Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A modest proposal
At the risk of looking like a sock puppet for the New York Times, here's an interesting proposal about the ideal elementary school classroom, a day based on immersion rather than memorization and rote exercises, a schedule that can only be supported in a less test-dependent environment. What do you think?
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I have to say a lot of what’s included in the article can be seen in elementary classrooms in my district. We’ve done so much work over the last ten years or so to implement best practices in reading and writing workshop, inquiry-based hands-on science, and Everyday Mathematics. We do a fair amount of formative assessment to get the data needed to drive instruction, but it’s much more about learning than about testing. We focus on providing top-notch learning experiences throughout the school year with just a little teaching regarding the “testing genre” as state-testing time approaches. No one will ever convince me that a full year of test-prep activities will prepare students better than high quality, meaningful instruction.
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