Testing Behaviors

 I was thinking about monitoring testing behaviors while doing hall duty for STAAR. Just brainstorming. Thoughts? 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mtZKhmzN3blbHVyHEvyToLUZ0lyWypxSAbIGq7uJ2dk/edit?usp=sharing 

Teacher Ed: Developing a Watch List of Practices and Replacements for Literacy Ed

I'm teaching a graduate college class called Literacy Acquisition: Process and Pedagogy. GEEKING OUT and loving it.

In our main project, we develop a position statement on an important topic in literacy acquisition. Then we write a Watch List of what to look for in materials and in instruction that doesn't match the population we serve, the research, or the outcomes we seek for learners. 

The following is the example I provided for dyslexia instruction. 

Composing the Watch List: I'm focusing on problems I'm seeing in dyslexia instruction in the middle school age group. 

1. Students experiencing difficulty with dyslexia in middle school, and have already had science of teaching reading interventions in elementary school don't need more of the same stuff such as Read Naturally. If phonics didn't work the first time, then what makes us think it will work the next time? It's been my experience that kids who have to do tasks from early school time feel like they are being treated like babies and end up chunking any form of engagement out the door. Research tells us this is true as well: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED582893.pdf 

2. Carefully consider materials for inaccuracies and mismatches to the population you serve. 

Example one: The word is few. In the program, they code the word /f/ /yoo/. Um. Have you met a middle school kid? I'm not sure that eff you needs to be a part of our distractions during reading intervention. 

Example two: A common program asks learners to box off affixes and underline roots or base words. Prediction and minimum are the examples provided. The program coded prediction as: pre dict ion. Minimum was coded as min i mum.

SOOOOO many problems with this.

First - there is a misunderstanding of what root words are and how they are employed in words. If you use the meaning of "to say" in a word, you can use -dic- or -dict- depending on the Latin or Greek rules that govern the use. If you are wanting to say "small, limited, or short" the form is both -min- and -mini- depending on Latin and Greek grammar. The way the program divided and categorized the word messed up the meaning. 

Second - if we are teaching kids to read words - tion is a unit of meaning that makes a word a noun (which is also a Latin, Greek artifact). You really wouldn't ever divide the word without using the tion in the last syllable. For minimum, the root is -min- or -mini- depending on the grammar from the language of origin. Just like we had in prediction. The program also calls the /i/ syllable an affix by the coding. Ridiculous. There are no affixes in minimum. 

Third - What the heck are kids supposed to do with this information? Is it a reading activity? A vocabulary study? A syllabication activity? A distinction without a difference in application? An activity more suited for a person studying advanced linguistics? The activity is just a hot mess and should be avoided altogether unless the point is to cause confusion and develop a theory of reading that isn't altogether helpful. 

Basically - the program is flat out wrong in content and approach. Dangerous stuff. It's unlikely to reach the goals of supporting kids who already struggle with the code by asking them to code more stuff. This kind of junk HURTS kids. They score worse when they are through with the intervention than before they had the "support." 

Getting them to read (,) right (?)

 Getting them to read right. As in correct.

Getting them to read, right? Like, at all. 

Right now, our biggest hurdle is getting kids to read. 

• They are still reading the questions and scanning. 
• Or they are just reading the questions and choosing an answer. 
• Or they are reading, struggling to make it make sense.
• Or they start reading and get tired.
• Or they look at it, and realize they are bored already.

None of our lessons and reviews on TEKS and questions are going to amount to a hill of beans - or even cow patties - if they aren't even reading. On all the days ending in y or on the test day. 

Here's some ideas: 

Show me your screen: 

Have kids open up their screens and show you what they do first, second, and third. Have them show you what they do with the tools. Then tell them to stop all that crap, expand the text, turn on the damn line reader, and actually read the thing. 

Manage your energy: 

Look. On test day, we get tired. It makes sense to start with the hard stuff first. Use the next key to next all the stuff until you see the pencil. This is the icon that tells you that that passage has the long text you have to write. Start there. Read the second paragraph in the prompt and use that to set your purpose - reason - for reading. 

Then find the questions that ask you to use two passages. Now read the first passage and answer those questions. Then read the second passage and answer those questions. Then use both passages to answer questions about both of the passages. 

Then go back to number one on the test and do those parts after you take a break. 

Stop Boring Yourself

Guys, when I listen to kids read...it's torture. As teachers, we have to back up and teach people how to stay interested in a text by reading with prosody. The voice in their head - their reader's ear - can't be boring. There must be emphasis, tone, phrasing, soft and loud...an actor reading lines in their head, a grandma reading a story, a newscaster explaining a disaster, a podcaster on a true crime series, a youtuber unveiling a toy or doing a game walkthrough, some crazy-Texas-accented-eccentric-white-lady-who-overdoes-it-all... Something interesting. Anything but that monotone bored teenager in the seat and stuck in a room for five hours. Seriously, why would they torture themselves like that? Stop the madness. 

Point of Difficulty

There's a lot involved in reading. And kids need a strategy for each component when they struggle. 

Decoding - try breaking up the letters, three at a time and stacking them on top of each other

con

trib

ute

Say each line one at a time. Then put it all together. If it sounds like a word you know, you are good to go. If you don't know the word, have the dictionary tool say it for you so you can figure out the meaning that goes with the sounds. 

Purpose - Decide what genre it is. That helps you know what to expect and the voice you need to hear in your head. Are you grandma reading a story, a slam poet, or a documentarian? 

There's more to say...but our instruction has to help kids know what to do when stuff doesn't make sense.

Understand Why

Most kids think they have to do well to pass the grade or to graduate. That's actually not why. The real why is that Texas wants to know that they aren't releasing a giant population of fools into the world. And people who can't read something and use it to make decisions -well, they are easily fooled. The world will take advantage of folks like that. The point of all the assessment is to determine if learners are capable of making decisions that make their lives better. Sure - the test isn't really gonna make life better. But knowing the true purpose and showing competence to get the thing over with sure does make the retesting pain shorter. 

NOTE- I'm working with some specific lessons to resolve these issues with Unity Learning Communities - we'll be trying them out and reporting on the impact.