood out to me. This time, as I read chapter 4, I noticed the there was only one thing that really truly stood out to me. And that was the section titled Assessing and Evaluating Students.
In this section, it is stated that there are three factors that influence teachers on assessment. The first of which is personal experiences. The text book goes on to say that new teachers tend to teach in the way that they were taught. So if you were taught by lectures, you will tend to lecture to your students. I think this is why it's good to take classes like Introduction To Teaching Profession, Introduction To Technology For Teachers, and Introduction To Diversity For Educators. They teach us different ways to teach. They open us up to new options that we wouldn't other wise have. It's important for us to see other ways to teach. I am not exactly for or against Common Core. I see somethings that don't really make me happy with it. However, one thing that I agree with is that everyone learns differently. It's important not to just stick with one method of teaching, because most classes don't learn in only one method.
The second factor is standardized testing. There's been a lot of stuff here recently about standardized testing in the news. First of all, Lee county made historical news in being the first and only county in Florida that opted out of standardized testing. Again, I am on the fence about standardized testing. On one hand I believe that there should be some form of exit exam. Most states have one. However, I think Florida pushes to hard for their test. As any Floridian knows, FCAT is a major part of schools. This one test has the power not only to not allow a student to pass high school, but also has the power to cost teachers their jobs. I graduated high school in 2005. I started high school in Florida in 2003 after I moved from Alabama. FCAT was brand new to me and I took my first FCAT exam when I was a sophomore in high school. My brother got very ill that year. We almost lost him. At one point we thought he had a stroke. All of this happened during FCAT week. Being a student for the first time in Florida, I didn't realize how important FCAT really was. I "Christmas Treed" the test just so I could go back to the hospital to see my brother. The next year I realized how important it was and really tried at it. Unfortunately, I didn't pass. I missed the math by about 4 questions, and the reading by about 2. My senior year I passed the FCAT. It took me three years, but I finally made it. Three years later, the school I attended had gotten and F (for about the 5 year in a row) and they got a new principal. The new principal fired 27 teachers. That's when I realized that this test was crazy. I believe very much, that this is a major factor in a teacher's lesson plan and assessment. If not they could duly pay the price.
The last thing that was mentioned as a factor was teacher test. As a future teacher, I know there are test that we have to take such as the General Knowledge Test, the CLAST, and any subject area exams that is required. Many teachers believe that this way is the exact way to teach their students. There could be some things a person can take from this test, but to make assessments from this solely isn't the best idea. Like I said before, best to mix in ideas instead of keeping with one.
Like I said in the beginning of this post, I tend to read throughout the whole chapter and figure out what three seperate things in the chapter spoke to me. But this whole section spoke to me and I felt I had something to say about everything in this section. I am also curious to know how you feel about these subjects (Professor Coleman).
Reference:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and
Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies.
2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Unfortunately, you read the wrong chapter for this blog post as we are on Chapter 5 (yes, we skip around in the book to better match the module content and applicable assignment!). This week was Chap 5, but you can get yourself back on track and do the aligned Chapter for this week's module (7, I believe) and then do Chap 5 in place of 4 since you have already done (hope that makes sense?).
ReplyDeleteWe will cover this more in another month or so when you develop a collaborative lesson plan with a few of your classmates. That said, I will agree with most of your comments. We (globally and generally, in education) tend to swing to the extremes on the pendulum instead of trying to find that balance. We (as human beings) often react to all sorts of things without doing a true analysis of the pros and cons and/or of critically thinking about the consequences, etc. We are in the midst of a national debate about assessment and where it will lead will be interesting to follow, but it is good to see the conversation about it rather than just accepting the 'extreme' as the right way to educate!
Interesting AudioBoo - can't wait for you to create your own!! :)