Search results matching tags 'teaching' and 'testing'

#ELTchat Summary: Dogme & Formal Assessment – the odd couple?

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:59:49 GMT

At first glance, the free-wheeling Dogme approach to teaching and formal assessment do not sit well together. Rather they would appear to occupy opposite ends of the spectrum, representing as they do either “winging it elevated to an art form” or rigid rows of desks and standardized testing models. The #eltchat on Wednesday 9^th November 2011 tried to find out whether opposites might in this case attract, or at the very least whether this odd couple could form some kind of lasting (if uneasy) relationship.

If you’d like to look at the original transcript for this chat, you can find it on the #ELTchat wiki.

Dogme, like the term formal assessment, means different things to different people. Dogme is NOT winging it (PatrickAndrews), rather it is teaching without materials but with preparation (the teacherjames). You prepare your classes but go with the flow (esolcourses). Experience and skill can help with this (Shaunwilden), though pre-service teachers can be trained (the teacherjames). You should always remember the students’ needs and wants and not impose dogme(bethcagnol), and it works well with higher levels (rliberni).

Formal Assessment could be achievement tests or proficiency tests (ljp2010), exams (rliberni) or portfolio based (esolcourses). In general, people seemed to view “formal” assessment as tests or exams imposed on the class from outside, either by school management (e.g. end of year tests), national exam boards or student needs (e.g. IELTS / FCE / TOEFL etc).

Whether the two can co-exist is difficult to answer. As ever with these things the answer would seem to be “it depends”. The means of assessment (the testing tools) and the criteria being assessed both affect things (esolcourses), though if the test is a good one, it shouldn’t matter how the learners get there (teflgeek). Tests, unfortunately, are not always very good (PatrickAndrews) and may require specific item knowledge that therefore must be covered in class (ShaunWilden), or development of a narrow range of skills (esolcourses). Is the problem therefore the testing method, not the teaching method (teflgeek)? The fact that most schools don’t actually test properly certainly doesn’t make it any easier (Shaunwilden).

A Portfolio based approach to testing would be a better fit with a dogme approach to teaching (PatrickAndrews) and has worked for some (esolcourses), but teachers don’t often get the choice of test type (rliberni). Most testing is very “one size fits all” and there is a need for less rigidity and a more learner-centred approach to testing (esolcourses), though commercial realities make this difficult to implement (rliberni). Overall, we seem to be stuck with whatever we’re given to work with / aim towards.

Given then, that formal testing is often prescriptive and imposed, how can we reconcile the destination with the journey? Test / exam preparation often requires using past papers and extensive practice of task types (AlexandraKouk). Task familiarization is important (rliberni) but there is a difference between test familiarization and test practice and most of the research suggests test practice only goes so far (teflgeek), which is why you might want to ditch the exam material as loads of past papers are unnecessary (ShaunWilden). Though for learners who want to get through a test (e.g. IELTS et al), learner-centred teaching must by definition involve the test (rliberni).

Dogme and the Exam/Test Class: Ideas for teaching, revision and background links & references:

shaunWilden: Teaching Unplugged pages 94 & 95 – section on teaching exam classes
chrisjw133: an idea from T unplugged adaptable for formal assessment – http://anoobsguidetotefl.blogspot.com/2011/11/test-preparation-activity-create-your.html
cybraryman1’s dogme page is here: http://cybraryman.com/dogme.html
theteacherjames: suggests taking a look at dalecoulter’s blog: http://languagemoments.wordpress.com/
ljp2010 suggests asking the students to make exam tasks based on topic areas they’re interested in.
chrisjw133 does the same but with interesting texts
englishraven reckons the best approach to exam prep is an unplugged one http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/08/the-best-approach-to-exam-prep-is-an-unplugged-one.html
harrisonmike asks his students to do 1 minute “lightning talks” on familiar topics, rliberni recommends these for IELTS in particular!
teflgeek asks his to to a “just a minute relay race” http://teflgeek.net/2011/04/13/speaking-just-a-minute-relay-race/. Harrisonmike uses just a minute to help develop synonym knowledge, nickcherkas to develop discourse markers and fillers: http://thelinguophile.blogspot.com/2011/11/just-minute-discourse.html
rliberni suggests lateral thinking puzzles for question practice, speculation, conditionals and the like.
fionamau pins a copy of the target language to the wall and crosses it off as they go
rliberni uses podcasts, youtube and outside visits to soak up the real world
Theteacherjames asks his students to go back to their earlier written work and upgrade it as part of revision
teflgeek asks his learners what they want to revise
esolcourses gives learners links and follow on activities via the web for revision between classes
phil2wade suggests online blogs for self reflection and diagnosis. Fionamau prefers to graffiti her notebook…!

Hopefully all this is an accurate reflection of the discussion that took place – if you have anything to add – just let me know.

David Petrie (teflgeek)

Why AP English is Unfair, #3

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:30:12 GMT

This one gets me frustrated. My students took their first full-length multiple-choice section last Monday, just for practice. Overall, the scores weren’t bad. But I discovered that the AP test is unnecessarily tricky on purpose. It’s like College Board wants English language learners not to pass. The passages and poems are difficult to read, of [...]

Why AP English is Unfair, #3

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:30:12 GMT

SMARTER is Orwellian

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:34:00 GMT

This is a bit of a windy post mostly so I can find the links I need when I have the time to dig deeper into this.

I recently realized that few teachers know what's coming down the pike, and I want to bone up on the nonsense so I can share it.

We just finished the HSPA's this week, our form of state testing required by the No Child Left Behind Act. I continued to teach during the week, but my lambs' brains were fried by the time they got to class each day, and I doubt a whole lot of neurons got remodeled.

We get to do this again in May for a couple of days, during the ~~NJ Biology EOC exam~~ NJ Biology Competency Test.

New Jersey has joined the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), along with 30 other states in a nationalized testing mechanism that proctors "required summative exams (offered twice each school year)" and "optional formative, or benchmark, exams" before the summatives. The federal gummint has already given the consortium (a word I am developing a real distaste for) over $175 million.

New Jersey has agreed to start using the SBAC tests for "federal accountability assessments" by the 2014-2015 school year, now less than 4 years away.

I figured the Orwellian 1984 world eventually come, but I thought we'd get a chance to squawk for a moment before it arrived. We now have in place a nationalized curriculum with a federalized testing mechanism that will use artificial intelligence to routinely assess your child's ability to fit into the ~~"real"~~ corporate world that awaits her, propped up by obscene amounts of money made by the same corporate world.

Every family in Bloomfield pays a lot--thousands of dollars--to support our schools. They are local, and they are public. They are designed to help our town raise knowledgeable and decent human beings live reasonably happy lives, and we do a pretty good job doing that.

Psycho metrics

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 13:02:00 GMT

I occasionally throw a piece of pedagogy out here--I'd do it more often, but I cannot pronounce "pedagogy," and even if I could, the word makes me feel like a pedantic ***.

(Yes, I know I am a pedantic ***, but knowing and feeling employ two very different parts of the brain.)

I may have an overly developed numbers brain. I've been accused of such, and it helps make up for my lack of a frontal lobe. A big reason testing drives me to pedantic assery is that so few folks using them have a clue what is being measured, putting a new meaning to "psychometrics."

(I lost a lot of hair trying to explain sensitivity and specificity to budding docs--I'm losing even more trying to teach validity and reliability to anyone who will listen....Teachers test. A lot. How many of us have a clue about what we're doing?)

***

Exhibit A

I love analyzing my numbers after a test. Who missed what? Why? What would have happened had I asked the questions in a different order? Just how much more do I know now about the students than I did before subjecting them to the test?

With the push to ask more higher level questions, I started using a ☆ system. ☆ means the question is a simple swish and spit question that requires little more than a pencil and a neuron, ☆☆ requires at least two neurons to fire in some semblance of order. The stars are right on the test.

The first question above is just plain silly. Turns out I was asking a bucketload of them--if nothing else, my system revealed just how bad my questions have been. (I think I lifted the first question from the professionals--if anyone from Pearson cares, let me know and I'll edit it out.)

There is no need for a child to ever memorize commensalism except for this course. There is a need for a child to learn how to find words they do not understand.

Five minutes of test time is open note. (OK, we call it The Open Note Extravaganza! in our room, but what happens in B362 stays in B362....)

Turns out a lot, maybe most (I'm still crunching) of my lambs do better on the ☆☆ questions. ***

Exhibit B

I've mentioned this before, but I think it's worth mentioning again.

Occasionally I will use a magic wand during a test. Each child may call on it once, and only once, to answer a specific ~~multiple choice~~ selected response question. I may learn more from this simple exercise than I do from class averages, means, standard deviations, or any other metric you want to apply.

I demonstrate the phenomenal powers of my wand a variety of ways. This week I made a bean plant dance. (Charge it up with a few wipes with the silk hankie, wave it around a skinny seedling, and the plant bends towards the wand. With a little practice you and your bean are ready for DWTS!

The kids love it (though they groan a lot when one's wasted--"I knew that!")

If kids are zooming in on the single ☆ questions I know they have not been diligently studying their terminology or plain forgot to bring their notebooks in for the test).

If most of the kids are tapping the same question, it might simply be a lousy question.

If nothing else, the kids get a freebie, I get exercise running from desk to desk, and I get to wear my nifty wizard hat.

There, enough pedagogy for a ~~day~~ lifetime....

The photo of Thomas Bayes' grave is by Glen Wood, igl on Flickr, and used under CC license.
If you look real close, you can see the tomb tremble as Mr. Bayes spins in his grave as we continue to abuse statistics.
Thanks, Glen!

Mrs.Chuckles' Daily Lesson: Teaching to Test, No Way Jose!

ClassroomChuckles — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:50:00 GMT

Administrators in today’s educational environment put a great emphasis on scores of standardized test. This puts a lot of pressure on the classroom teacher, sometimes unreasonable pressure. Resist the pressure to just teach to the test. Your students deserve better. Instead,develop a partnership with the students to achieve goals you have set and be flexible.

Read more of Mrs.Chuckles' Daily Lesson on ClassroomChuckles.com!

Submit your chuckle for your chance to win a Starbucks gift card in our Chuckle of the Week contest!

Magic pipette

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:33:00 GMT

I get bored during tests, and I tend to get restless. ("Dr. D, you're making too much noise.")

Kids like routines, and here's mine:

1) Pass out the test bunnies, giant cockroach, praying mantis puppet, and a half dozen felt mice. (Talismans in science class, who would've thunk?)

2) Pass out tests.

3) Pass out pencils. ("It will cost you 5 points." Dr. Deeeeeeeee, no fair..... "Have I ever taken a point away?")

4) Get out the magic pipette.

The magic pipette started out as the magic wand ("magic's" a bit redundant, I suppose), then transmogrified into a magic pipette when I misplaced my wand.

During a test, each child gets to use the magic pipette for one question--it will mysteriously land on the right answer.

It started out as a gimmick by a very bored teacher, but I've kept it because it gives me good information. God forbid, it also gives a few kids an extra few points.

What have I learned?

The most confused kids won't even use it--a hard lesson for me to learn. Children feeling defeated will not take help.

If everyone's using it for the same couple of questions, something's likely wrong with the question.

Kids hate it when they already picked the right answer, even if it was chosen completely at random.

My magic pipette won't ever rival Madeline Hunter, but for a few kids, giving away an answer serves as an act of kindness in a world that increasingly frowns on such.

My felt mice and test bunnies are handmade by Jessica Pierce.
If you are easily offended, avoid "Bunnies What Swear" category.

Teaching to the Test

steveboss00 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:12:00 GMT

This is so true!!!! click to view

Dot Dot Dot (Also: 4.7 miles!)

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:46:29 GMT

Back in the day, the San Francisco Chronicle had a columnist named Herb Caen. With the exception of eight years or so in the 50’s when he jumped ship for the Examiner, he wrote a daily column for the Chronicle from the 30’s until he died in 1997. He’s the one that invented the [...]

So It Was a Very Long Break

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:42:23 GMT

Not just a couple of weeks, but a couple of months. I needed to get FAR away from the wild things, and I did. I roamed all over.

But now tomorrow’s the first day of the new year, and today was wrap-up of last year.

We got our scores today, both last year’s class’s results and this year’s incoming class’s. I was surprised to see how wildly well the 19 wild things left standing did: 8 advanced(!) in Language Arts + 4 proficient; 7 advanced in Math + 8 proficient. That’s 63% and 79%! Not that test scores measure valuable things like creativity and flexibility and insight and writing ability, but they do measure something, so the creatures did learn something. Hurrah for them! Bless them and let them go their merry ways, for I have moved on.

To 5th grade, to be precise. Picking up the remnants of the cohort I had in 2nd and 3rd: a straggly 15 of them, plus an additional 20 thanks to class-size increases. I’ve spent the last week (unpaid, thank you again State of California–can you imagine the Governator deciding not to pay prison guards for working?) arranging and rearranging tables trying to fit 18 double desks plus conference tables, teacher table, computer tables, lcd projector table, and science experiment tables plus 35 5th graders into a room the same size as the one inhabited last year by 19 tiny 2nd grade bodies.

Have you looked at any 5th graders recently? They’re huge! And they’re hormonal or verging on hormonal. And we’re in the midst of a heat wave. In 2nd grade we had to deal with odor issues for children who weren’t properly cared for and bathed regularly. But with these guys & girls, it’s not something in their control. Their bodies are morphing on a daily basis. I’m thinking I should sprinkle them with lavender from my garden. Lavender water, perhaps? Water fight, guys!

My son, who is about to become a 7th grader, was helping me set up the classroom today, and when asked for an aesthetic consultation, he squinted around the room and declared, “It’s too kiddy in here, Mom.”

Me: Why is it kiddy?

Him (vaguely flailing his hand to indicate the room): There are. . colors.

Me: Is this a bad thing, this thing we call color?

Him (with weary patience): Mom. Look at me. What color do you see me wearing?

Me: Black. Dark green.

Him: What colors do I usually wear?

Me: Black. White. Dark green…

Him (with slight condescension–note to self: don’t use that tone of voice with students, EVER): Exactly. Do you notice a pattern?

Me: Um. Dark? Solid? Distinct lack of floral prints?

Him: People like…me…us…at our age, we don’t like color.

He’s 11. I don’t remember saying ‘at our age’ at 11.

I looked around the room. It felt quite muted to me. Just a bit of color on the science board, and it belonged to Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune, and really, I couldn’t take responsibility for that. A little bit of red newsprint trim on an otherwise black writing board. The *** if I was going to unstaple all that again. Where was this so-called color?

He put his earbuds back in and went back to the computer screen. I discreetly consulted with two other colleagues who had taught 5th for several years. They did not think the room was too colorful.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

New challenges. Dealing with kids who have personalities and opinions. Just like I have at home.

I’m looking forward to it. Really.

As long as I have lavender for my bath.

And chamomile. And eucalyptus. Soothing.

And who knows, if I like it up here, maybe in two years, the wild things and I will cross paths again.