Each day I plan on reflecting on my testing and the silly things the kids say. There innocence and imagination never seizes to amaze me. More than this though, I want to reflect on the kids answers to improve my own teaching so that these "silly" answers become corrected and they can be reclassified into an English Only status. Fingers are crossed! I have high hopes for these little ones.
Day One : According to many of the children, winter, spring, summer, and fall are commonly referred to as "sections, holidays, weather, and leaves falling off of trees", A paperclip is also called a "pin", and the benefits of flying in a space shuttle far outweigh the joys of being President of the United States for one day.
I foresee many more hurtles in our future and I look forward to jumping over them together...
Day Two : Today we started testing the third graders. Overall, they did well, but many struggled to answer all of the questions. Retelling a story based on a series of pictures and asking a question seemed to pose the biggest challenges. Knowing this information, I can plan for the future and make my students more prepared. A few things I could do to help my students is to practice their re-telling skills more often. I think I would be fun to cut out pictures form a magazine and have the kids write stories based on the pictures. This would be a great way for them to practice writing with details, express creative thoughts, and share their stories with a classmate. As a result, hopefully practicing these skills more often will help them reach more success when they are called upon to perform for the state.
Day Three: The day began a HOT one. With no air conditioning at the school, we starting testing the first graders. The test took about 20 minutes to administer to each student. Not only was this a long process, it was unfair. Over half the test was far too challenging for the little ones. Hearing wrong answer, after wrong answer, I became frustrated with test makers that they would create such difficult questions followed by an abstract story... How is an English Language Learner suppose to know random vocabulary, questioning skills, listening comprehension, and spell the word "apple"? I would like to see how a fluent English speaking child would score in order to compare how truly challenging this test appears to be. I think it might be challenging for any first grader, no matter their language abilities, at this point in the year. To be continued...
Day Four: We continued to testing the first graders with roughly the same results as the day before. Most guessed the way through the test or shook their head in confusion. Every child tried hard, but still, they do not understand the importance of passing the test or why they need to develop these basic reading, writing, and speaking skills. Hopefully as they grow older, things will start to click.
Day Five: We powered through the remaining first graders and made our way to the MIDDLE SCHOOL. I am not one for the "older" kids, but as I soon learned they are still very young, just a little "cooler".
Filled with hope the seventh graders being tested would certainly pass the test seeing as they took this same test the year before, I was wrong... The same head shakes of confusion and "I don't know responses" continued throughout the week. I learned knowing the name of a "bulletin board" and an "envelope" were challenging. However, the most challenging question for them was to tell as story about four pictures. After hearing about 400 wrong answers, by the end of the week, I was more motivated than ever to someday teach my ELD class to my fullest potential. They truly need to learn the basic vocabulary for asking and answering questions and need to be taught the importance of WHY they are learning these skills.
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