"Why the Best Teachers Don't Give Tests"

I stole the title for this post directly from a 2014 blog post by Alfie Kohn ( https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/no-tests/ ), who is a writer of many books and articles about education. I was alerted to his website by my Twitter connection to Dr. Stephen Krashen (@skrashen), the well-known explorer of language acquisition theory. Both of their accounts are worth following because they frequently post links to great resources for educators. This particular article touches on a theme that remains a hot topic in educational discussions, and I'm pretty sure we haven't solved the issues it raises.

There are a couple of comments I would like to make in response to his article. The first is that I generally agree with his point that there are many effective ways to judge student progress that are not formal tests. I wish I had known more about some of these when I was teaching English in Brazil. I know for a fact that I was unable to pass certain good students simply because they didn't perform well on the exams. I even remember telling some students that I knew it was an imperfect way to evaluate them, but it was the only way we had. I was wrong, and of course there are other ways, but we could not use them because of policy. It is impossible to ignore the necessity for test preparation at this moment in educational history, because student progress, school funding, and policy from the state and federal governments are all guided by data from standardized testing. In my experience, students do better if you prepare them for those. Until the state and federal education departments change their means of data collection and finance distribution, the teachers will need to prepare students to be good test takers. However, teachers also need to be advocates for the students. I think teachers should put their heads together and come up with innovative ways to measure student progress and gather data in state mandated core areas without passing out traditional tests. Eventually, this innovation should make its way up to the state level. How about an assessment revolution?

One of the results of my Master's Degree coursework at ACE was that I learned about effective ways of using students' in-class and long-term production to evaluate progress and proficiency. Two methods I included in lesson plans were student journals and portfolios. Alfie Kohn mentions some other methods at the end of his article. I think it would be worth your while to go check it out, and then let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Comments

Apps for Education/Personal Tech in the Classroom

So, the big question is, "Should we allow students to use smartphones in the classroom?" In many classrooms, that question has turned into "How do we prevent it?" Teachers have creative solutions like the cell phone jail block . However, and please let me stand on my soapbox for a minute because there is no getting around it, nearly every student has a personal smart device, and they are going to bring them to school, instead of banning a perfectly awesome learning tool, teachers and parents could incorporate them into a blended learning model like the flipped classroom. To begin, there are lots of awesome learning apps that teachers can encourage students to use in class and at home. There are also a lot of online reference materials, starting with online dictionaries . When teaching ESL to my adult students, I always walk them through the steps of downloading at least two major English language dictionaries, not bilingual ones. Normal...

Internet Power Sites for English Language Learners

Here are a few major websites that I highly recommend because they offer extensive resources for English Language teachers and learners alike. The BBC World Service has been around for a long time, but recently moved its link, so here is the latest one http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/ This site has courses, games, videos, and practice for every level of EAL. VOA Learning English is the go-to site for American English. It also has news in easy to listen to English, and insights into North American culture. I like the variety of videos on every subject you could think of. There should be something here to interest anyone. https://learningenglish.voanews.com/ The United States Department of State has several sites dedicated to teaching and learning English. The links can all be found here: https://americanenglish.state.gov/ PBS Learning is not focused specifically on English Language Learners, but it has teaching a...

Blended Learning/Flipped Classrooms

A few years ago, during a professional development session at the language school where I taught in Brazil, one of my colleagues presented us with the concept of "Blended Learning." Shortly after that, the director put me in charge of a new High School program based on the Texas Tech University K-12 online program. This program was modified by the educational team at High School Serviços Educacionais (HSE), which is a group that has found a way to give Brazilian students the opportunity to earn an American High School diploma alongside their Brazilian one. They now work with the Mizzou K-12 program, but the concept is the same. Students study content, do projects, and take exams online, like independent study, but also meet in classrooms several times a weeks to get instructional support from a native English speaking guide. This is a "flipped classroom" type Blended Learning approach, and it is proving to be ver...

American English Dan

Search This Blog