What We Value

No one can learn in a setting that doesn’t appreciate what they bring.

Lisa Delpit

The More Things Change...Why Are We Still Failing to Educate All Children?, Webinar from The Write Center, UC Irvine, April 24, 2024

The third grade students I’m teaching are preparing for their first experience of taking a state test, the CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress). This part of the Smarter Balanced Assessments includes an ELA and Math portion for students in this grade (some other grades also test in Science). According to the CA Department of Education website, the tests “allow students to show what they know and are able to do in English Language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics” (CA Department of Education, viewed April 27, 2024).

So how do we make the best of the testing situation kids and their teachers find themselves in? Here are a few considerations:

While “high-stakes” tests are important (they influence the lives of all those involved in the learner’s trajectory), educator Peter Afflerbach (2022) reminds us that a hyper focus on the skills and strategies measured on such tests will “never be enough to help all kids reach their reading potential.” Metacognition, motivation and engagement, social–emotional learning, and self-efficacy are critical to reading success but are not measured on any tests.

Furthermore, these important high-stakes tests are digital in nature. Although most children today are comfortable being on devices, many studies find that reading on digital devices is often at the expense of meaning-making, particularly for young learners—there’s just too much happening on the screen for the brain to process at once (Furenes et al, 2021).

And, as we all know, there’s stress in taking a standardized test. Stress “markedly impairs memory retrieval, bearing, for instance, the risk of underachieving at exams” (Vogel & Schwabe, 2016).

With the tests on the horizon and keeping in mind all these things about learning, here’s how a few days of “test prep” unfolded for these third graders.  My third grade colleagues and I wanted to ready these young readers for the unique setting they were about to encounter while helping them recognize their own potential and strengths as learners and not just see themselves as a score.

Into the Classroom

Days 1 & 2—My colleagues and I designed these initial days to offer students time to explore the test itself and acquaint themselves with how the test works logistically on their devices (i.e., “how all the buttons work”). The students opened and explored the practice test on their own devices, talking and showing each other what all the pointing, clicking, and swiping accomplished. After a bit of free exploration, the class and I gathered together. Individual children showed on our large screen what they had discovered about navigating the test and how those tools they found might be useful. For example, when one student showed the class how to use the highlighter feature, discussion included when and why highlighting the text might be helpful.

Days 3-5—These days were devoted to thinking about how to read directions and answer questions. We displayed the practice test on our large screen, read the passage together, and began to answer the test questions (the students had whiteboards and markers to indicate their answers before we discussed each one). As we practiced testing behavior, we charted actions that were helping us (e.g., reading the question twice, reading all the possible answers before choosing our answer; highlighting the portion in the passage the test question was asking about). In one eye-opening moment, the students and I were undecided between two possible answers for a question. Each answer seemed perfectly acceptable and there was a moment when even I was confused as to the “right” answer. But, fortunately, I am not the only teacher in the room; one of the kids reread the question and realized we needed to select TWO answers for this particular question!

Day 4—In her marvelous anthology, Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems, poet and educator Georgia Heard includes the poem, Test Day by Kathi Appelt. This poem begins and ends with the same line: It’s never about the things I know. The rest of the poem includes many important things a kid would know that would never appear on any test, How many home runs my brother hit last season/My mom’s favorite colors—violet and pink/That chocolate chip cookies need vanilla…

After reading Test Day to the kids, I shared a list poem I’d written about them, using Kathi Appelt’s poem as inspiration. I titled my poem Tests. My poem began and ended with the same line, They’re never about the things I know…and included one line about each student, naming something special I know about them that no test will ever capture:

How generously David shared his Dogman books with the class

The way Noah’s face brightens when he gets an ‘aha’ (which happens frequently!)

When Reynaldo shared that he wants to be a writer (but, guess what, he already is!)

Once the self-conscious-about-being-mentioned-in-a-poem giggles subsided, the kids asked, almost in unison, “Can we have a copy of your poem?”

Day 5—The kids wrote their own list poems inspired by Test Day. The poems revealed so much about their lives, interests, and what they know is important about themselves, none of which is revealed by a test.

Emilia began her poem with the lines, It does not tell/me if I won/a game of softball.

In her poem, Kamila wrote, It never tells me how much I like Wonder Woman.

Aniyah spoke about her own writing, It’s never about how good I am at writing poems.

David wrote, It never tells if you have friends or not.

Isaic shared, It can never tell I’m getting a new home.

Mia concluded her poem with these poignant words, It’s never about if I ever know something. It’s always about the test!

As esteemed educator Lisa Delpit remarked, “No one can learn in a setting that doesn’t appreciate what they bring.”

Teacher decisions that affect the Conditions of Learning

·        Opportunities to explore, talk, and share what they’re learning. Offering students time and responsibility to freely explore the practice test, get comfortable with the technology, and to demonstrate for others what they discovered was vitally important. When students are free to make approximations in a safe setting, with time to evaluate their own success, learning is more likely to occur.

·        Coming back to the known, poetry. These students have been immersed in poetry since my first day with them and their engagement with both reading and writing poetry contributes to a safe and comfortable learning space every day. Associating a new and demanding situation with a known comfortable setting is one way to lower stress. Finding Test Day (and the entire anthology Falling Down the Page) felt like a gift from the universe and a fun way to bring some joy to our test preparations.

·        Noting and naming what I think and feel about them as learners. A key principle of engagement is the bonded relationship between learners and teachers. Taking time to identify one special thing I know about each students was a delight for me. For the students, it was a moment to hear something their teacher values about them. And that can never be measured by a standardized test.  

Try this out

·        Noticing and naming what students are doing is powerful in a learning setting. How do you notice and name for each student what you see and value in what they bring to the classroom?

·        Supporting our learners to use what they already know to understand something unfamiliar is important. How do you prepare your students to be comfortable and successful in new settings? How might you connect what student already do or know to the new situation?

·        Stressful moments in our lives are normal. What are stressful moments for your learners? While this post was about the upcoming testing setting, how might you use the ideas in other stressful situations learners will encounter?