5-+TED+Talk

I truly enjoyed the two Sir Ken Robinson talks that were played in the class. I happen to agree with the points he mentions and the ideas for changing the educational system (I might not see eye to eye with the sarcastic put-down way of delivery). In his “How to Escape Education’s Death Valley” Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson mentions two points that I would like to comment about. He talks about how humans are “naturally different and diverse” and the importance of standardized tests for diagnostic purposes and as support to learning.

I personally favor a standardized test created by the Northwest Education Association (NWEA) called is the [|MAP](Measure of Academic Progress) Test. It is an excellent tool for teachers and the administration if used to evaluate, monitor, and help student growth. Sadly, many teachers do not invest the time and effort to learn more and utilize standardized tests (or even summative assessments) to enhance their student’s learning, and on the other hand, school administrations tend to use the results of standardized tests to evaluate their teachers.

The MAP Test scores place children on a Continuum of Learning. This continuum identifies the skills that each student is ready to work on. Teachers can group students based on these skills for each strand. The groupings are continually changing depending on the students’ scores in each strand within the subject. The continuum per strand is divided into 3 columns that allow the teacher to enhance prior knowledge, provide guided learning to the students’ level, and pave the way for future instruction. It can shape homework and classwork and learning. This kind of differentiation within the classroom and meeting individual need allows the child to feel success and builds confidence in their ability.

And with a little more online research, you just might be lucky and find that someone has already created some [|resources] that you might need.

I have used the MAP scores and the curriculum ladders to develop lesson plans that catered to the children’s needs. I believe that the results did show growth, but again for those children that didn’t perform on the test as well as they did in the classroom one has to remember that they are children and they have good and bad days. They feel the pressure no matter how much you try to impress upon them that the test is not to label them but to help them (especially if they have had bad experiences). They are in the end little human beings that get conditioned by those that surround them.