This is my response to this month’s blogsync:
What is the best place for testing in schools?
Testing is a key aspect of formal education, but can this be
taken too far? Are our current tests fit for purpose? Should progress testing
alone be used to define school performance?There are more responses to this topic here.
My daughters are in that lovely pre-test stage. They are
awaiting to do their phonics test. The test that has fuelled several ASBOs on
Twitter. Their school has sent home some flashcards of words to help them. So,
most nights I come home and I work through the Klingon list of colours, I mean,
these words that are absolute nonsense. My daughters are good, but I can’t see
the point of it all. It is just a funny measuring stick to judge students.
In discussion with other primary teachers, they have told me
that the testing and preparation for the phonics test doesn’t help able readers.
In fact, according to them, it forces good readers to go backwards. My
daughters generally sight read words, yet the phonics test is focused on blending
sounds, which is something my daughters do if they don’t recognise a word. Whilst
I have been reading most nights with my daughters and helping them increase
their reading speed and word recognition, I find that now they are preparing
for an assessment that is regressive. One teacher even said that the most able
students do badly because of this sight reading and blended sound issue.
The problem I find with this testing is one that occurs
across most schools. It is the form of testing that follows this mantra: We all
know it’s silly, but we have to do as the government has told us to do it. I
admit that I have said that to students, meetings and parents. The test process
is not for the teacher’s benefit, but for a politician’s benefit to show improvement.
I love tests. I adore them. In fact, test me on tests – I’d
love you to. I think testing is an important part of my life as a teacher. I
test. I am tested. I comment on tests. I advise on tests. I predict tests.
Everywhere I look, there are tests. Yet, what I don’t like is a test that has
no value at all to the students or the process of learning.
Step forward the KS3 English test. Oh the joys of that test.
There may be NQTs reading this thinking how lucky they are that they don’t even
have to consider this assessment. But, it was a hilarious experience. Students
were prepared for the test. They worked hard. They sweated within an inch of
their life. They were told the assessment will really ‘help’ them in life. They
then got the results in the next academic year, when they were using a new grading
system and working on the GCSE. For them, the value of the SATs had disappeared
overnight. It became meaningless. Why the KS3 SATs never started a riot I’ll
never know. The realisation that the test was not for their benefit. They got
nothing out of it.
It is only right that a maker of things should test the produce
they make. A baker should taste or check his bread to see if it meets to a high
standard. But, should a baker check the bounciness of his bread by throwing it
on the floor? What value has this to the consumer? They never throw their bread
around the room. It has no value to them at all. Yet, it is something that they
must do, as their Head Office has instructed them to do it. But, at the same
time, I baker will not take the bread out of the oven during the cooking stage.
They might peak through the window, but they don’t cut a bit off and taste it.
They wait for the bread to be ready.
But, the testing that goes on in schools is dictated by a
system outside of education: politics. I test students all the time. At the
beginning. In the middle. At the end of learning. However, the testing
structures we have are assessing at the end of the learning - KS2 and GCSE. That timing warps learning and education. It
is seen as a ‘do or die’ moment. Students, teachers and schools ramp up the
pressure because everything rides on this. This one single measure. This one
single test makes a school a good one or a bad one.
What if a school was allowed to enter a student when they
wanted to for the KS2 test? What if our system for assessment and testing was
based on the child? The child takes the test when they are ready. After all, when
a child is ready they are ready. Politicians want to see progress, yet the systems
hinder those making progress. What if a child is ready before Year 6? The same
goes with GCSE. I am not talking about modular exams – yuk! I am talking about
terminal examinations. If a student is ready, surely they should do the exam.
Having students tread water is not a sign of an effective education system.
Visitor: So, what have you been doing in Year 11?
Student: Well, I have been doing stuff that I have been
doing in Year 10 because some students didn’t get it, so we had to do it all
again.
Visitor: Interesting, but you did get some revision out of
it?
Student: Yes, I did, but it was pretty boring.
Because, we have years and years of data, using the current
model of assessment, we are never going to change the exam structure. There
will always be a KS2 test. But, what would be nice is if the child, rather than
the government and the school, were factored into the process. A politician wants
students to leave school with a certain level of proficiency. Let’s assess them
when they are proficient and not when it convenient for a statistic. You take a
driving test when your driving instructor thinks you are ready. Not, at the same
day every year across the land.
Hopefully, a model like this would avoid the dreaded teaching
to the exam that exists for several terms a year. Because, we all know it
happens. Real teaching goes out the window and drilling the students for the
exams take place.
Right, must dash, I have bread to test and some more Klingon
words to go through. Splage. Crooge. Brack.
Thanks for reading,
Xris
P.S. This blog contains 40% fairy dust and it is purely a hypothetical
exploration of something that will never happen.
Baffling that you think that it is odd to test whether children understand the alphabet code of language. Odder still that you think that doing this, instead of guessing from something other than the letters in the word, is going backwards. Please read up on how children actually read.
ReplyDeleteOld Andrew, I don't see anything wrong with testing that children understand the alphabet code of language. My issue really is with the timing. I don't profess to be an expert on Early Years reading; I am watching it as an observer, with my daughters. I am discovering it first hand. I feel that it might be better done at a stage that is appropriate to the reading process. Expert readers employ sight reading rather than applying the alphabet code. The alphabet code is used when faced with unfamiliar words. I feel that the test takes place at a set time where students might be far more proficient at reading than the assessment is.
ReplyDeleteAnd, if I was really dead against it, would I really be practising the sounds each night.
I am questioning the timing more than anything. Furthermore, it is a bit silly, in my opinion, that the words are made up rather than real functional words.
Thanks
Agree with oldandrew - this check is invaluable and prevents children from ingrained habits of guessing - particularly damaging for struggling readers who haven't been introduced to the alphabetic code with the consistency and structure it requires. What's sad is that schools which teach synthetic phonics well, don't need additional practice. A few minutes spent on alerting fluent readers to 'read through the word' accurately and not guess/reach for meaning when they see little figure alongside the word is all that is required.
ReplyDeleteReading Makes Your Child Smarter
ReplyDeleteReading is known to have numerous benefits. It increases your world knowledge, enhances your vocabulary, and works to improve your reading comprehension abilities.
But did you know that reading can actually make you smarter?
In fact, reading not only can make a child smarter, the very act of reading can even help to compensate for modest levels of cognitive ability in children by building their vocabulary and general knowledge! This is a finding reported by researchers Cunningham and Stanovich in a report titled "What Reading Does For the Mind".
The simple fact here is that reading can make your child smarter, and that learning to read early on is directly linked to later success in life.
1) Did you know that your child's vocabulary at 3 years old predicts his or her grade one reading success? [1]
2) Did you know that vocabulary and reading ability in first grade strongly predicts grade 11 outcomes? [2]
3) Did you know that your child's reading skill in grade 3 directly influences high school graduation? Studies have found that children who cannot read proficiently by grade 3 are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers! [3]
>> Give your child the best possible head start. Teach your child to read today. Click here to learn how.
But how do you teach a young child to read, and isn't that the job of the school and teachers?
You can't be more wrong...
With the right tools, knowledge, and techniques, teaching young children to read can be a simple and effective process. I'd like to introduce you to a fantastic reading program called Children Learning Reading, a super effective method for teaching children to read - even children as young as just 2 or 3 years old.
The creators of this program have used it to teach their four children to read before age 3, and by reading, I mean real, phonetic reading.
I can understand if you find that hard to believe... In fact, I had a difficult time believing it myself as well... that is, until I saw the videos they posted documenting the reading progress of the their children - not to mention all the videos other parents have sent in showcasing their children's reading progress after using the Children Learning Program. After learning more about their methods and techniques, it became clear how it's possible to teach young children to read effectively.
It is truly within your ability to teach your child to read in a relatively short period of time spending just 10 to 15 minutes each day.
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1. Vocabulary Development and Instruction: A Prerequisite for School Learning
Andrew Biemiller, University of Toronto
2. Early reading acquisition and its relation to reading experience and ability 10 years later.
Cunningham AE, Stanovich KE.
3. Double Jeopardy How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation
Donald J. Hernandez, Hunter College and the Graduate Center,