Beat down

Today, I gave my students a standardized reading test, which was required by the district. In its efforts to attack freshmen development/testing slumps, the DO decided to add two more reading/writing tests to the students' list of assessments throughout the year. So now, my students take finals in January and June, course and teacher specific. They take a standardized reading test twice per year, in Sept/Oct and April. Our school has also decided to do writing assessments school-wide to trace progress in writing skills; the students get that three times per year.

So, for most of my freshmen, I gave them a writing assessment yesterday and the first of a two-day reading assessment today. (Don't get me started on how the DO thought it would be a one-period test and it really, really is not; the directions say it's untimed, for golly's sake!) My 2/3 period class was pretty quiet, but I'm their first two periods of the day, for most of them anyway, so I didn't think anything of it. I should have known something was in the air, though, since they're also the most outgoing, the most talkative, and the most comfortable with each other and me. My 4th and 5th periods were unsually low-energy, low-key, and quiet. I found out why as I handed out the tests to my 5th period: other departments in the school were doing the first of two progress assessments today. Two students in 5th period had a "standardized" or progress test every period: science in 2nd period, Spanish in 3rd period, swim test in 4th period, and then the second of 3 English tests in my class 5th period.

My kids are beat down. I didn't have to read the directions about how to fill out the name, date, grade, gender, birthday, ID bubbles on the answer sheet. They listened quietly to directions and rolled their eyes. They finished the tests quickly and then put their head down. Most students genuinely fell asleep. I would too, if I'd been assessed all day. Even if the kids didn't take it seriously (and most seemed to, from what I saw), being assessed and reading and figuring out: it's tiring for their poor 14 and 15 year old brains. I didn't teach most of the day, and I'm exhausted!

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My reading/English kids 2/3 period were the funniest, and I have never loved them as much as I did today. I have them for two periods back-to-back and I don't even let them out for the 5 minute passing period for a break. My instructional model for the reading program is pretty structured: 20 minutes in whole group, then 3 20-minute rotations, then 10 minutes wrap-up. Since I have them for 110 minutes continually, we do the model the way it's supposed to be, and then we finish out the time with some of the freshmen-required syntax unit.

Today, the students were still working on their reading assessment when the bell rang for the end of the 2nd period. One student asked if he could get up and go near the door. Since he's recovering from a nasty cold, I thought he was going to go outside and spit, which he's been doing 2-3 times per day for a few days. Nope. He got up, pulled the door stop up, and closed the door, simply returning to his reading assessment. Now this kid, he's a goof-off and an instigator and a quick thinker and a lot of other things that substitute teachers don't like. I was shocked that he even thought to close the door (which I do on normal days to prevent my students from getting distracted by the students outside changing classes), much less wanted one less distraction from his test.

My block class was all voted to have both the reading and writing tests on the same day. Originally, I presented it to them as two tests that would take 2 full periods. They said break it up; that's too much! I thought, okay, that makes sense. Then one student was smart enough to ask if that would mean two days without rotations, I admitted that would be the case, and most students changed to all tests on one day. One even called attention to how much sooner he wanted to get to the next article in our reading book, about the Black Plague, and about half the class echoed his enthusiasm.

Now, I know this will skew the results. Students whose brains have been tested for two solid hours will not perform as well as students who have not. I don't feel bad about this for two main reasons: this is the pre-test for both assessments. Both will have follow-ups, maybe 2 follow-ups. Plus? I myself would prefer to have one more solid day to teach instead of being interrupted so much... by these important assessments... that assess things I'm supposed to be teaching... but I don't have time to teach because I'm giving the assessments... to test their abilities based on my teaching... you see where I'm going here?