Changing Paradigm

I was talking with one of our teachers the other day who shared a very valid concern over some ideas I was sharing about "new literacy" and what our students will need to be able to do when they leave school.

She agreed that what kids needed to know has changed but has many concerns about how we are assessing students...especially at the state level. How can we teach new literacy skills while still maintaining high testing scores.

I think the answer lies in a total transformation of classroom practices. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Typically, when a teacher plans a lesson with higher-order thinking skills in mind, most of the lower-orders skills that others would focus on are still achieved.

This theory will work well in many categories where tests tend to required more than just factual recall. Requiring students to think critically in history, may not result in students knowing the answer to questions such as "when did the war of 1812 begin?"

This is all dependant on what types of questions are assessed in standardized tests.

Oh well, looks like I have some more homework. I think I need to take a closer look at what types of things are required in our state standardized tests.

Happy Saturday!

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