Prompt: Identify a line or concept presented in Part 1 that impacted you.
"As a teacher you have analyze the heck out of [text], look closely at the assessment and what it's asking kids to do and then make sure that your instruction draws them to that standard."
This quote from Chapter 1 gives me mixed feelings. On one hand, it bothers me that a text I feel is quality and engaging for my students may not meet the expectations of standardized testing. I am all about authenticity. I want my readers to be real readers and disregarding a piece of text because it is not constructed in a way that it helps teach the test's construction is completely inauthentic.
On the other hand, I realize that our reality is that we are preparing them for the test. I still don't know if I would go so far as to eliminate a piece of text from my text set, I would be more likely to ask students to reconstruct the text in a way that meets those requirements. This would be a great activity for them to think on a very deep level while still getting the enjoyment of reading the text.
I read that differently. I am not sure they are discussing alignment with a standardized assessment - more a standard-aligned assessment, including those that teachers make. I think they are cautioning teachers about selecting a text for the text's sake, not because it will support students' mastery of a standard.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean and where my misunderstanding might have been. I definitely think we have to be choosy in the things we pick for the kids to get the maximum worth out of it, "bang for our buck" so to speak. We just have to also remember that sometimes books should be chosen because they make us laugh or cry or see ourselves inside of them by relating to a character. Maybe we make sure to fit that kind of book into SSR or read alouds.
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