LDH Ch. 8: Testing, Advisory and Authentic learning

I'm going to follow in Arden's footsteps with a little disjointedness. I'm also trying to avoid a broad discussion of some of the qualities of the schools described in the chapter, as I feel other people have already covered that enough.

At the beginning of the chapter they talk about the differences between the desired outcome of teaching and the "1900s" model, that focuses on fact-based education, and lacks the skills transmission that some schools are now learning to focus on. One quote that really stuck out for me was this: "...most initiatives have focused on trying to make the educational system inherited from the 1900s perform more efficiently, rather than fundamentally rethink how schools are designed..." My immediate thought was TESTING! Tests have historically been used to check student's learning of facts, rather than any other skills they may learn in school. With all of the hoopla that surrounds testing today, I think we can see direct correlation: with the focus on a students standardized test results, many school systems fail to teach them other skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, or intrinsic motivation. Trying to teach them exactly what will be on the test may be the more "efficient" way to teach, but it is efficient and effective only insofar as conforming to outdated school system constructs.

On pages 246 and 247 the authors talk about the advisory periods implemented in successful schools. I won't go into detail about them, because the chapter did plenty of that, but I did want to say that I think its an interesting idea, particularly because of how they typically keep teachers with the same students for 2-4 years. During my placement on Monday I found out that ISA actually has a similar advisory structure! At ISA, an advisor meets with a group of students spanning all four grades, once a week for 30  minutes. They keep the same students each year, with the exception of graduating seniors and a new batch of freshman. My mentor teacher has suggested that I attend a few times, and I encourage other trini-students to see if their mentor teacher participates in an advisory as well!

Later in the chapter they discuss the idea of performance based assessment in conjunction with authentic achievement. One of the core components of that concept is that the students are responsible for presenting their material in front of an informed audience. I am a big, big fan of this concept, because I think it does wonders for actually getting kids to learn. I bet we all can relate: having a project that you can BS your way through, versus one that you are held accountable for? It makes a world of difference. I think we can all recognize this--we've all been in a class where we have to give a presentation, but we know that nobody will ask questions, or we turn in a written assignment where the research required is not much more than reading the abstracts. On the other hand, we've also been put in a situation where we KNOW the other students and professors will ask questions, so we have to do enough work where we become experts on the subject. I've found that it is assignments like these that leave me feeling the most rewarded, along with instilling long-term knowledge that I could talk about to this day. For example, in a marketing class I took two years ago, the final assignment was a group project to be presented before a panel of San Antonio marketing professionals. You can bet I worked 2349845x harder on that project than any other that semester, and my knowledge on the topic definitely paid off. I think having kids do this in high school prepares them for college as well as the "real world".