Maybe it's time to put the test to the test.

-


Testing is a big part of a teachers job - it's how we keep track of student learning, it's how we report to parents on progress, it's how we report on national standards. My question is, how much testing is too much? And why do we test?

The way I see it, there are two forms of testing: Testing for learning, and learning for testing. 


Learning for testing is where tests are completed in order to see what stage students are at so that we can report on it. This is where the ultimate goal for the student is to learn so they can get a better score on the test next time. This is where tests are running the students' school life and the idea of a successful student, is how well they do on tests.


Testing for learning is where specific tests are completed in order to give the teacher a better view on what stage the student is at, and where the student needs to go next. I have seen teachers use PAT, STAR and Running records (to name a few) in this way. Classrooms who are run in this way can cut back on a whole lot of tests just by asking "What useful information am I going to get out of this test?" "Is this test going to give me information I can use for students' next steps?" Teaching this way takes a lot more work and time because you are not just looking at the final score, but are analysing the test to see where the student went wrong and the big concepts that the student is missing. 


We need to be asking ourselves what the point of tests are. Why are we doing them? What are we, and the students, getting out of them? 

If teachers are testing students, taking the grade and marking it down as an achievement, and never looking at the test again then we are missing a great opportunity to delve deeper, to really get to know our students, to analyse where they are, and what they understand. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knowledge

-
Image
Knowledge. What is it? The oxford dictionary states it as "The sum of what is known." School's job historically has been to impart knowledge to it's students. To continue to build on humanities' knowledge by understanding what has gone on before. Until around the 1900's, the sum of human knowledge was doubling every century.  After the first world war, knowledge was doubling every 25 years.  Now knowledge doubles every 18 months, and IBM predicts in the future to double every 12 hours. ref.  http://www.bostoncommons.net/knowledge-doubling/?doing_wp_cron=1479671423.9828670024871826171875 The curve is exponential, and shows no sign of slowing down. So now education stands at crisis point.   We have two options going forward. Either 1. We keep teaching the small portion of knowledge that we can in the 13 years we have students for, whilst letting them miss out on the huge array of knowledge that presides before them, or 2. We offer students
Read more

What I did today...

-
Image
Today I went into a classroom as a reliever and ran my own programme. It was with year 7 & 8 students and I set them up to do a one day project. I said to them that today was going to be a little different than their normal school day. They could pick one topic to research, and they could do it all day. Step 1: We completed a brainstorm on our topic answering three questions: What do you already know about your topic?  What would you like to know about your topic?  How is you, finding out this information going to help you, or someone else?  The students came up with some great topics, some decided to focus on helping elephants, some helping endangered turtles, some decided to improve their drawing skills, and others made a vortex air cannon. They were really keen to get stuck straight into finding out more about their topics as soon as they had brainstormed but I made them move on to step 2.  Step 2: Make a plan. We used this sheet, which is one that we developed at m
Read more

Pity the Plight of Young Fellows...

-
Image
Pity The Plight http://youtu.be/YuEb04HcJFM Pity the fate of young fellows Too long a bed with no sleep With their complex romantic attachments All look on their sorrows and weep They dont get a moments reflection Theres always a crowd in their eye Pity the plight of young fellows Regard all their worries and cry Their crusty young mothers were lazy perhaps Leaving it up to the school Where the moral perspective is hazy perhaps And the climate; oppressively cool Give me some acre of cellos Pitched at some distant regret Pity the plight of young fellows And their anxious attempts to forget These are the tears of a thug like murky water Crying tears as clear as mud for his fathers daughter His half-sister; he felt obliged to support her Since her mum was poor and his dad died even poorer Separated until she was 8 years old He knew as soon as he saw her That he adored her, so hes baying for blood with a borer And an automatic weapon; Smith & Weston T
Read more