[IAEP] Pedagogical Vision for the Journal was GPA Report - Feedback on using the Journal

[Caroline Meeks]

Yama, I agree with you 100% about the need to prepare kids for the
standardized tests.
A world where the powers that be judge people on Portfolios rather then high
stakes standardized tests is a Utopia that is yet to exist. We must prepare
todays youth for today's world.

Teachers must assess students learning as part of their daily processes, I
do not use the term assessment to mean just the government tests.
 Portfolios as an effective way for teachers and other adults to help a
child learn.  They are a reality that exists now and has research  behind it
and it is a method of interest of many current teachers.  Doing it with
paper is unweildy but its being done.  We can make it easier, more portable,
more efficient and effective.

Yes, we must prepare students for standardized tests, but research shows,
including the paper I pointed you to last week, that even if the
standardized tests emphasis retrieval, just drilling students on facts all
day is not very good preparation.  Good education is far more then that.
Portfolios are an "And", they are yet another tool the teacher and the
student can use to support learning.  And Sugar includes games that drill on
facts too.

Ok I'm off to the wood for the weekend! So no more philosophy for me! have
fun.

Caroline





On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Yamandu Ploskonka <yamaplos at gmail.com>wrote:

> I like the change of subject line, elegant, thanks
>
>
>> We are getting very enthusiastic responses to Sugar as an ePortfolio
>> creation tool.  No one likes standardized tests. Portfolios represent a far
>> better alternative for assessing student progress.  If we can create a good
>> system for creating and managing them we will have contributed a great deal.
>> We are working with one of the experts in the field, Evangeline Harris
>> Stefanakis an author and professor at BU.
>>
>>
> Well, congratulations.
>
> As much as I dislike playing devil's advocate, the problem I see with the
> above quote (cf. C.Meeks) is that it attempts to show as simple what is a
> very messy issue.
>
> I deeply agree with a central core,"If we can create ... great deal".
> Besides this being a big, big, big "if", I do believe that the impact of our
> whole project and desire and dream is well summarized in that single
> sentence.
>
> Now, why that is not easy has to do with an even bigger bag of cat.
> So big that it actually should be at least looked at before pretending we
> can dismiss it.
>
> For one thing, the whole subject of assessment is on the table.  Does
> assessment make *any* sense?
>
> And then, at some moment, we need to come back and touch reality.  Whether
> "no one likes standardized tests" is true or not (no such sweeping
> generalization survives Logic 101), it really doesn't matter and is very
> much an academic question better discussed among those of us who have it
> made to a warm house, enough food and broadband, even though I am finding
> that I am unemployable as a teacher within the public school system here as
> my pieces of heavy paper do not have the kind of seals they want to see -
> funny turn of destiny, where the reality of the real world bites even me,
> such a nice guy.
>
> Fact is, all nice and dandy in the idea, and mostly useless, I'm afraid.
> Has BU abandoned the SAT or such requirements?  Does regular testing in
> Prof. Harris' and her colleague classes take into account different learning
> styles, attention cycles?  Let's assume they do.  In how many other places
> is that the law of the land?
>
> I'm sorry. I don't like the weather, I don't like to be taxed, I don't like
> to hear discouraging news on the radio.
> They're there - not much we can do about it.  Denial don't help.
>
> I see as priority to fix what exists so that it is better, understanding
> that our point of view may be skewed as we live a privileged existence, yet
> most of the world's kids still will get a break only if they can manage to
> do good while under the gun of the standardized test.
>
> Missing that is missing reality.
>
> Not that we should abandon the dream or the Portfolio.
>
> Yes that we should spend as much time and effort, at least, to help kids
> deal with the reality they have been handed.  Otherwise we are really,
> really doing them a disservice.
>
> end of yamarant
>
>
>


-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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