Note the subheader of this article: "Standardized testing and other education demands choke fun out of school reading, some experts say." Then look in vain for any evidence whatsoever in the article supporting the argument that standardized testing is the major cause of declining enjoyment of reading for high school students:
Sherre Sachar comes from a book-loving family. Her father, Louis, is an award-winning author, and the graduating senior thinks that settling down with a good book should be one of life's great joys. But as she prepares to leave high school and head to Cornell University in the fall, she is tired of reading.The extensive required reading in her high school classes in Austin, Texas--including Advanced Placement English literature, in which she flew from one classic writing to another--left her with no time to pick up books she thought would be fun. And she was frustrated by teachers who offered either too little help in understanding the complex texts or conducted tortured efforts to wring symbolism out of every word.
"I haven't read a book for pleasure in about three years," said Sachar, 18. "If I do, it's in the summer, and I might only get through one book because I'm so sick of trying to read. It's not fun anymore."
Allowing students some choice in what they read and helping them understand the content is a difficult balance to strike for today's teachers, educators say.
With high-stakes standardized testing driving curricula and teachers increasingly required to use scripted lesson plans, what is getting lost for many teachers is the freedom to allow students to explore books of their choosing--and the time to explore the meaning, the educators say.
How is it that Sachar's teachers are described as either clueless of the complexities of books or too focused on esoteric details, yet it's tests that get the blame? Even teachers who are following guidelines, or who of aware of the content on state exams, should be able to - especially in an AP class - convey the material in such a way that is thorough yet not mind-numbing. I don't doubt that some teachers out there are teaching to the exams, but to me that's a result of bad teaching, not bad tests.
The focus of this article seems to be that students should be allowed to choose their own books for classes. I don't remember that being the norm before NCLB came along, and it's hard to understand why tests are getting the blame for that now.
And note this segment:
In advanced classes, teachers often rush through tomes and require students to read year-round. Over one Christmas break, Sachar had to read two hefty novels, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Midnight's Children." Summer had its mandatory reading too, and her father, author of the Newbery Medal-winning "Holes," said her experience left him thinking that "sometimes the top schools confuse quantity with quality."
Assuming Sachar's Austin-based high school is in the Austin Unified District, Christmas break lasted from December 17, 2004, to January 3, 2005. One Hundred Years of Solitude is 464 pages, Midnight's Children is 552 pages. Are we to understand that the tests in Texas really require AP students to read a thousand pages of adult prose in two weeks? If that's really the case, it's ridiculous - but I don't see any evidence that testing, rather than poor curriculum choices or plain old bad scheduling, is the culprit here.
Posted by kswygert at June 1, 2005 03:41 PM