Test prep. Yep. It's a thing. You can rail against teaching to the test, but should you? Imagine going to your driver's test, never knowing about the parallel parking exercise. Better yet, imagine going downtown for a concert, and the only places left to park require that backwards geometry and spatial reasoning. You'd better bet that teaching to that test is good for passing the exam and navigating real driving life. In the same way, preparing students for the type of thinking and item types they will encounter is the right thing to do.
Marzano, Dodson, Simms, and Wipf just released a book of their research studies on assessment items from ACT, SAT, NAEP, PARCC, and SBAC. (They studied all content areas, but I'm just reporting on ELA findings.) In their text, Ethical Test Preparation in the Classroom, the authors reveal distinctions worth noting about how an additional layer of teaching beyond best ELAR practices is necessary for student success on large scale assessments.
I was working with a group of students the other day when one of them slammed down his pencil and scowled. I asked why he was so angry. "Miss. Why didn't anyone tell me about this before?" Oh, honey, I'm not sure they haven't. Or perhaps we just didn't know. And now that you understand, you have a clearer path to success.
Perhaps the following is an uncomfortable truth: Experience with the item types frames student thinking.
Marzano, et al. (2021) give us some insight. In their study, 80 percent of items used selected response items. Why wouldn't we show kids how to be successful on 80 percent of the test? 20 percent of items in their study addressed short constructed-responses on reading, selected-response items on language, and extended-response items on writing.
Furthermore, the researchers identified six basic structures, or thinking frames, necessary for successful completion of selected-response items. Big Idea, Detail, Meaning, Function, Purpose, Evidence. In this blog post, I'll focus on the insights I've garnered from reading about the Big Idea Frame.
Big Idea Frame:
23.36 percent of items in the study related to central idea, main idea and theme. Comprehension of the text as a whole forms a critical foundation to student success. Many of our test results come down to a critical factor: poverty. Yet, success with understanding critical texts remains true regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or SES (ACT, 2006, pp. 16-17). If we could nail this big idea frame with our students, this type of test prep is certainly a worthy endeavor.
Marzano, et al., (2021) share important distinctions that lead us to solutions for teaching the big idea frame.
Rich, Complex Texts: First, our texts must be rich enough to qualify as complex texts. Here are the criteria:
- "subtle, involved, or deeply embedded relationships among ideas or characters
- richness in the amount and sophistication of information conveyed
- elaborate or unconventional structure
- intricate style
- demanding and highly context-dependent vocabulary
- implicit or ambiguous purpose" (Marzano, et al., 2021, p. 26)
- embody a "relatively clear structure"
- include "formatting and linguistic clues regarding the structure of the text" (Marzano, et al., 2021, p. 29
- comprehension and vocabulary (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012)
- syntax (Goff, Pratt, & Ong, 2005)
- fluency (National Reading Panel, 2000; Paige, 2011)
- deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, &Tecsch-Romer, 1993)
- high standard for coherence (Pearson & Liben, 2013)
- select evidence that supports comprehension of the big idea frame
- explain the function of text or language elements that leads the reader to the big idea
- identify context that supports word and phrase meaning connected to the big idea
- use details to support ideas (The Reporter Questions) that are salient in understanding and using the big idea
- clarify salient components that belong in an effective summary or theme statement to encapsulate the big idea
- explain the purpose and craft of textual elements (Marzano, et al., 2021: summary of Table 2.5 on page 28) that effectively lead to and support the nuances of the big idea.
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