We frequently hear critics argue that U.S. students can’t write well and that there is a “literacy crisis” in the U.S. What is the origin of these discourses? What do they have to do with immigration, national security, and economics? How does the notion that Americans can’t write drive the national push to test writing? Here we explore the history of writing and testing in the U.S., the “science” and technology of testing approaches, and how the rhetoric of assessment impacts the lives of Americans today.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Comparing Johnny to Douglass

After reading the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" and the "Why Johnny Can't Write" piece, it has become pretty evident to the reason behind America's illiteracy. In modern day America, people blame children's addiction to television and poorly educated teachers for the fault of why students are illiterate. But from reading Frederick Douglass's inspirational story of how he managed to learn how to read and write under the harsh conditions as a slave proves to me that students today lack motivation.

Image Courteous of goodreads.com  
Douglass knew as a young child that he would be one step closer to freedom if he became literate. Freedom was his motivation. Students today need to understand that a prosperous future should be they're motivation. But it is difficult for students to realize that when they have teachers assigning them overloading homework assignments along with a strict grading system that determines their educational level.

With that being said, it is also the grading system we need to focus the issue on. Tests add stress to the students' learning process. They feel pressured to have an excellent grade because that's what they believe is expected of them, rather than to improve their knowledge. Frederick Douglass didn't go to school, didn't have tests, and mainly taught himself through different methods. The issue with America today is that the schools are trying to produce better papers out of students rather than better writers. Education through a student's viewpoint can be related to a video game; do well at this level and you'll proceed on to the next. It's all about the grades for them.

As a student myself, I occasionally come across the dilemma of the proper way of completing assignments versus being creative with my assignments. We are told to be our own person and are encouraged to express ourselves in our own unique way. I became fully aware of this dilemma when I enrolled in Art 10 last semester. I imagined in any class that would allow me to be creative, art would be it. But when I was given the first week's assignment, I had to follow all these guidelines to produce artwork to meet my professor's standards. As you can well imagine, Art 10 wasn't as fun as I predicted. It is the strain for the perfect grade that students in lose their motivation to learn. Because they are consumed with the quest for the perfect grade, they seek the easiest way possible rather than fully understanding the concept of the lesson.

We figure with a grading system, students would be more compelled to complete their work to receive some sort of reward for their hard work. I'm not stating that we should completely eliminate testing in general, I'm suggesting to lighten it up instead of finding ways to intensify it. Competition with employment is the main reason why there's such a strain on testing, but that should wait till college at least, when students realize what career they want to pursue. Until they reach that stage, students should be able to enjoy their classes and appreciate the lessons they are taught, not to be treated as employees on the verge of being fired.
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1 comment:

Kelsi Chuprinski said...

I really liked your point about how teachers are “trying to produce better papers out of students rather than better writers” because in my educational journey, I have lived out that statement exactly. Upon entering college, I knew how to write a PSSA five-paragraph essay just as the scorers loved to read. I knew how to “catch the reader’s attention”, use transition words, discuss three main points in a paragraph each, and signal a conclusion. When I entered college though, all of these baby steps of writing an essay helped me very little; I didn’t have the first inclination about how to write a long research paper or a fictional story or even a narrative in college. Therefore, I am not a writer; I am only an essay writer, and until recently, I never understood there was a difference.

In my education classes that I am taking currently, (especially in Education Theory and Policy) I hear over and over again how the teachers of today are “teaching to the test.” In a sense, I think this is true; in my primary and secondary education, I probably spent just as much time preparing for the PSSA’s in my English classes as I did learning other material. Now that I’m in college, I question, what did all those hours of practice prepare me for?

I am a smart student. I would have gotten “proficient” on the PSSA’s whether I practiced for them or not. So, what was the point of the tests for someone like me?
Sometimes I think the PSSA’s only festered in me an agitation for tests in general. Like you mentioned, was my creativity stunted as a result of the many hours of preparing for a generic test?

I really hope when I become a teacher in a few short years, I will not have to succumb to the terror of teaching to the test. I want to be the teacher that makes an impact on my students and allows them to develop into intellectual beings, not some kind of robot who knows how to take tests well and not much else.

February 2, 2011 at 7:29 PM

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