As trite as it might sound, I became a middle school teacher to make a difference in kids' lives. You know - prepare them to be successful citizens. I did not sign up to make them efficient test takers, though there are days when it feels like that has become the focus.
Yesterday I participated in curriculum work for the RSU. We started by reading an excerpt from The Data Coach's Guide to Improving Learning for All Students. It seems like we are using the pyramid as a visual for a lot of things (I'm picturing the RTI pyramid...) This one was a recommended Data Pyramid with the largest part being daily-weekly assessment (formative classroom assessments) the next layer was 1-4 times a month (formative common assessments), followed by quarterly or end of unit (benchmark common assessments). The last two, which are the smallest part of the pyramid are 2-4 times a year (data about people, practices, perceptions) followed by the smallest--annually (summative district and state assessments). We should be focusing on the lower 3/5 of the pyramid, but in reality the top 2/5--which really include NWEA and NECAP testing-- are driving our instruction. It was refreshing to hear the curriculum coordinator say that we need to shift our focus back down toward the bottom of the pyramid.
I was thinking about all of this as I was reading the article, Centering on Students in the Middle Grades Curriculum by Gayle Andrews. There seems to be a disconnect between what research supports, what we know to be best practice, and what the reality is.
In this article she did a really nice job supporting the need for "Student-Centered, Integrated Curriculum." (Humor me for a moment while I
So - I lost the last couple of paragraphs... I'll try to recreate them....
ReplyDelete(Humor me for a moment while I summarize.)
1. Intellectually reflective - supportive relationships = higher academic motivation.
2. Caring and ethical - decreased behavior problems, better attitudes about school.
3. Enroute to a lifetime of meaningful work (that's REALLY self-explanatory!)
4. Good citizen - is a democracy where students have a voice in their learning and teaching.
5. Healthy - safe and healthy school environment.
Obviously,these are goals that we have for our students - so why are we still teaching subjects in isolation? Why aren't we centering the education around the student and not the high stakes tests?
We have recently done a lot of work with that pyramid as well in the form of coming up with frequent common assessments such as exit/entrances passes. It definitely has its pros and cons. We very rarely get to meet as a 7/8th math staff and in the year and a half I've been there we have never been as a 7/8 science staff. These types of planning times are great to have with each other, but maybe not the best avenue in which to do them.
ReplyDeleteI'm optimistic that we are turning a corner...or more accurately...have hit bottom and are on our way back up. While the predominant model is still responding to high stakes tests (and that will not go away for awhile), we are also hearing more about the "whole child" and the kinds of goals you mention above.
ReplyDeleteAt the middle level we've been pushed back from integative curriculum, common planning time for teams, the need for advisory programs, and a huge trivialization of the ml program, not to mention that teachers are no longer in charge.
What can we do? Time for teachers to push back to reinstate more balance in the curriculum.