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Joshua Flores Dr. Angelotti EDEN 5233 11/24/2009
GUILTY!
This is my third year teaching and I still make mistakes, but this experience troubles me. I had failed Brandi as a teacher. She didn't learn, except for a lesson on the benefits of gambling. Rather than a standardized test, if I had instead required her to simply produce a drawing of what occurs in the story, Brandi would have learned more. But she wasn't asked to be creative, only to make "educated" guesses and fill in bubbles. As it was explained to me, our drawings and art based project in class are “Very impressive but we should ask ourselves ‘does such a project efficiently measure what a student has learned and merit the class time spent?’” This was the challenge issued to me last year and I did not know how to reply. Over the course of the semester, we have read a variety of reasons that have led me to believe creativity in the classroom is a better measurement of intelligence and more effective way to foster autonomous learners – possibly our only hope to save the Education system. After all, I became a strong reader by applying verbal and visual skills to my reading.
Who Will Save Education?
PROLOGUE: Brandi is a ninth grader in my College Prep English I class. She is a cowgirl. She can do more push-ups than the boys on the ninth grade football team and is proud to be an athletic trainer’s aide. The upper classmen football players bestowed her with the nickname ''Freshy” and treat her like a little sister – much kinder than their typical treatment of lower classmen. Brandi speaks softly like a rabbit from a Disney cartoon. She likes to talk and will talk nonstop if you don’t intervene. She’s on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), but is the hardest working student in class. She'll give-up her lunch period to finish assignments or come to school early to ask questions. She's a wonderful student. If you walk into my classroom you’ll notice a lot more multiple choice tests taking place this year. Someone believes the best way to measure what a student has learned is to administer short multiple choice quizzes over the course of a lesson. Thus, each lesson begins with a pretest, mid-unit test, and post-test. Between each test, students take a weekly comprehension quiz over the week’s reading. In case that isn’t enough, my principal issues a four question formative assessment quiz every quarter. The grades from this assessment are recorded and turned in to the administrators. Before the first report cards went out we’ve also taken time to administer CogATs, PSATs, and a Beginning of Year Benchmark tests - all multiple choice exams with no writing involved. Brandi had missed a day of school and had not read Julia Alvarez’s short story "Liberty". She returned on our usual quiz day, Friday, and took the quiz. Brandi: “Um, Mr. Flo, I got a hundred on the test.” Me: “Oh, that’s awesome! Well done, Brandi!” Brandi: “But, Mr. Flo, I didn’t even read the story and I still got a 100. I just guessed.” Me: “…Oh…” Brandi: “Do you still want me to read the story?” She received a 100%. In the end, the three digits are all my administrators will see. There wasn't much else to say.
Students look like this... (Click Me)
Students SHOULD look like this...
Two authors are responsible for fostering life-long reading in me: Jon Scieszka and Robert Munsch. My dad read Scieszka's epic, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, using the voice of Cheech Maron as the wolf. My mom read Munsch’s story, Love You Forever, with the love only an overprotective, Hispanic, mother-of-one can. I strive to present literature in my classroom using the same production values of my parents.
Teaching can feel a lot like...
Sometimes, learning looks and feels like this...
Teaching should look and feel like this!
