Building Some Excitement

I had a revelation the other day regarding standardized tests. I have found out, finally, why standardized tests are so big. They:

1. Show what students know compared to thousands of others.
2. Show which students can actually persevere through a tedious, boring, usually disconnected multiple choice test.
3. Tap into a student's competitive instinct.

There are many other things that standardized tests do, but these are the three that jump out to me. I was never a fan of standardized tests. In high school I would get frustrated with the wording of questions, the pressure teachers put on you, and the inability of administrators and teachers to explain why in the world we are taking this thing. I tell my students the above three points. Number three really jumps out to my students and enables me to build some excitement for the DCCAS in April. I mention my experiences about standardized tests and preach that "it's not about me, this class, the school....it's about you succeeding at something." We keep track of mastery on standards (on a poster board with their name and standard names like: "Order of Operations," or "System of Equations") and each student gets a red sticker if they are below 80 percent, a green sticker if they get an 80-89 percent, and a blue sticker if they get a 90-100 percent on our weekly assessments.

This has brought great competition to the class not only with each other, but personally. Students mutter in the back of the room, "Man, I need to go blue. I'm tired of this red stuff." This was my goal. No matter how dry the material, no matter how wordy the questions, no matter how disconnected the questions seem to my students' lives, no matter how many time they are preached that "this test is important," without reasons why, my students DESIRE to succeed for themselves. That is refreshing.

GO BLUE!

This past week was a normal week--no delays, no snow days, no assemblies, no testing, just instruction. I had an absolute blast with my students. My DCCAS (the name of the test they all take in April to determine how our school/students are doing) prep class is all about going "blue." Going "blue" means the student scored advanced on the test--our ultimate goal. Many of my students scored "red" on the test, meaning they were "below basic" in their understanding of tenth grade mathematics. So, it may seem to some that scoring advanced in just two months is totally out of the question. I'd like to think I have them thinking differently. During class we slam our desks and shout "let's go!" and we always help those slipping behind, and we all participate throughout the whole class, and we all shout "YES!" when we get problems right--the class is one big cheerleading convention, where everyone is taking on the role as cheerleader.

On Friday we took our first assessment to see how the class did on the three tested math standards we focused on the first two weeks of the class. I have four groups, or classes, of students and each class averaged around 73 percent on the test. To score advanced, they would need to hit about 90 percent. So, we are not there yet, but we are moving forward. We have 2 months to practice, practice, practice. I know they can do it.

In other news: no broken bones or concussions on the slopes with my snowboarding club!