Hi everyone; this is Kristen. Before getting into the chapter, I need to say that I teach at a private school. I do not understand the pressure of "teaching to the test" because we do not have a test in the spring to determine whether we have taught all the standards. In this blog, I use "we" as a teacher---public or private.
After reading this chapter, I am struck by how much teaching seems to be a Catch 22. We all get into teaching to actually teach, and maybe (hopefully) make an impact on our students. However, teachers are so regulated that it seems impossible to make this desired impact. With so many standards, we are not able to imerse our kids in the education we are trying to provide for them. This chapter begins by questioning the "depth" we are able to achieve. In fact, "students are so busy covering a vast and wide curriculum that little, if any, deeper thinking is occuring (14)." There's no time for deeper thinking; we need to keep our jobs.
The Paige Paradox seems to be a brutal cycle, keeping students down and teachers "demoralized". What I kept thinking during this section was, "Why bother?" Are we all just hitting our heads against the Board (of Education)? Teaching kids how to take scantron tests give us "higher test scores and lower thinkers (21). Are we actually teaching kids just to be stupid once they head into the real world?
I cannot pretend to know much about No Child Left Behind because I don't. However, I do know that friends of mine who have recently entered into teaching at public schools around Middle Georgia often have over 30 kids in their first class, as well as often have the lower level kids of that grade. So I have noticed at least one of the problems as to why the gap is not closing with the reading scores. Teaching is hard. Teaching in that kind of environment right out of the gate has got to be darn near impossible (hats off to those of you who do).
I don't know how to fix readicide. From reading this first chapter, it seems to be an impossible task. Maybe the rest of the book has a plan....
2 comments:
Granted that the first two chapters in Readicide paints a very dismal picture. One that might make the fainthearted turn and run. However, it does get more encouraging. There are ways to begin to change the culture that has been a unintentional consequence of testing. Policy makers and administrators all keep looking for a silver bullet. Classroom teachers know there is no magic formula. Helping students to succeed takes dedicated, capable teachers. It will be interesting to see what you think about the next couple chapters!
Hello Kristen this is your incredibly 'hip'friend Keri. I agree with you reading this book takes the wind out of my sails. We seem to all be appeasing policy makers and governing officials who want to get re-elected. They say things that the public wants to hear but they are not down in the trenches. I teach at a public high school but I am teaching art. I do not have students that are tested in my area but I do have large class sizes and tons of burearcracy to deal with regardless. New lists of standards to put up on my walls checking things off thelist so that my classroom is standards based. I do agree that we need to have certain standards for our subject areas. However the main focus should be to teach our subjects in a way that the students retain the information and develop a life long love of learning, not so they can pass the ridiculous amount of tests they are faced with every year.
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