As I prepare for the upcoming school year, I am reminded by the fact that EQAO scores will be shared very soon with gr 9 math teachers all over the province. Hence, the need to first look back... I am professionally torn by this entire process... Are we teaching for the sake of learning or for good scores on standardized tests? One may argue that we must do both - and if learning is happening then that WOULD be demonstrated on the standardized tests.
I am not sure I can agree with that...
If as a teacher, you believe that we teach KIDS, not curriculum (is that not what we are supposed to believe?) then each year we are presented with a new unique group of young minds at various stages in their learning. The mindful teacher is supposed to gauge where the kids are at and then meet them there in order to bring them forward. Ie. we use diagnostic activities to begin our instructional process. And if the diagnostic proves that our students have gaps - are we not supposed to help with those? I say, of course. Throughout the semester, the diligent teacher continues with other formative assessments and when students are not learning, that teacher looks for other ways to help students learn. This is a time consuming process involving numerous formative and diagnostic assessments, individual student profiling and intensive instructional planning.
We need to keep in mind, however, that we are limited to a strict 5 month window to cover the grade nine math curriculum. So ultimately... we want to cover gaps, we want to individualize learning, we want to engage students but all in all we are expected to do all of that in a limited time frame and demonstrate that all students have met a "provincial expectation" by end of semester. How is this realistic? And what do we sacrifice along the way? Do we "teach to the test"? (and what does that look like?)
Another wrinkle that disturbs me - what about our English Language Learners... I wonder if the EQAO officials have ever looked on as these students are faced with the heavily language based grade nine math assessment. Words that we take for granted will confound our ELL students. In a question about a clown/circus - if you don't know those words how will you make any sense of the context for the math. In the classroom, we have word walls and we use pictures in our assessments to help students with just those kinds of things... These supports are absent in the EQAO delivery.
Imagine a room full of young students - many of whom have come to our country in the last year - faced with the gr 9 EQAO - the only accommodation is double time. For the most part, these students are highly motivated to do well and yet, they sit baffled by the language. Double time or not, it is heart breaking to stand by and watch as they struggle to demonstrate their abilities. Where is the word wall? Where are the pics to help with context in word problems? As their teacher, I empathize and i hope that the experience will not dampen their willingness to continue their math learning in our language.
I have to ask - why do we make them write this test if their language skills are not ready? Why can't we postpone their writing until they have acquired the associated literacy skills?
And what expectations are there for the teachers of these students?
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