Comments on: Turkey Assignments

By: Outsider

Outsider — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:23:34 +0000

This post was another example of Eduwonk turning himself off to teachers. We appreciate context, as the previous comments illustrate. As others stated, I could see myself giving both assignments–one on the first day, perhaps, or in an advisory, and the other as the culmination of a unit and taking a week or more to complete. I’d like to see Eduwonk acknowledge that his post was a stunt, void of meaningful context.

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:37:37 +0000

It is certainly true that the two examples shown are asking students to create and exemplify very different types of work. However, I am uncertain under which context these were presented. Obviously, the first, and much easier of the two, is asking students for information based on their own experiences. This would be very suitable for the first few days of school as a “getting to know each other” activity. The second, however, is obviously something that a teacher would employ in the latter part of the school year. How do we know how these two pieces were actually utilized in the classroom and under what circumstances they were presented? More information is needed to better determine the true desparity the preparer of the slides intended to exemplify.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:55:33 +0000

At first, I thought you were making fun of the grammatical errors in the first slide. Then I read the rest of your blog entry and realized you were praising this as the better of the two. Having thought about it, I’m not sure that I don’t find the first to be one of those over-written and quite pretentious lesson plans that pretend to high expectations while grading everything easily and accepting anything.

High expectations need to be followed by high standards in grading. That is where I would focus in this situation. What was received and how was it measured?

Anyone can copy a good assignment from the internet.

By: Brian Rude

Brian Rude — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:54:16 +0000

I’m with Amy on this, and it gives me a chance to bring up my favorite soapbox topic, the lack of description in the study of education. What is actually going on in these two classrooms? I don’t know. I can’t know. My imagination has no trouble coming up with pictures and details, and it sounds like Amy and others probably imagine things about the way I do. But I can also imagine that I might be wildly wrong in some important ways. A five-page description of the classroom situations from which these two contrasting assignments come could be most valuable. A five-page description of any classroom situation would be valuable. There are not many descriptions of actual classroom practice around. Descriptions should be as plentiful in educational discussion and literature as photographs are in a newspaper.

By: Matthew Nauman

Matthew Nauman — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:33:53 +0000

I, unfortunately, see this gap even within a single school setting. My school recently began a system of inter- grade level peer- to-peer observations. During these visits, I have observed struggling and special needs students being guided through higher-order thinking, and gifted students completing basic recall comprehension activities. I believe sometimes the “dumbing down” of assignments may be a response to frustration. I also find it hard to differentiate many assignments while still retaining the quality and level of sophistication it began with.

By: Deb Cassady

Deb Cassady — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:00:20 +0000

As a special education teacher I can see uses and problems with both assignments. I agree the “all about me” page would be great to do at the beginning of the year as part of an assignment about writing an essay, or it could even be used in my classroom to help students with communication skills if it was used in an interview situation. The paper could also be used in a newspaper unit for one student to write a “feature article” about another student. The Anne Frank writing prompt would definitely have to come after a lot of preparation in my room. I understand that in many classrooms that would not be the case, but in mine it would. I have high expectations for my students, but I still have to go over what goes into a complete sentence on a consistent basis. My students that could grasp who Anne Frank was and when she lived would do well on the essay. On the other hand, I would also have a couple kids in my room who would have no idea. Yes, I do use the regular junior high text books in my classroom, but we do a lot of extra work so that they can grasp the main concepts. In this case I feel it would be important to see the rest of the assignment before deciding whether it was valuable or not.

By: Robert Pondiscio

Robert Pondiscio — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:36:56 +0000

BTW, the low writing assignment on Andy’s post certainly IS covered by California’s standards. Several of them, arguably:

Grade Seven, Writing
Organization and Focus 1.1 Create an organizational structure that balances all aspects of the composition and uses effective transitions between sentences to unify important ideas.

The “My Best Friend” essay could be used to teach or demonstrate this standard and a dozen others. That is NOT by the way an argument in favor of that standard, but an illustration of why process standards are worse than none. A teacher who uses this standard and whose student writes a well-constructed essay on “My Best Friend” can go home happy and content that she’s teaching for high expectations. She has done exactly what we’ve asked her to do.

Not terribly satisfying though, is it?

This is why “high expectations” are as empty a phrase as, well, “high standards.” Unless we’re willing to specify exactly what we expect children to know — as opposed to what we expect them to be able to do — we will make zero progress.

By: Joe Heater

Joe Heater — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:20:28 +0000

“Raising the Bar” is just part of solution. It might be worth the time for all commenters here to review at the entire presentation, authored by Kati Haycock,before they go off of the deep end. The section that Eduwonk culled the slides from starts on page 113. Here’s the web page address: http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/B6EEB711-4540-4C9C-9084-0B98BD914DD2/0/ctcasstatewide2008.pdf

By: john thompson

john thompson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:28:16 +0000

Robert,

I’ve fallen off a few times, but haven’t I done better in holding my tongue on the Ed Trust?

By: Erin Johnson

Erin Johnson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:16:53 +0000

Robert, John, Great comments. You both highlight well why the standards movement has largely failed (and will continue to fail) to improve student learning. Having some external group come in and say “just raise the bar” in no way enables teachers to do a better job in the classroom.