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I e-mailed a teacher last week about a rubric for a Language arts assignment (off topic, sorry). 10% of the points were for the written article, and the other 90% were for following instructions on how to assemble it into a "magazine" (it seemed to me that in a language arts class, at least 50% should be for the writing). She e-mailed back and told me that a major concern was that children learn how to follow instructions for a complex task like this, so the grading scheme was what she wanted.
It was most discouraging. Is my child learning anything academic?
The answer is no.
Your child is not learning anything academic.
We've had quite a bit of success, of late, and thanks to the new assistant superintendent for curriculum, telling the school that C., now in 7th grade, has to do academic work in academic classes.
I've just learned that next year, in 8th grade, all the kids are required to do a movie or a slide show as their big final project for ELA.
We're going to start objecting now.
The argument I stumbled onto is that if C. is to do these things he needs a certified teacher to instruct him.
Somehow it never occurred to me until a couple of months ago to use the word "certified" and/or "qualified."
In fact, ELA teachers are not certified to teach graphic design; nor are they certified to each filmmaking.
I suspect we're going to make a huge amount of headway with this specific argument. [update 5-26-2008: wrong]
I don't know quite how it would go if we didn't have a new ass't super who in fact wants students to be doing academic work - but I think we could take it to the board.
Our board prides itself on having 100% certified teachers.
If teachers are teaching subjects in which they are not certified, that's going to raise some issues for the board.
I presume.
5-26-2008:
Nope.
School board has signed off on adoption of middle school model for next school year (2008-2009); all subjects to be integrated beyond recognition or repair.
Lots of release time for teachers (aka: shortened school days for students) so teachers can Meet in Interdisciplinary Teams to devise a curriculum rich in Histogeomegraph Studies that will meet the needs of young adolescents.
Bonus: Exploratory courses.
On Darfur.
I'm pretty sure nobody in our school - or any school - is certified to teach Darfur to young adolescents.
But what does it matter?
Nobody's going to be teaching Darfur anyway.
Young adolescents are going to explore Darfur. On the internet. In groups.
I must say, the middle school model doesn't come cheap. The district is hiring a whole new duplicate middle school math teacher so we can even-up the Interdisciplinary Teams. If we didn't, one of the Teams wouldn't have a math teacher, and then how would they create a proper Histogeomegraph Studies exploratory hands-on curriculum to meet the needs of young adolescents?
Have I mentioned we have declining enrollment?
1 comment:
Interesting argument. Now, you know this particular activity would never make it into my classroom as a culminating activity for a year’s worth of work, so you know I’m not arguing the assignment. However, as I wondered what I would respond to this if I had to, I thought of a few things that might make the argument interesting. Most states’ essential knowledge and skills, the guidelines for ELA teachers, include something about student publication. Connecticut’s appears to be under Standard 3: Communicating with Others. (You are in Connecticut, right?) Grade 7's requirement says, “publish and/or present final products in a myriad of ways, including the use of the arts and technology.”
(Which brings up a very interesting question I’d never considered: is the teacher presumed to be knowledgeable enough to teach self-publication using existing, widely-available technology in the classroom? Apparently so. It’s never come up with me.)
So to play devil’s advocate, I think the arguments against your stance might look something like this: 1) that I’m (the teacher) required by the state standards to introduce students to ways of using technology to publish their work (see below); 2) that I am not teaching graphic design with the slide show, but rather introducing students to desktop publishing, which is available to them on their home computer and requires no certification; 3) that I am not teaching filmmaking, but rather teaching to stated specifics in state standards, particularly the following:
Standard 2: Exploring and Responding to Literature: “evaluate how authors, illustrators and filmmakers express political and social issues.” (Evaluation of film and filmmaking techniques)
Standard 3: “apply the most effective processes to create and present a written, oral or visual piece.” (In this case, the teacher has assigned a visual medium for evaluation, and allowed for two choices of type.)
Standard 3: “research information from multiple sources for a specific purpose.” (That research might include filmmaking techniques, so I’m off the hook there.)
As a former middle school teacher, the argument I’d make against the assignment is that as a culminating activity for a year’s worth of work, this project does not initially appear to include assessment on all the other standards. I’d question where and how this assignment will illustrate students’ proficiency in several more critical areas, such as:
Standard 3: “revise texts for organization, elaboration, fluency and clarity; evaluate the validity and authenticity of primary and secondary sources of information.”
Standard 4:” evaluate the impact of language as related to audience and purpose; demonstrate proficient use of proper mechanics, usage and spelling skills; use resources for proofreading and editing.”
What portion of the final grade includes assessment of these basics, and how is the student required to illustrate their mastery of these concepts BEFORE they put their finished ideas into visual form?
As a parent, these are the things I’d want to see my kid able to do. As a teacher, these are the types of requirements that always take precedence in my class. I don’t know if you’re likely to get an argument like this, but if you do, I figure you can always push the “just what is being assessed here?” issue. Is it how steady my kid can hold a camera while his buddies goof off on film, or how well he can fill in a template on a powerpoint presentation with bulleted phrases, or is there some deeper connection being made that is not evident by this assignment as stated?
Good luck with that. I’m going to go try NOT to rant about crayola curriculums now.
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