Entry #34 - May 17, 1999
" Because I have been in other schools, I could see that what
some of our teachers rated 'B' work was nothing like what was required for
the same grade elsewhere. But it seems a picture is worth a thousand words!
When you see it, the light dawns."
Our sixth grade tests are underway (Grade 3 students are also being assessed),
and the students next door to my classroom seem to be taking it all in stride.
Their chief complaint : "But it's so beautiful outside!"
Other classes are going out for a little R & R, writer's workshop under
the trees, or searching out mini-ecosystems in the schoolyard. The unfortunate
Grade 6 kids, sitting with desks in unfamiliar rows, apply themselves to
a complex, project-style written assessment. It is based on the curriculum,
and takes five or more half-days to complete, but schools have some latitude
in scheduling it.
I just learned I'll be one of the evaluators.In July, for two weeks, teams
of teachers, principals and other educators will meet in three central locations
to grade the tens of thousands of tests. Colleagues who participated in
previous years told me it was one of the best professional development experiences
of their careers, so I am looking forward to it. I'll be marking the sixth
grade mathematics test, and it will interest me very much to see first-hand
the range of student achievement and the salient strengths as well as learning
gaps that students bring to the task.
Implementing assessment based on the standards is going to be easier with
the recently released "Exemplars" of student work our department
of education has assembled, which reached our school this week . This first
volume is a compendium of writing samples from students in grades 1-8, with
annotations, rubrics, and suggestions for using these exemplars to develop
strategies to improve students' writing.
Because I have been in other schools, I could see that what some of our
teachers rated "B" work (for example) was nothing like what was
required for the same grade elsewhere. But it seems a picture is worth a
thousand words! When you see it, the light dawns.
While our city kids definitely need encouragement rather than harsh or unproductive
criticism, I don't believe that "spoon-feeding" them is fair or
helpful in the long run. Yes, we may need to do more "scaffolding"
of assignments in order to teach kids the steps involved in complex assignments,
but we need to point them towards the same standard of work that more "advantaged"
students achieve. To do less is to deny them equal opportunity.
With the writing exemplars,
it is instructive to look at the samples at the upper grade levels. A friend
who was involved in piloting the draft document told me teachers get very
hung up on the conventions of written English when evaluating the work:
spelling, capitals, punctuation. While these are taken into account, the
rubrics make it clear that other factors are far more significant: organization
and development of ideas, variety of sentence structure, word usage, reasoning
-- what we might call the "brains" of written expression.
Many selections evaluated at the lowest level were neat, correctly spelled
and punctuated, even had correct paragraph structure -- yikes! Some of these
assignments might have earned an "A" at our school because of
the correct conventions, while the lack of idea development and overall
coherence went unremarked. One of the seventh grade homeroom teachers looked
at the samples and said, "That's a D? I'd better change something --
I don't think any of my students would write better than that, and I'm giving
A's and B's...."
You can't solve a problem without identifying it, so these models look like
a good tool to use with students to show them what they need to do to get
better results. I've had on-going disagreement with our administrators (not
an argument -- they just don't share my sense of urgency) that we need to
display more examples of superior student work for all to see, and ensure
students can tell WHY the selected products are excellent.
Students need models of good work to aim at -- not only in writing, but
in mathematics, science, and other areas. When they see only their own and
classmates' daily work, they can easily become complacent without visible
goals to aim for. Kind of an "I'm all right Jack" state of mind
that will not serve them well in the new and more competitive secondary
program ahead.
I decided to try this with one group of students whose work habits leave
plenty to be desired. I photocopied some of the exemplars (leaving off the
grade levels) and let the students look them over and find one they thought
was similar to their own writing level. At the start, they tended to focus
on the same external factors (spelling, handwriting) as teachers did! When
I told them to consider word usage, length of sentences and so on, they
looked again.
It was fascinating to me that they all DID correctly pick a sample indicative
of their actual independent written language level -- and they also knew
it was not a seventh grade piece. But they were stunned when I showed them
the book and said, these are samples of good work for Grade 2 and Grade
3.
Then we paged ahead to the Grade 7 section and made a chart of the most
important differences. All of them involved complexity of ideas, vocabulary,
structure. Since every student in this group is a second-language learner,
we discussed how it takes a number of years to acquire the vocabulary and
syntactical fluency that native English-speaking kids take for granted --
so they have a legitimate reason for being somewhat behind the level for
the grade, but NOT for failing to work to close the gap.
It was pretty quiet as they thought this over. They knew perfectly well
that they had not been extending themselves, and agreed they could certainly
meet the standards for Grade 4 and, with some effort, maybe even Grade 5.
Just as I finished my "no more Grade 3 work -- minimum Grade 4 starting
tomorrow !" in walked the principal and seconded the motion.
She told me, on a previous occasion, that she has had the opportunity to
visit other schools with as many challenges in their population as in ours,
and seen that standards for student work are higher overall. To the kids,
she just said emphasized we would be failing in OUR jobs, and they themselves
would be far from grateful later, if we did not pressure them to achieve
as much as they can, and she expected to see the higher-quality products
immediately!
Sometimes it's a fine line, I feel. Teachers who are attracted to high-needs
schools, or who go into Special Education or challenging assignments, are
often "rescuer" types who want to help the kids (I know whereof
I speak). If we aren't careful, we can end up doing too much FOR them, and
not demanding enough FROM them. This is especially true when so many face
multiple problems in their daily lives, which often we can do little about.
With a more standards-based program, we have an opportunity to involve the
students themselves as collaborators, setting specific goals for improvement
and evaluating their results. We need to be kind, but honest, in the process.
We can't "protect" them forever. There is an inevitable tension
between being nurturing and supportive (on the one hand) and pushing the
students towards independence and achievement (on the other), but as long
as we're AWARE we're pulled both ways I think we can trust our instincts
and professional judgment.
I guess the solution, as in the old fable, is a judicious mix of the carrot
and the stick!
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