Teaching to the tests. Sound familiar? Gotta pass those NECAPs, NAEPs ,SAT9's. Or the dreaded checkmark may visit your school. I thought about something I saw recently,(sorry I can't remember which class) about high schoolers taking the SAT or ACT and how they couldn't apply the Pythagorean theorem to the problem and most got the answer wrong. Isn't Bloom about using what we have learned creatively? Applying it to new areas to solve problems? And back to the original thought-is teaching to the tests teaching us to be less creative? I think so. As a librarian, I see students 40 minutes a week. Same for the music and the art teachers . How can we incorporate more creativity into our students' day with less and less time being spent on the arts? What does it take for teachers to differentiate lessons so that options for assessment can meet a student's learning style? How can we gently nudge the student's into another style of assessment that may expand their creativity and learning?
I often wonder about the grants that allow schools to investigate an arts program for a week, month, quarter. How do the grades of the students change during that time? How is their attention in class? What does the opportunity to break out of the mold of regular school routine do for the students? Has anybody tried to pay attention to these things or are the days too busy to even think about assessment during these times? Just a thought.
Melissa 11/15/09
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