My grandma passed away on Monday! At the end of August I lost my grandpa and grandma within three days of each other. My mom's dad and dad's mom. And then this last week I lost my grandma, my mom's mom. It has been a sad couple of months. I was talking to my sister this week and it hard because we have had grandparents for so long and then to lose all of them so quickly. As I have processed my grandma's death I have begun to ask myself, what is really important. I have looked at my life and all that I am involved it but it has also transferred into my action research.
This last week we ready an article called, Window on our classroom. In our groups we have discussed what we found to be important. The thing that stuck out to me was assessments. Getting back to my question, what is really important about assessment. The article talked about authentic assessment. I stopped and thought about my own assessments for my action research and the assessments that I use in my classroom. Are they really important? Am I using them because I have been told to or are they authentic and showing accurate data that his helping guide my instruction? I don't have all the answers. One of the areas that I have been looking over this week for my action research is my assessment. I am assessing to see whether or not they are accurately assessing information that is important to my action research.
If you are reading my blog, I challenge you to look at your own action research and find what really matters. I really think that we need to be looking at our assessments. We are constantly assessing our kids but are these assessments necessary and do they better our instruction. I don't have all the answers but I believe that my action research will be more powerful is my assessments are authentic.
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4 comments:
First, my thoughts are with you and your family during these difficult times.
Reading the Mirrors articles reiterated the reason behind our action research projects. We are focusing on what matters for our students and us. Questions like, "How can we better our craft to make learning possible for our students?" have been our guideposts for our discussions. What is truly important is that our students learn. If they are struggling with a particular content area, we can ask ourselves why and try to find a possible solution.
About your parting question, I think that throughout this program we've come to the understanding that we truly have more power than we once thought. We understand that there must be a standard to live up to, but that even those standards could have possibly been created to lead us in a certain direction that favors those in power. It is up to us to disrupt the common place and teach our students to do the same by studying multiple perspectives about issues and textbook content materials. In assessment too, we know that these should be used to show growth and reveal areas of weakness and support our students to strengthen those areas. It seems that a lot of assessment practices simply reveal weaknesses but do nothing to help the student because "we must go on to the next lesson" or else the pacing will be thrown off. Finally, not knowing all the answers keeps us honest. It's kind of like the X-files; we know the truth is out there!
Sometimes I give tests just to keep parents happy. They love them, they love getting them back attached to the weekly progress report. They love talking about them. The one's that bother me the most are spelling tests. I hate them. They feel like a waste of time and they do not influence my practice. If a few kids don't know most of the words I don't have them restudy them, I just keep going. Really I'd like spelling to be part of my L.A. program overall, but I don't know if that would make the parent's happy. What would I have to attach to each week's progress report?
Math test's are more authentic. I do recover where I find gaps during assessment. I also go over tests in hopes that they can become more of an integral part of the learning process. However, I did prefer the assessments I used last year while implementing my ARP. They felt authentic. They were project based, observation based, and math notebook based. It felt like I really knew what my students were doing and could make adjustments as we went.
On a personal note, I lost my Grandma last year, and send you sympathy for your losses. It's so hard to lose people, no matter how long and full their lives were.
My thoughts go out to you and your family during these difficult times.
Your heading actually caught me because I myself have been thinking about what is REALLY important in two areas.
First- one of my students dad's was murdered this week and I had a hard time swallowing how I am to just move on. I don't really care about her next spelling test or if she understands how to count money...I care more about how she will cope and feel safe and supported in my classroom...but then I'm pressured to "raise test scores" etc...this all made me think about all the kids who CANNOT focus on academics because they have more "important" things to worry about. So now what??? I don't know really..she hasn't come back to school yet, but when she does I will be accomodating to her needs regardless of my teaching expectations.
Second-I'm gathering all this data on whether teaching reading strategies through art is more beneficial then teaching through standard means...but in the long run does it matter if it does or not? My students absolutely LOVE it and their thoughts about the art have become so deep and invigorating so...what if it doesn't help reading comprehension for everyone...should I not do it?..the answer is that yes I should still do it because it is simply good teaching. My point is that even if our tangible assessment don't really show improvement, that doesn't mean it isn't important.
Carrie, I am saddened by your losses. I wish there were something to say that makes the hurt go away, but there isn't. However, there is hope on the other side. I, too, am wondering what is really important. Falhon's comment about the student whose dad was murdered puts many things into perspective. We often expect children to compartmentalize their lives and we know as adults, that is a hard strategy to learn. Our assessments need to be authentic and they should drive instruction. I know that math is an easy assessing subject because of its explicitness. Sometimes I wonder about other subjects because they take longer and can be more subjective. I was pleased to see the results of your students' scores. They were great! What is up with the child that stayed the same?
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