CA Standard – Grade 1 – Writing 1.1.7
Capitalize the first word of a sentence, names of people, and the pronoun I.
A proper English sentence begins with what form of letter?
A – lowercase
B – consonant
C – capital
D – vowel
---
Which sentence is correct?
A – my father works very Hard.
B – My Father Works Very Hard.
C – My father works very hard.
D – my father works very hard.
---
Read to students: Please write one sentence about the friends you play with at recess and what you do.
It’s test time here and the perennial debate ensues. Can we link teacher evaluation to student data? These three questions, and their analysis, are my answer. I’m not at all afraid of being evaluated (in part) through my students’ test results, or even compensated (in part) on the basis of scores, provided we have clearly understood objectives and tests that reliably assess them. Too often, we have neither. Case in point…
The first question represents a failure of validity, it does not assess what it is supposed to assess. First, the item is confusing the use of a skill with its explicit understanding. An adult analogy might be the difference between eating properly and understanding our metabolic and digestive processes. While perhaps this knowledge is valuable, it is not required. Conversely, knowing that sentences begin with a capital letter is not the same as actually doing it. Plenty of people know how the body works, but still don’t eat well.
Further, the first item is predicated on a confidence that the teacher will have taught the term “capital,” rather than “uppercase” or “big” or “majuscule.” Again, perhaps reasonable, but it does not make for a valid test of the given standard. This question would be ideal for a standard, “Students will identify that a proper sentence begins with a capital letter.” But that’s not the standard.
The second question is an improvement. It is focused on the skill of capitalization. It is not reliant on explicit understanding or a single piece of terminology. However, it still does not accurately assess the standard. Recognizing proper writing and generating it are two entirely different skills. We can hear when a violinist misses a note even if we can’t play the violin. Certainly, one skill is preliminary to the other, but the concern remains, are we testing what we say we are going to test? Further, it only tests one piece of the standard. We would need another question for testing the pronoun “I” and another for names. How long of an exam can we have for a first grader, before it becomes a test of stamina rather than language? This leads to questions of reliability, that students will get the same questions right and wrong if they took the test again, in a different order or on another day.
The third question finally assesses the given standard. Students will almost necessarily use all of names, the pronoun I, and an initial capital letter to answer the question. However, this fidelity to the objective unlocks a Pandora’s Box of other possibilities. What if the student has no friends? What if recess has been eliminated for test prep, or has been renamed “PE” or “Outdoor Time?” What if the student writes: Play BKTball I M and R. Are we to assume that “M” and “R” are names? What if they are nicknames? What if they are celebrity children, who only have letters for names? Does the capitalization of “BKTball” indicate that the student doesn’t understand the objective or that there is a really popular new game right now made up by Belen, Karl and Tomo? The examiners should disregard word order, as this is a question of capitalization, but will they? Further, will any teacher or test company really be willing to stand up to the press and public and say that the student really should have gotten that question right?
So, dear public, press and reformers: On which of these questions, answered by a child taking a big test for the first time and graded anonymously by a company with a large interest in your failure, would you stake your professional reputation and financial success?
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Simple Signs of Employer Excellence
The charter school/network we’re joining is demonstrating all the right moves. Among these are many things the public schools can’t emulate, like a “longer” day and year (time good teachers work anyway) for more pay (that good teachers don’t get and grouse about.) But there are also several actions they’re taking that are much more attainable.
1 – Recruitment – In October 2008, two months into our work in China, we received an email from one of our future principals checking in and asking us about our return. We advised that we were on a two-year contract. A year later, we received another email. Teachers have one of the most status-deprived, socially isolated, and thus praise-hungry professions in the world; my wife and I are no exceptions. Someone cares enough to email us twice? That’s just about all it took.
2 – Hiring – Somebody saw us teach before they hired us. It was via YouTube, admittedly, but the important thing was that they sat down and watched us practice our art before they brought us into their school. There are lots of ways to teach, lots of ways to teach well. It's important to make sure there's philosophical harmony. By contrast, our current school brought us all the way to China before ever seeing us teach. At my first school, my principal never even had the chance to see my resume before I showed up for a key. Not his fault, for sure, but not an inspiring sign for the system.
3 – Response Time – When I send my future principal an email, I usually have a reply within a half-day, often within a few hours. If it takes longer, generally there’s a prefatory apology. Admittedly, we have the benefit of time zones. But I’m not even working at her school yet.
4 – Answers – Both my wife and I have been peppering our principals with questions for months. Almost every single query has been answered with a solid, specific, and “owned” response. There's no doubt: These people are in charge of their schools and they know what’s happening inside them. It's deeply confidence inspiring. The only time we’ve been passed on has been for questions about health insurance, and we wanted word from the top anyway.
5 – Details – For elementary school teachers, quality of work and of life is determined by the management of details. My wife had a bell schedule by the end of April. Her school isn’t built yet, but she’s been sent the blueprints to help in her planning. She’s been invited to make suggestions on ordering supplies, books and furniture. She got the warning already that her kinder class will be at thirty-to-one. It’s bad news, but she has time to adjust her plans and materials. I have a combo class among my rotation. Also bad news. But I know how many kids, I know where they’re at, and my principal and I are already formulating a plan to help better meet their academic and social needs. I have a calendar for my professional development schedule in hand, until Thanksgiving. All this is happening in May, so when August rolls around, the only surprises are truly surprises.
Does all this imply our principals are overworked? Yes. Does any of this guarantee children are learning? No. But it imparts, to me, a sense of day one urgency, dedication and professionalism that cannot help but benefit student achievement.
1 – Recruitment – In October 2008, two months into our work in China, we received an email from one of our future principals checking in and asking us about our return. We advised that we were on a two-year contract. A year later, we received another email. Teachers have one of the most status-deprived, socially isolated, and thus praise-hungry professions in the world; my wife and I are no exceptions. Someone cares enough to email us twice? That’s just about all it took.
2 – Hiring – Somebody saw us teach before they hired us. It was via YouTube, admittedly, but the important thing was that they sat down and watched us practice our art before they brought us into their school. There are lots of ways to teach, lots of ways to teach well. It's important to make sure there's philosophical harmony. By contrast, our current school brought us all the way to China before ever seeing us teach. At my first school, my principal never even had the chance to see my resume before I showed up for a key. Not his fault, for sure, but not an inspiring sign for the system.
3 – Response Time – When I send my future principal an email, I usually have a reply within a half-day, often within a few hours. If it takes longer, generally there’s a prefatory apology. Admittedly, we have the benefit of time zones. But I’m not even working at her school yet.
4 – Answers – Both my wife and I have been peppering our principals with questions for months. Almost every single query has been answered with a solid, specific, and “owned” response. There's no doubt: These people are in charge of their schools and they know what’s happening inside them. It's deeply confidence inspiring. The only time we’ve been passed on has been for questions about health insurance, and we wanted word from the top anyway.
5 – Details – For elementary school teachers, quality of work and of life is determined by the management of details. My wife had a bell schedule by the end of April. Her school isn’t built yet, but she’s been sent the blueprints to help in her planning. She’s been invited to make suggestions on ordering supplies, books and furniture. She got the warning already that her kinder class will be at thirty-to-one. It’s bad news, but she has time to adjust her plans and materials. I have a combo class among my rotation. Also bad news. But I know how many kids, I know where they’re at, and my principal and I are already formulating a plan to help better meet their academic and social needs. I have a calendar for my professional development schedule in hand, until Thanksgiving. All this is happening in May, so when August rolls around, the only surprises are truly surprises.
Does all this imply our principals are overworked? Yes. Does any of this guarantee children are learning? No. But it imparts, to me, a sense of day one urgency, dedication and professionalism that cannot help but benefit student achievement.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
EduTech Rapture
(or: The iPad Cometh)
I was an unbeliever, a “gimmick”-sayer and laptop-steadfast, but then I met the iPad in person. Now, I am a total convert and I only saw it for half an hour. The interface was shockingly efficient. The on-screen typing was vastly easier than anything else I’ve worked with. The display of e-books was mesmerizing, clear and bright. As I played with it, ---exploring a digital, illustrated version of Alice in Wonderland, a two-player version of air hockey, and a program that controlled my laptop from afar--- I saw the future of educational technology flashing before my eyes. I saw paperless classrooms, digital textbooks, math e-manipulatives, science simulations, and authentic assessment, all wrapped up in one device.
Here's why the iPad is The Way for elementary edutech:
1 - It's simple. 90% of the time, elementary classrooms don't need 80 different applications. We need 5. We don’t need start menus, home folders, or logins. We need to turn the computer on in five seconds and be ready to run with it. Let’s have a computer lab for complicated specialty apps, like video editing or desktop publishing, but iPads for day-to-day use.
2 – It’s limited. Teachers are afraid to use tech because so much goes wrong. Pages don’t load, files are missing, shortcuts disappear, Flash is out of date. Further, everyone seems to go wrong in a different way. Kids get distracted or disoriented, can find minesweeper but can’t find the Quit key. The iPad’s menu interface is specific, focused and easy. One button to rule them all.
3 – It’s all in one. Mouse, screen, keyboard, computer. Everything inside a single, pound-and-a-half rectangle. No cables, bar the recharging cabinet. Combine with Google Docs and imagine all the tech support we won’t need.
4 – It’s e-books, really. Many have tried, no one has succeeded. The iPad has the brightness, the color, and the software look-and-feel to replicate book reading. Imagine the beautiful efficiency of a combined e-book library and Accelerated Reader iPad app. Imagine pressing a button and every student is back to the same page. Imagine never having to wait while a class brought this or that out of their desk. Be still my heart.
5 – It’s beyond paperless. The greatest draw, for me, of being paperless is actually that I could also be penciless, markerless, crayonless, highlighterless, and eraserless too. If I want my kids to take four-color notes, do arithmetic on whiteboards, to draw the water cycle, and to highlight different types of sentence, I need a dozen different “markers” per child. Or one iPad.
6 – It’s mobile. The first adopters of this tech should be teachers and principals. I’d wait until it’s totally ruggedized, inside and out, to put it in the hands of kids. But for us… I’ll buy one as soon as my wife will let me. Monitoring logs, record sheets and lesson plans, classroom observation tools and task lists, all accessible from one, easily held, simply used, mobile device. To have a similar degree of efficiency, I had to wheel my laptop around on a cart or be chained to my desk. Instead, with an iPad, I can carry my computer in my hand.
I was an unbeliever, a “gimmick”-sayer and laptop-steadfast, but then I met the iPad in person. Now, I am a total convert and I only saw it for half an hour. The interface was shockingly efficient. The on-screen typing was vastly easier than anything else I’ve worked with. The display of e-books was mesmerizing, clear and bright. As I played with it, ---exploring a digital, illustrated version of Alice in Wonderland, a two-player version of air hockey, and a program that controlled my laptop from afar--- I saw the future of educational technology flashing before my eyes. I saw paperless classrooms, digital textbooks, math e-manipulatives, science simulations, and authentic assessment, all wrapped up in one device.
Here's why the iPad is The Way for elementary edutech:
1 - It's simple. 90% of the time, elementary classrooms don't need 80 different applications. We need 5. We don’t need start menus, home folders, or logins. We need to turn the computer on in five seconds and be ready to run with it. Let’s have a computer lab for complicated specialty apps, like video editing or desktop publishing, but iPads for day-to-day use.
2 – It’s limited. Teachers are afraid to use tech because so much goes wrong. Pages don’t load, files are missing, shortcuts disappear, Flash is out of date. Further, everyone seems to go wrong in a different way. Kids get distracted or disoriented, can find minesweeper but can’t find the Quit key. The iPad’s menu interface is specific, focused and easy. One button to rule them all.
3 – It’s all in one. Mouse, screen, keyboard, computer. Everything inside a single, pound-and-a-half rectangle. No cables, bar the recharging cabinet. Combine with Google Docs and imagine all the tech support we won’t need.
4 – It’s e-books, really. Many have tried, no one has succeeded. The iPad has the brightness, the color, and the software look-and-feel to replicate book reading. Imagine the beautiful efficiency of a combined e-book library and Accelerated Reader iPad app. Imagine pressing a button and every student is back to the same page. Imagine never having to wait while a class brought this or that out of their desk. Be still my heart.
5 – It’s beyond paperless. The greatest draw, for me, of being paperless is actually that I could also be penciless, markerless, crayonless, highlighterless, and eraserless too. If I want my kids to take four-color notes, do arithmetic on whiteboards, to draw the water cycle, and to highlight different types of sentence, I need a dozen different “markers” per child. Or one iPad.
6 – It’s mobile. The first adopters of this tech should be teachers and principals. I’d wait until it’s totally ruggedized, inside and out, to put it in the hands of kids. But for us… I’ll buy one as soon as my wife will let me. Monitoring logs, record sheets and lesson plans, classroom observation tools and task lists, all accessible from one, easily held, simply used, mobile device. To have a similar degree of efficiency, I had to wheel my laptop around on a cart or be chained to my desk. Instead, with an iPad, I can carry my computer in my hand.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Video Games - No More!
This is cross-posted from an article I wrote for our parent newsletter. Now with links!
Summer is almost here. For too many kids, this time of year includes long hours spent with their Xbox, Nintendo, or laptop, playing video games. I suggest: “No More!” But not to computers, just to the games. Here’re some options for what else your child can do on the computer that will still make them happy:
Design a building, Explore the World – Google SketchUp, Earth – This is a free program for easily drawing in 3D. Kids can create new buildings and towns, or even render their own home. Other creators around the world are uploading their work into Google Earth, another free program. Here, kids can “fly” from place to place, and see sites all over the world in 3D. Different sorts of information can be turned on and off in the world’s greatest atlas. Kids can dive into the oceans and soar into space as well!
Learn an instrument, Compose a symphony – Garage Band, Jam Packs, Lessons – GarageBand can now run a lengthy series of piano and guitar lessons, providing kids with a patient tutor available 24/7. Jam Packs supplement GarageBand’s included loops, providing them with hours and hours of material to remix into their own musical masterpieces.
Produce digital art – ArtRage – This is a wonderfully complex but intuitive painting program. Kids can experiment with all sorts of media ---watercolors, oils, charcoal--- without the waste and frustration of real materials. When they find out that they really do love acrylics, and have learned a lot of how to use them, then buy them the real thing!
Write a program – Alice, Scratch – These free, well-designed programs, from Carnegie-Mellon and M.I.T., make programming fun and easy. Tell your kids they can play any video game they want – as long as they write it themselves! The world of programming is chock-full of great math enrichment and logical thinking practice.
Film a movie – Imovie, WindowsMovieMaker, IStopMotion – Making movies has never been easier. With inexpensive equipment and free software, kids can run around the city (or world!) filming wonderful shorts. With IStopMotion, they can make claymation, animation or time-lapse movies with ease.
Parents! Say “No More!” to wasted hours killing zombies, aliens, Nazis, terrorists, etc. Channel those electronic energies into something enriching and ---shhhhh--- educational.
Summer is almost here. For too many kids, this time of year includes long hours spent with their Xbox, Nintendo, or laptop, playing video games. I suggest: “No More!” But not to computers, just to the games. Here’re some options for what else your child can do on the computer that will still make them happy:
Design a building, Explore the World – Google SketchUp, Earth – This is a free program for easily drawing in 3D. Kids can create new buildings and towns, or even render their own home. Other creators around the world are uploading their work into Google Earth, another free program. Here, kids can “fly” from place to place, and see sites all over the world in 3D. Different sorts of information can be turned on and off in the world’s greatest atlas. Kids can dive into the oceans and soar into space as well!
Learn an instrument, Compose a symphony – Garage Band, Jam Packs, Lessons – GarageBand can now run a lengthy series of piano and guitar lessons, providing kids with a patient tutor available 24/7. Jam Packs supplement GarageBand’s included loops, providing them with hours and hours of material to remix into their own musical masterpieces.
Produce digital art – ArtRage – This is a wonderfully complex but intuitive painting program. Kids can experiment with all sorts of media ---watercolors, oils, charcoal--- without the waste and frustration of real materials. When they find out that they really do love acrylics, and have learned a lot of how to use them, then buy them the real thing!
Write a program – Alice, Scratch – These free, well-designed programs, from Carnegie-Mellon and M.I.T., make programming fun and easy. Tell your kids they can play any video game they want – as long as they write it themselves! The world of programming is chock-full of great math enrichment and logical thinking practice.
Film a movie – Imovie, WindowsMovieMaker, IStopMotion – Making movies has never been easier. With inexpensive equipment and free software, kids can run around the city (or world!) filming wonderful shorts. With IStopMotion, they can make claymation, animation or time-lapse movies with ease.
Parents! Say “No More!” to wasted hours killing zombies, aliens, Nazis, terrorists, etc. Channel those electronic energies into something enriching and ---shhhhh--- educational.
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