It is that time of the year. We are making sure that our students are ready to take the end of the year tests that seem to hover over our students' heads (and those of teachers as well). I live in Georgia and our state just past legislation that connects our students growth (determined from our End of Year Tests (EOYT) to our yearly evaluations. This has caused a great deal of panic for many of the teachers that I know. They wonder what the point of differentiation is when the test will be the same for all students. Why focus on the individual needs when all need to know how to successfully take this test? This is the question that many teachers are asking and it is causing them to fall into the test preparation mode within the classroom wherein all the students are doing is test preparation and taking practice tests. This is, for me, very disheartening.
I am not a believer in tests. My main cause for this belief is that not all students can express knowledge in the same way and filling in bubbles is not an accurate means to determining what a student knows. I am a proponent of project-based learning and portfolio creation. These, in my humble opinion, are much better suited to determining what a student (or any human for that matter) has truly gleaned through a learning process. These allow you to see the true growth of a person within a subject or content area.
To be successful individuals, students need to know how to think for themselves. They need to get their hands dirty and become involved in their learning. Without ownership of their brains they will not truly understand why they need to know what you are teaching them or how it will impact them, positively or negatively, to learn (or not learn) the material. I make sure to tell my students that my job is to provide them with ample opportunity to be exposed to the material and to help them learn it in the way that works best for them. It is, however, their brains and they have to be responsive and take an active part in the classroom. Utilizing the hands-on approach that I have within my classroom really exemplifies this. If the students are not willing to become involved in the activity then I need to find a way to reach them so that they are.
What are some other schools of thought? As the test preparation season is here, what do you do within your classroom to help your students prepare?
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