I just posted a reflection on third grade STAAR on my personal blog. No need to retype it here, but if you'd like to read it, you can visit that blog and read the post here.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Weighing the Pig
I cannot take credit for this adage, but I love it, and I repeat the moral of the story quite often. In this day and age of tests, tests, and more tests, let us keep this story in mind:
There once was a farmer who wanted to take his pig to the county fair. He was determined that his pig would win a blue ribbon as the largest pig in the entire county. One day, about a month before the county fair, he took his pig into the barn and weighed it. "This here pig weighs 45 pounds," he told his wife. She just shook her head, knowing no matter what she said to her husband, she wouldn't be able to deter his ambition of winning first prize or make a difference in his approach.
The farmer took the pig back to his pen. But the next day, he weighed the pig again, certain that this time he would weigh more. "That's odd," the farmer commented upon seeing the scale. The pig only weighs 44 pounds today." Once again, the wife shook her head, knowing her husband would never take any advice she had to offer.
For the next few weeks, the farmer weighed the pig every single day. And each time, he grew more and more frustrated because the pig was not gaining any weight. One day he exclaimed to his wife, "I don't understand! I'm weighing this pig every single day! No one could possibly be paying more attention to how much their pig weighs than I, and yet he simply refuses to gain weight! I've tried weighing him in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. I've weighed him facing this way and that way, on his front and on his back. I've even tried weighing him with a different scale, but no matter what, he doesn't ever gain weight! In fact, he is losing weight! What is the matter with this pig?" Once again, the wife shook her head and walked away.
The next day, the day before the county fair, the farmer went out to get the pig to bring it to the barn to weigh it. But, alas, the pig was dead. The farmer was furious. "How can this pig be dead?" he asked of his wife. "I've weighed it every single day for a month!"
Finally, the wife spoke up and said, "In order to grow a pig, you must do more than weight it. You must feed it! Only then will your pig truly grow!"
The moral of the story is this: if we want to grow our students as readers and thinkers, we must do more than assess them. We must teach them. If we continue to assess our students in the intrusive and overwhelming manner many school districts are currently employing, our students will never reach the goals we set. Let's stop weighing our students and feed them!
There once was a farmer who wanted to take his pig to the county fair. He was determined that his pig would win a blue ribbon as the largest pig in the entire county. One day, about a month before the county fair, he took his pig into the barn and weighed it. "This here pig weighs 45 pounds," he told his wife. She just shook her head, knowing no matter what she said to her husband, she wouldn't be able to deter his ambition of winning first prize or make a difference in his approach.
The farmer took the pig back to his pen. But the next day, he weighed the pig again, certain that this time he would weigh more. "That's odd," the farmer commented upon seeing the scale. The pig only weighs 44 pounds today." Once again, the wife shook her head, knowing her husband would never take any advice she had to offer.
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| What are we accomplishing when we weigh the pig so frequently? |
For the next few weeks, the farmer weighed the pig every single day. And each time, he grew more and more frustrated because the pig was not gaining any weight. One day he exclaimed to his wife, "I don't understand! I'm weighing this pig every single day! No one could possibly be paying more attention to how much their pig weighs than I, and yet he simply refuses to gain weight! I've tried weighing him in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. I've weighed him facing this way and that way, on his front and on his back. I've even tried weighing him with a different scale, but no matter what, he doesn't ever gain weight! In fact, he is losing weight! What is the matter with this pig?" Once again, the wife shook her head and walked away.
The next day, the day before the county fair, the farmer went out to get the pig to bring it to the barn to weigh it. But, alas, the pig was dead. The farmer was furious. "How can this pig be dead?" he asked of his wife. "I've weighed it every single day for a month!"
Finally, the wife spoke up and said, "In order to grow a pig, you must do more than weight it. You must feed it! Only then will your pig truly grow!"
The moral of the story is this: if we want to grow our students as readers and thinkers, we must do more than assess them. We must teach them. If we continue to assess our students in the intrusive and overwhelming manner many school districts are currently employing, our students will never reach the goals we set. Let's stop weighing our students and feed them!
Prove It!
It's that time of year again when we start the slow painful process of passeging our students to death. If you're a new teacher--or not a teacher--you may not know what I'm talking about, so let me explain. This is when teachers give students as many passages as they can find that might possibly have some characteristics in common with the state assessments--which are coming up faster than we can believe or control. Everyone hates passages--students hate them, teachers hate them, administrators hate them, parents hate them. (Maybe the people who get paid to write them like them, but they are the only ones.) But we often feel this is a necessary evil because we want our students to "practice" before the real test....
So, if we insist on making our students stare blindly at mundane passages about topics they have absolutely no interest in, the least we can do is let them have a little fun with the answers. Today, my fifth grade group played a little game called "Prove It!" and it was a hit. It's pretty simple, too. We read a very short passage from Istation entitled, "Exploring Space." Then, the kids answered the four questions at the end of the story, citing their evidence as they did so. After that, I gave them each an answer choice for the first question, and they had to come to the board and write whether or not their answer choice was correct and how they knew. This was simple, quick, and the kids had fun--because kids like to write on the board. They all went at the same time, too, so no one was sitting back judging handwriting or word choice. We continued this activity with the other four questions, rotating answer choice letters.
Anyone with a white board and dry erase markers (or butcher paper and markers) can do this, and it reinforced the idea to my students that we don't only have to prove the right answer--we have to show why the other answers are wrong as well. This is difficult for a lot of our kids, but if we don't get them in the habit of disproving answers, they will end up settling on a mediocre answer choice or using "fake proof" to justify the wrong answer. This is a quick and easy way to get them practicing proofing their answers.
What activities are you using to keep your students engaged and focused in this season of reading passages?
So, if we insist on making our students stare blindly at mundane passages about topics they have absolutely no interest in, the least we can do is let them have a little fun with the answers. Today, my fifth grade group played a little game called "Prove It!" and it was a hit. It's pretty simple, too. We read a very short passage from Istation entitled, "Exploring Space." Then, the kids answered the four questions at the end of the story, citing their evidence as they did so. After that, I gave them each an answer choice for the first question, and they had to come to the board and write whether or not their answer choice was correct and how they knew. This was simple, quick, and the kids had fun--because kids like to write on the board. They all went at the same time, too, so no one was sitting back judging handwriting or word choice. We continued this activity with the other four questions, rotating answer choice letters.
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| This is actual student work from my group today. |
Anyone with a white board and dry erase markers (or butcher paper and markers) can do this, and it reinforced the idea to my students that we don't only have to prove the right answer--we have to show why the other answers are wrong as well. This is difficult for a lot of our kids, but if we don't get them in the habit of disproving answers, they will end up settling on a mediocre answer choice or using "fake proof" to justify the wrong answer. This is a quick and easy way to get them practicing proofing their answers.
What activities are you using to keep your students engaged and focused in this season of reading passages?
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