[etni] Re: english teacher LD forms
- From: "Adele Raemer and Laurie Levy" <raemer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <sharontzu5@xxxxxxx>, <granny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 07:41:53 +0200
Dear Sharon and ETNIers,
I would like to thank Sharon here for her posting. I wanted to respond to
this, but just hadn't gotten around to it. What's more, as a teacher who has
NOT gone through the course which she has, she did it much more accurately,
intelligently and in -depth than I could have ever done! So Saron: Thanks!!!
What I WILL add here, is my gut response to the original complaint.
As a veteran ETNIer (not quite from the beginning, but quite active for many
years already) I can't COUNT the number of times people have complained,
over these emails, about kids receiving adaptations that were IRRELEVANT,
and they did NOT need! About the ever-growing number of kids who were
receiving hakra'at sheilon, despite the fact that they, as teachers, knew
VERY well that those kids had NO problems whatsoever reading on their own!
Or that a pupil of theirs who was given be'al peh could really manage with a
tape! Now when a kid gets a testing adaptation that does not suit him, not
only dos it not allow the learner to accurately demonstrate what s/he is
capable of, but it also makes more work for US , the teachers! (Making more
tapes than we really need to; sitting one-on-one with more kids than we need
to for oral testing, etc.)
I remember a thread (or 2 or 3) a while back, (even a report in the media)
about kids who receive testing adaptations because...."well, their parents
paid for the assessment! How can the testers send them home 'empty-handed'
"?
Furthermore, I, personally, have heard a tester (who is also a teacher)
relate overhearing a kid in school explaining to another kid HOW TO CHEAT on
the assessment exam! In other words, explaining what type of behavior during
the assessment (pretend to have a hard time concentrating, move your feet a
lot, look out the window often, don't sleep the night before, etc.) will
elicit receiving adaptations!
Now, a tester doesn't know these kids from Adam, and sees them a few times
for a few hours. We have good actors who can put on excellent performances
for that amount of time, when sufficiently motivated (and parents laying out
thousands of shekels seems to be quite motivating, to me). Who better than
the teacher (who knows these kids well, can take opportunities in class to
try numerous approaches, to try and see how the kid actually performs best
PRIOR to going to the assessment, and then report this to the assessor) to
report on what actually happens in the field when the kid tests in one way
as opposed to another? It's not that we are doing the job of the assessor.
There is a very excellent course which assessors much take that provides
them with this expertise, and _I_ do not have that! Rather, we are helping
do an accurate assessment by providing valuable information which the
assessor would otherwise have no access to. (Would you take your baby (or
pet) into a doctor and say: Hey Doc! My kid/dog doesn't feel well, but I
won't tell you her symptoms. I'll just sit here and let you check her, and
see if you can figure out what hurts her and why!)
HERE, then, may be the point where we are lacking: clear instructions (maybe
a short hishtalmut on the topic) of how we, as classroom teachers, can work
and experiment with our learners to be able to fill out these forms in a way
that will:
1. find the most appropriate (and fair) mode of testing for our learner,
2. help the assessor do this most accurately and
3, make the assessment system fairer for ALL of our learners in the long run
(those who receive the needed dispensations, as well as those who do not
need them).
Does all this mean more work? Yup. It does. But not that much. And it makes
us more professional, IMHO. But on the other hand, it should also prevent
Johnny (who really CAN read) from getting that dispensation he does not
deserve, and then WE have to sit with him and test him orally, rather than
have that much needed 30 minutes to deal with other things.
We can't have our cake, and eat it too!
Adele
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