When I look back on this last school year, I really have mixed feelings. I have to admit, my kids test scores were lower than they probably have ever been before. I have racked my brain trying to figure out why this happened. I've come to the conclusion that it's not just one thing. I could blame the schedule, the kids, or myself but the real truth is that my goal for the kids was never to make them score higher on a test.
This year I gave up control in my class. Does that mean kids were hanging from the ceiling and running around the room like animals? Of course not. It just means that I gave the kids many more choices than I ever had in my career. I went away from the traditional set up of me standing in front of the kids and lecturing them. I let them choose their own groups, seating arrangements and resources for learning. I provided them with the standards, created pages of resources on my website and provided them with any materials they needed. They had access to laptops, cell phones, desktop computers, iPads, iPods and other devices. They chose all kinds of ways to show their learning. They built models, made videos, created rap songs, used Web 2.0 applications and found other creative ways to show what they learned. I saw them improve at collaborating, creating, public speaking, researching and in some cases even leading. Many even got better at trouble shooting the devices they were using. They were still given assessments so I could give them a grade. It would be a lie if I said there were no behavior problems or struggles. There were both. Welcome to the real world. All of this may sound good but it didn't necessarily result in higher test scores.
Should my main goal as a teacher be to prepare them for a standardized test or should my main goal be to turn them into 21st century learners? That is a very hard question to answer. Parents want to see test scores improve. I don't think most parents would be able to recognize if their child has become more creative or a better collaborator. I don't think they would even care about that. However, we are told that today's workforce desires creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.
In a perfect world, this type of learning would always result in higher test scores for every student. This is not a perfect world and I don't think that is ever going to happen. That doesn't mean that I wont spend the next school year trying to make that happen.
This year I gave up control in my class. Does that mean kids were hanging from the ceiling and running around the room like animals? Of course not. It just means that I gave the kids many more choices than I ever had in my career. I went away from the traditional set up of me standing in front of the kids and lecturing them. I let them choose their own groups, seating arrangements and resources for learning. I provided them with the standards, created pages of resources on my website and provided them with any materials they needed. They had access to laptops, cell phones, desktop computers, iPads, iPods and other devices. They chose all kinds of ways to show their learning. They built models, made videos, created rap songs, used Web 2.0 applications and found other creative ways to show what they learned. I saw them improve at collaborating, creating, public speaking, researching and in some cases even leading. Many even got better at trouble shooting the devices they were using. They were still given assessments so I could give them a grade. It would be a lie if I said there were no behavior problems or struggles. There were both. Welcome to the real world. All of this may sound good but it didn't necessarily result in higher test scores.
Should my main goal as a teacher be to prepare them for a standardized test or should my main goal be to turn them into 21st century learners? That is a very hard question to answer. Parents want to see test scores improve. I don't think most parents would be able to recognize if their child has become more creative or a better collaborator. I don't think they would even care about that. However, we are told that today's workforce desires creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.
In a perfect world, this type of learning would always result in higher test scores for every student. This is not a perfect world and I don't think that is ever going to happen. That doesn't mean that I wont spend the next school year trying to make that happen.
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