January 22

Today, we talked about standardized testing, and each person needed to keep a pro/con list of standardized testing in his/her daybook.  We began with a writing into the day about what the benefits of NCBL were supposed to be.  Then, we watched "Why Standardized Testing Fails" - a TedTalks video (minutes: 0:00-7:22; 9:30-11:30) and answered the questions on the handout about this video.  When discussing this video, people said the following:

• Physical skills should be added to the list of skills needed for the 21st century.
• Memory skills can be taken off because memorizing does not equal understanding.
• What about those who cannot  remember things?  Where does that leave them with testing?
• Tests should be adapted based on a person's intended job.
• Does that take away from the "standardized" part?
• Most jobs want an individual (rather than a "standard") person.
• We would have a hard time testing the "creative" skills in a standard way.
• Tests should have more open ended questions because they allow for more personalized answers.
• The grading of these tests would be very subjective.
• However, creativity is always about opinions.
• Teachers could evaluate each student individually.  Then the student wouldn't have so much pressure.
• Tests should put students in real life situations.
• We should go back to vocational schools.  It would save time because a student would find out immediately if he/she likes a job.
• Would we still be diverse and have diverse interactions if we had vocational schools?
• We could go to aptitude tests.  The tests could provide suggestions for what a person might be good at or be interested in, but not tell that person where he/she has to work.
• Schools should offer a wider variety of classes like home ec, government and tech classes.
• Today, schools are more like junior college (AP, Honors, etc.) rather than an opportunity for a student to figure out what he/she wants to do.
• Communication and social skills should be added to the list.
• The list from the video isn't complete because there are so many skills that people use very day.

After this discussion, we talked about highlighting and used the highlighting suggestions on page 40 of Practical Argument to begin highlighting "My 54 Year Love Affair with the SAT".

Homework:

Read "My 54 Year Love Affair with the SAT" and post a reading response on your blog.  Make sure to add any pros from the reading to your pro/con list.