Ruining the Best

When I read "What the Data Won't Show," a blog post written by Susan Lazear, I was horrified. She starts to describe this striving student, Autumn. Autumn is very sweet, wants to become a nurse, but just can't pass a standardized test. She works with Autumn time after time, but Autumn continues to fail the test. Her score is consistently within 25 points of passing, yet she cannot break the passing score. She comes within one point of the passing score, yet she is not able to pass.

Autumn did get to walk with her graduating class, but she did not receive a diploma. This drives me insane! She was within ONE point of the passing score, yet this holds her from going to strive in her future. She is held down by this test, taking it over and over again. She even considers giving up to get a GED instead- because of this one test.

Anxiety sets into Autumn's system, she is put on medicine, and still cannot pass this test. We can obviously see what negative effects that these tests have on students. Why are we holding them back from having a successful future because of ONE point? Why are we destroying their personalities and giving them mental health issues because we test them over again until they pass? Can't we test for progress and not just one standard?

This system is frustrating and the consequences are very real for many students like Autumn. I guess my question is why can't we all decide together on a better testing system? They have no effect on the students' future... If a student cannot pass this test and wants to go into construction or become a personal trainer, what difference does it make? They are not going to use this in their lives... Sure, they need to know how to read and write and do basic skills, and show IMPROVEMENT. But one standard to set back all of these striving students...we might be hurting more than helping.

Here is a LINK to a small article about test anxiety... Which can be developed because of these tests, as we see in Autumn's case.

Standing Up to the Test

In "You Gotta BE the Book" Wilhelm wrote about a time that he stood up to the faculty and staff. They were talking about standardized testing- he decided to go on a total rant of why students cannot be fairly evaluated by these tests. He leaves off with the thought of why a majority of educators agree to still use standardized testing.

I personally think this is because teachers don't want to spend extra time to evaluate the students themselves. It is an easy way out- just give all of the students a test that they do not have to grade. Only teachers that are really invested in their students do not want to use them. We need to start rising up and get rid of these things! (see how easy it is to rant about testing)

He goes on to talk about teachers being researchers. Teachers learn from research done in the past, but they learn the most from their own classroom. "They are continually evaluating, interpreting, and making decisions..." Wilhelm shares his personal experiences of how teachers are constantly doing research... All students are different, year after year and we learn something from each of them. He shows that teachers must go beyond teaching for comprehension and these tests, and they gain skills as they do so.

Why can't we use these skills to evaluate our students' progress? We can clearly see that it is an unfair system. Teachers themselves have greater capability to evaluate progress than a sheet of bubbled in letters. If all teachers decided to invest their time and skills into their students, I feel that we could get rid of this system. This might result in greater improvement in all students.

Here's a LINK to a great read about standardized testing.

Illustrated Works

In "You Gotta BE the Book" Wilhelm brings in illustrated works for students to read. They became very interested in them, wanting more to read- even though before they did not have much interest in reading. He has a great thought written in his journal, "I just have to wonder if school conveys a very limited view of literature that does not include picture books and comics, and if this limited view of literature contributes to how bummed out and distanced many of my student readers become from literature and the literary experience."

They were reading "Maus" which was actually the common read this year at WMU. I felt very alike the students that read it in this book. I remember thinking, "Wow! This book is amazing. I actually understood what was going on. I also learned more about history than in my history class." The illustrations helped to engage me and helped me to understand the story. In comparison, I read many text books without pictures in history, and learned much less.

Going back to the thought he had written in his journal... We are not exposed to this type of literature in school as much as we should be. It took me until my freshman year of college to read a book like this. And I wish I had read many more WAY earlier.

The students in this book felt this same way. He then takes this style of literature and asks the students to illustrate different stories. This is a great idea to get the students thinking about how all stories would look if they were illustrated.

Here's a LINK about the benefits of illustrations :)

Drama Usage

While reading chapter four in "You Gotta BE the Book" I really connected with the section on reluctant readers. My first years of high school, I was a slow reader, had not much interest in reading, and did not connect reading to myself as a reader. I saw reading as something required. This section talks about students alike how I was. Using drama helps a reader to connect the dots in reading.

I became more interested in reading when I class I took used a LOT of drama. We read everything out loud and acted them all out. I began to understand what was happening in the plays and could connect it to myself as the reader. Because of this, I began to be able to think about my reading more creatively rather than just reading when it was assigned.

This section talks about how drama is used to build relationships with characters, taking other perspectives, and thinking about the setting and world of the story- basically engaging students in the story. It really helps lower level students, like myself, to succeed and get something out of the reading for themselves.

Another section also discusses passive reading, which ties in directly with this idea. Wilhelm states that "students' past reading experiences and schooling appear to have given them a reductionist, information-transmission view of reading." Incorporating drama with these students helped them see that the book has a message for each individual and gave them a better experience with reading overall.

Wilhelm gives many examples of drama he used in the classroom- I am putting a few here to reference at a later time and to show what he experimented with :)

1. Revolving Role Drama: take on role of a character; switching roles with a partner
2. Dramatic Play: use a prompt from the story, enact what would happen
3. Guided Imagery: imagine scenes and write about them as they mentally picture them (with guide of visual description/musical accompaniment)
4. To Tell the Truth Game: students play character roles and are interrogated by "judges" about their character lives; who becomes the most convincing character? they win!
5. Missing Scene Scripts: identify what is missing from the story and have students elaborate on what could be happening in these gaps

Here's a cool LINK of why we should use drama texts in the classroom (so we can exercise the creative side of the brain!)

Comparing Author to Reader

In the same chapter as my post before, one specific section really struck me. Comparing and evaluating yourself as a reader and the author.

The students were asked to do this as their last step. Ron saw that when his thoughts on reading differed from others, he could see a whole new way of the reading. When he thought the same as someone else, it was like "being fans of the same winning team." Due to this self evaluation, he could see how to collaborate with others. He stated that how people read books shows what we care and think about.

That statement is very accurate- most students (or teachers) do not realize this... People do not take away the same things from reading, nor should they have to. It is about self-discovery, which Ron did a lot of here.

Joanne wrote about the author in her journal, mostly questions. She starts to question the author and where she comes from, comparing her thoughts and feelings for and against what the author believes. Many students do not read their assignment and start thinking "is the author wrong?" like Joanne did in her journal. We do not give students a reason to do so because they are just reading for information on our quizzes and tests. Isn't seeing these journal entries much more rewarding to us then marking a 10/10 on a quiz with 10 questions and 10 correct answers?

This really amazed me as I read; the steps he had to take in order to get the students to this place of self-discovery and gave them a voice. How can we do this? It will be a process but we need to start changing the teaching and evaluating of reading one teacher at a time. If we as teachers begin to give students a voice and take away what is important to them, we will be producing smarter, happier kids. (proof that they will be happier is in this LINK)

Research & Connect

Wilhelm really knows what he's doing... Well, he probably didn't feel that way in the beginning. We all start somewhere. As I continued to read his book, many things popped out at me. Here's a big one:

His "Think-Aloud Protocols" really interested me. Having students talk about what they were reading helps students to express themselves and what they take from their own reading. He discovered that you had to prompt the students to stop and talk at certain parts of the reading in order to get better responses.

These were the dimensions he named as he worked with students and connecting them with literature:

1. Entering the story world
2. Showing interest in the story
3. Relating to the characters
4. Seeing the story world
5. Elaborating on the story world
6. Connecting literature to life
7. Considering significance
8. Recognizing literary conventions
9. Recognizing reading as a transaction
10. Evaluating an author, and the self as reader

It is very intriguing to me that he named these specific steps and categorized them into evocative, connective, and reflective- the process of students' thinking. These 10 steps can be used to make assignments (I'm definitely stealing some ideas). They had commentary as they began the first two steps, engaging them in the story. I feel that this is a fair way to evaluate reading... Their own thoughts and feelings about what they decide is important to them. I do not feel as if the stages were rushed either, but they had space to choose their own pace. This whole project is basically a prompted journal, and he received very intellectual responses- ending with an evaluation of their own self

More importantly, I feel that I learned more about how to connect with students... As he studied his students he became more aware of how to work with them. They began to exceed his expectations and connect with him. When you take the time to study your students as you teach them, you are able to discover who they are as a person and not just a face in your classroom. I know I cannot take the time to do such an extensive process with all of my students, but I can definitely use some of the ideas. Here is a LINK of other ideas to connect with your students: my favorite is the "first five minutes"!

Validity of Reading

In "You Gotta BE the Book" Wilhem makes us think about how reading can be valid. He states how reading can "lead to self-discovery and learning." Is this what makes reading valid? I think that if students read and get something good for themselves out of it, it is very valid. Not everyone will get the same piece of information out of a reading as the student next to them.

I think the harder question is how do we get students to the point where they will do the reading for themselves? According to Hobson in THIS ARTICLE, only 70% of students in college will not do the assigned readings. If more of these students had been taught that all reading can apply to them in some way, I'm sure that percentage would be more like 50%.

If the students ARE reading but still not getting anything from it, is it valid? My thoughts on this are maybe too simple... You have to get something, just SOMETHING out of it to be considered valid. If they realize this at a younger age, they will be more likely to want to read what is assigned. Here are some of my ideas:

Take away reading quizzes; start a journal of application; talk about things important to the students; let them read on more of their own schedule- due dates have to keep a class together, but not a chapter per day; talk about how the readings make the students feel

The article I mentioned above talks about teaching in college, but has some good ideas you could apply in high school as well. One idea being that you make sure texts are being used how they were intended- this is important if you are using curriculum from another teacher. Another good point is that not every class needs a textbook- teachers need to think out of the box to engage the students. Maybe choose smaller texts instead- typically speaking, it is easier to connect to a novel or article than a huge textbook with small writing.

Encouraging students to apply reading to their own life will be the challenge I take out of this. Maybe not get so frustrated with a student who said they didn't have time to read, but encourage them to catch up and work with them so that they do not get discouraged and give up. I want to remember this especially when I am first starting a class; it starts with the first impression you make with a class.