I am teaching the wrong subject. While I love exploring reading, writing, and speaking with kids, grading all those essays is long and laborious.
I just turned in my grades. Of course, my students wrote essays for their finals. While I was grading, my daughter came in, looked at me and commented, “Most of my finals are scantron.” I asked what percentage of her tests were objective multiple-choice tests. She estimated about 80% of each of her tests, other than English, were objective questions answered on an electronic form. I asked myself, could I score an essay that way?
We give final exams by period of the day. First period is first and so on. However, years ago we did it differently. We used to give the tests by subject and English always went first. The rationale was that, since English teachers are giving subjectively graded written tests, they should have more time to grade.
As the years went on, teachers objected to English’s favored final status. They claimed that they too had subjective areas on their tests and needed additional time to grade. As a result, we went to a rotating system where departments traded that coveted first day slot.
The results were interesting. When English was not on the first day, English teachers began to ask students to prepare their finals at home and turn them in prior to finals week. Some shortened their tests or created more objective tests with quote identifications and short answers. It was very irritating to see many non-English teachers post their grades within a few hours of giving the exam.
So finally (pun intended), we landed on our present system of giving the tests by period of the day. It does ensure that English teachers will get their grading load distributed across the week. It still galls me to see the kids gather at other teachers’ doors to see their grades when I still have a huge stack of papers to read.
Yes, I know that other subjects are more content driven. It is easier to test them on the facts they can memorize, the problems they can solve, or the vocabulary they know. Because that would make my life so much easier, I often ask myself at these grating times of the year, why can’t I do that?
The answer is the skills I am teaching cannot be measured that way. My job is to teach them to read, write, communicate and, ultimately, think. No multiple-choice test can do that as well as a good old-fashioned writing sample. My final exam should be the culminating activity of the semester. What have we done? We have read books and analyzed them. We have written essays, papers, poems and notebook entries. We have discussed, given speeches, and debated. Is the use of a multiple-choice test an authentic way to assess students for those skills? I wish it were.
If scatron testing doesn’t work in English, should it work elsewhere? Should an objective test be the culmination of a semster’s study? In a world where facts change rapidly , we can look things up in a matter of microseconds, and computers do our calculating, are these kinds of finals the best way to teach? While memorizing has its place, is it the most important skill our children should master? The final skill?
While these are great questions, I have grading to do. If someday technology invents a scantron system to grade my essay, I might consider it. Until that happens, I don my glasses, rub my neck, and pick up my pen.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
School's Cycles and Breaks
Returning to work after a vacation can be difficult. Going back to school after a break is often like diving into a cold swimming pool; it is a shock at first, but soon, you get used it. That is what I love about living in the world of education: the cycles. The academic calendar is built on a series of starts and stops, beginnings and endings. It is a constant spiral of cycles that never really repeat.
Each year I get a fresh set of faces in my classroom. Although I am teaching “the same” curriculum, it is never a rerun of the year before. Not only do my new students alter the way the class functions, I am never content to simply repeat what I did in the past. I must tinker and tweak, revise and improve my lessons. In fact, I spend much of the summer doing just that. I feel compelled to apply what I have learned one year to the next year.
As the year progresses, my students are no longer new. They become part of my family. As I plan, I ask myself, “How will James react to this?” or “Will this challenge Angela?” or “How can I make this work for Steven?” I tailor the instruction to the students in front of me. It is custom made and it will never fit another class like it fits the current one. That experience makes me a better teacher and I carry that into the next lesson and the next year.
Although I adore my students and my career, the days off and the three breaks are very welcome. They are rest notes in our beautiful academic symphony. Sometimes, they are short and they merely allow me to catch my breath. Sometimes, like winter break, they are long enough to divert me completely. Sometimes, they are long enough that, by the end, I am eager to return to my students and classroom.
The standard reply to the question, “how was your break?” is “not long enough.” However, the breaks accent the year in an important way. While there is debate about whether students should get homework over breaks (and similarly if teachers should grade over breaks), these breaks punctuate the learning experience and allow the learning “to sink in.”
People are not computers. We learn in a wide variety of ways. As we gain new skills, learn new concepts, we change. Especially for children (and their teachers), that process takes a ton of energy. I always know when my son is about to experience a growth spurt; he eats a ton and sleeps late. Learning is no different. Students need time to make connections, apply their learning to their daily experience and to gather energy for that next leap.
My entire professional career has been in education. I have never experienced a job that moves in a straight line. I watched my parents and friends and I think my cyclical career has advantages over the more conventional routine. Of course there are trade offs and many of those are all too obvious. However, as we finish this semester after winter break and a lovely three day holiday, I looked toward the renewal that comes after the breaks – and the breaks that come after the learning!
Each year I get a fresh set of faces in my classroom. Although I am teaching “the same” curriculum, it is never a rerun of the year before. Not only do my new students alter the way the class functions, I am never content to simply repeat what I did in the past. I must tinker and tweak, revise and improve my lessons. In fact, I spend much of the summer doing just that. I feel compelled to apply what I have learned one year to the next year.
As the year progresses, my students are no longer new. They become part of my family. As I plan, I ask myself, “How will James react to this?” or “Will this challenge Angela?” or “How can I make this work for Steven?” I tailor the instruction to the students in front of me. It is custom made and it will never fit another class like it fits the current one. That experience makes me a better teacher and I carry that into the next lesson and the next year.
Although I adore my students and my career, the days off and the three breaks are very welcome. They are rest notes in our beautiful academic symphony. Sometimes, they are short and they merely allow me to catch my breath. Sometimes, like winter break, they are long enough to divert me completely. Sometimes, they are long enough that, by the end, I am eager to return to my students and classroom.
The standard reply to the question, “how was your break?” is “not long enough.” However, the breaks accent the year in an important way. While there is debate about whether students should get homework over breaks (and similarly if teachers should grade over breaks), these breaks punctuate the learning experience and allow the learning “to sink in.”
People are not computers. We learn in a wide variety of ways. As we gain new skills, learn new concepts, we change. Especially for children (and their teachers), that process takes a ton of energy. I always know when my son is about to experience a growth spurt; he eats a ton and sleeps late. Learning is no different. Students need time to make connections, apply their learning to their daily experience and to gather energy for that next leap.
My entire professional career has been in education. I have never experienced a job that moves in a straight line. I watched my parents and friends and I think my cyclical career has advantages over the more conventional routine. Of course there are trade offs and many of those are all too obvious. However, as we finish this semester after winter break and a lovely three day holiday, I looked toward the renewal that comes after the breaks – and the breaks that come after the learning!
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