How I learned to hate school and then love it again and then it got complicated
On Test Taking...
I learned to hate school in the ninth grade. Before entering high school, our skills were measured using a standardized test. This was a requirement for the private school my parents wanted me to attend. After receiving the results, the school’s counselor suggested I attended a regular high school because it would “...work more at my speed.” My mom enrolled me anyway, despite the counselor’s suggestions. Later in my high school career, we were required to meet with the counselor and fill-out applications for college. I chose the University of Oklahoma but, based on my pSAT exam scores, my counselor suggest I apply to a junior college because “...OU is very competitive.” I didn’t see her again until after graduating from OU and returning to my Alma mater. They wanted to offer me a job in the English department.
I learned to love school again in college. There wasn’t a specific instance that made me love it again, but the overall experience was encouraging. I know it had something to do with the lack of multiple choice exams. They were still present, but balanced out with an abundance of essay based exams. Essay based exams required me to explain my understanding of the curriculum and even develop opinions and support them with textual evidence. I couldn't depend on test taking tips such as "choose the most detailed and longest answer if you're unsure" or "fill in all Bs and Cs if you're running out of time". I had to know the material or fail.
I started to fall out of love with school again as a high school English teacher. I witnessed the phenomenon of standardized testing as a focus. My turning point occurred when a student met me during lunch to take a make-up quiz she missed the previous day. At the time, all ninth grade teachers were required to proctor the same generic quizzes as a check-up for our standardized curriculum. She brought her lunch and logged on to a classroom computer to take her quiz. After five minutes or less, she came to check the results with me. I logged on to our quiz program and reported, "You got a 100%! Good thing you did the reading at home." She replied, "Ha! I didn't even read it, Flo! I just guessed!" and presented her palm for a celebratory high-five. I left the palm hanging while scrambling to explain why it would benefit her to actually read the story rather than gambling between circling A, B, C or D on a computerized scantron. I don’t think I was very convincing.
I learned to hate school in the ninth grade. Before entering high school, our skills were measured using a standardized test. This was a requirement for the private school my parents wanted me to attend. After receiving the results, the school’s counselor suggested I attended a regular high school because it would “...work more at my speed.” My mom enrolled me anyway, despite the counselor’s suggestions. Later in my high school career, we were required to meet with the counselor and fill-out applications for college. I chose the University of Oklahoma but, based on my pSAT exam scores, my counselor suggest I apply to a junior college because “...OU is very competitive.” I didn’t see her again until after graduating from OU and returning to my Alma mater. They wanted to offer me a job in the English department.
I learned to love school again in college. There wasn’t a specific instance that made me love it again, but the overall experience was encouraging. I know it had something to do with the lack of multiple choice exams. They were still present, but balanced out with an abundance of essay based exams. Essay based exams required me to explain my understanding of the curriculum and even develop opinions and support them with textual evidence. I couldn't depend on test taking tips such as "choose the most detailed and longest answer if you're unsure" or "fill in all Bs and Cs if you're running out of time". I had to know the material or fail.
I started to fall out of love with school again as a high school English teacher. I witnessed the phenomenon of standardized testing as a focus. My turning point occurred when a student met me during lunch to take a make-up quiz she missed the previous day. At the time, all ninth grade teachers were required to proctor the same generic quizzes as a check-up for our standardized curriculum. She brought her lunch and logged on to a classroom computer to take her quiz. After five minutes or less, she came to check the results with me. I logged on to our quiz program and reported, "You got a 100%! Good thing you did the reading at home." She replied, "Ha! I didn't even read it, Flo! I just guessed!" and presented her palm for a celebratory high-five. I left the palm hanging while scrambling to explain why it would benefit her to actually read the story rather than gambling between circling A, B, C or D on a computerized scantron. I don’t think I was very convincing.
