Daily Archives: September 28, 2012

Sep 28 2012
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Education Policy

The SAT: Scrap it or Re-Write it?

This past year was the first time more high school seniors took the ACT rather than the SAT. There are two provocative articles out now about the SAT and its future. One is an opinion piece in the Washington Post by Jay Mathews titled “Outdated SAT Needs to be Retired” and the other is a profile of the new CEO of the College Board who is also one of the main authors of the Common Core standards, David Coleman. This article in The Atlantic lay’s out Coleman’s drive to make the SAT a knowledge-based exam that complements the skills built by the Common Core.

As an educator, I find the hoop-jumping and disconnected gibberish of the SAT infuriating – study after study (and college boyfriend after college boyfriend in my case) shows that performance on the SAT does not translate into performance in college courses or even eventual graduation. The ACT seems a slightly more democratic exam; however, even better would be a reliance on exams like those the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program puts out.

Take the history exam for example: instead of a one-shot multiple choice extravaganza, the IB exam is made up of four parts. An out of class research paper on a topic of the student’s choice, a series of timed document based questions, and two timed essays the topic of which the student is able to select from a short list. Similarly in science class the IB exam score is partly based on a student-designed lab. In English a large part of the exam consists of giving an oral commentary on a particular text. Yes, these exams are expensive to grade and require extensive training of teachers before hand. But how well has efficiency and expediency in standardized testing served our kids for the past few decades?

How do you feel about the SAT?

Sep 28 2012
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Education Policy, Writing

“Why American Students Can’t Write”

This week The Atlantic began a series looking at the question of why students in the US struggle to write coherent sentences. Contributors include experts such as writing guru Lucy Calkins, Erin Gruwell of Freedom Writers fame, and a number of classroom teachers and educators. At the heart of the debate is the question: does favoring personal narratives and creative pieces over expository essays result in students’ inability to write correctly and persuasively? In my experience, yes, yes, yes, yes and YES.

Since Texas adopted the TAKS exams in the early 2000s, students are only required to write one type of essay for state standardized tests – a personal narrative. As a senior high social studies teachers my students needed to be able to write persuasive essays based on textual evidence. Without exception every single child I’ve taught in the past seven years has struggled to do this because until my class (in 10th or 11th grade) they were never asked to write anything besides a personal narrative.  Give them the prompt “What was your best day ever?” and my students could go on for 3 or 4 pages. Ask them to write about the causes of the American Revolution and even though they might have the historical knowledge to answer that question they would struggle to articulate their argument on paper. Throw in 4 or 5 primary sources and things became even more tricky.

Here are my tips for getting students to write expository essays:

  • Use sentence starters and formulas: Instead of telling students to write a thesis, give them a formula. A thesis must 1) answer the question and 2) make 2 – 3 defendable points. If you’re asking them to argue about the legalization of marijuana give them the starter “Marijuana should/should not be legalized because 1)_____, 2)_____, and 3)_____.” For a compare and contrast essay use the formula “A and B have many similarities such as both ____ and both ___; however, there are also many differences such as A is ___ whereas B is ___ and A is __ whereas B is ___.”
  • KETEAL: see my post on this great way to write and structure paragraphs here
  • Bait with non-academic topics to teach the format and then switch to an academic subject: Show students an example of the format you want them to use and then have them write their first essay on a non-academic topic. For example, show a compare and contrast essay on Twilight’s Jacob vs. Edward and then have students write a compare/contrast essay on themselves compared to a partner. Have them focus on getting the structure correct – including supporting details, using transition words, writing an introduction, writing a clear thesis statement, successfully closing the argument, etc. – and compare finished essays among themselves or grade to a rubric. Then have the next essay be on symbiotic vs. parasitic relationships. Bait and switch . . .
  • Always provide an exemplar essay, show how it meets your criteria, and then have students write: If you provide very clear expectations to students they are more likely to produce work at the level you expect. Don’t simply assign the essay – show them an example of what you want. This way, students can craft their own essay with your exemplar beside them. This isn’t cheating or making it easier, this simply allows them to access the format you want and clearly translate it into their own argument. Over time, this support can be pulled away but exemplar models are critical. Piece of advice: don’t write the exemplars yourself! Have a top performing student type up an exemplar a day or so in advance of when you want to show it to your classes. Edit it and print off a class set. Done. The exemplar also allows you to more clearly give feedback to students and show them where their own essay feel short of the expectations.

For more insight into the difficulties around writing, check out The Atlantic’s series on writing here.