As of right now, I'm undecided as to how I want to use assessment in my classroom. Ideally, I would want to be able to trust that my students want to do their work and that they put a sincere effort into whatever they are currently working on. Obviously, this will be difficult to judge. I know for a fact that some of my high school teachers though that I had put hours of work in to a project, when in fact, I "borrowed" ideas from her examples and put it together the night before. I mean, there's no way for a teacher to truly be able to tell.
From my field, I've become pretty disappointed as to how much motivation is present in local students. It seems like assessment is different for every student because teachers assume that each student needs to be able to bend certain expectations. Now don't get me wrong, I agree that no two students are the same and that certain students require special needs, but there is a fine line between those two students. I have little doubt in my mind that students know what they can get away with at Hickman and take advantage of their teachers' expectations. It's as if the bar is constantly being lowered and the tight rope is gradually getting wider. With this being said, students are not being properly prepared for the real world. Alright, now I feel like I'm ranting so I'm going to knock that gibber jabber off.
One idea that stuck with me from these chapters was the idea of creating a student portfolio. I had to do this for a creative writing class my senior year and I really enjoyed it. I still look at it every so often and find new ideas. It's nice to be able to look back on how far you've come as a student. As for assessing these student portfolios....that's tricky. I would grade them based off whether or not the student completed the assignments that were supposed to be included and how much time on revision was spent on each piece. Along with that, I would ask the students what grade they felt and why they felt that way. The "why" would be the key part to that question.
I just hope I can have an optimistic, creative, and comfortable relationship with my students. To know that they aren't taking advantage of me and that there is a mutual respect between my students and I. I'm going to put my butt on the line for them so I will expect the same out of them. word.
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3 comments:
I totally agree that the bar is being lowered, slowly, every year. Some of the stuff students got away with turning in last semester in the Academic Lab at Hickman was ridiculous. I don't think the answer to avoiding drop-outs is to make everything so easy that high school is basically like a stopover between childhood and a real job. It seems like we're making everything easier, softer, less difficult. Why? I think it's doing students a disservice. We're saying, "It's ok not to give a damn about your work, it's ok to let things slide." It seems like someday, either in their personal experience or professional experience, they're going to find that's NOT ok at all. Besides, a lot of students would seem to benefit from having much stricter standards. Students know when you don't really have any expectations for them...
TRUE THAT! Last semester, kids in the Success Center were supposed to study for an upcoming "pop quiz." I was asked to go around the room testing students using a copy of the quiz (but rewording them, of course)! What's up with that?! I felt like I was spoon-feeding them the questions, giving them an unfair advantage over their classmates. The Success Center was originally described as a "transitional classroom" for students who would have dropped out, but there was little "transitional" about it. I saw the Success Center as more of a cushion for these students, allowing them to get away with late assignments or bad test grades (which they turned in late for almost full credit or re-took up to three times for a new grade). Even worse, students were still missing work or failing tests! This just goes to show that lowering the bar will result in lower achievement. We MUST hold the same high expectations for all of our students!
First i would like to say that you are a terrible student. I can't believe you took advantage of your teachers and just threw projects together at the last minute. I think i speak for everyone in this class when i say that you should be ashamed of yourself. Anyway when it comes to portfolios i think it is important to let your students know how important they are. My teacher in high school didn't really emphasize it's importance but would just tell us to put our stuff in it. By the end of the year it was just a jumbled folder full of already graded papers. Also mutual respect is going to be hard for you to obtain if you use "word" in front of your students so i would refrain from that.
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