Life Skills > Tests?

I have an angel and a devil sitting on my educational shoulders. One is constantly preaching "You should teach more life skills!" While the other lazily suggests, "But it won't be on the test."

The constant nagging and apathy of these two figurative figures are enough to drive any sane person over the edge of reason!  I am constantly being pulled in two very different directions as both imaginary beings try to convince me the other is wrong. Anyone who has ever lived through a terrible divorce between parents knows this feeling extremely well.

Don't get me wrong, both preparing students for standardized tests and preparing them for life outside of school are important skills, perhaps; but which should take precedent in my classroom?

Like many educators, I am a firm believer in reading as a vital skill and without it, one would be at an extreme disadvantage throughout his or her life. Yet, being able to read is not the same as reading critically.  Reading critically and thinking outside of the realm of "choose the best answer" is imperative to the overall success of the child as he or she steps out into the big, bad, "real world."

1 point for team "Teach-them-life-skills"

One of my favorite weekly assignments is our Article of the Week.  Each week I pursue Kelly Gallagher's Article of the Week (AOWs) for an interesting article to share with my students. We've read about several controversial topics and discussed many different opinions over the year.

No, I don't just print off an article and tell students to go to town with it.  We set precedents in the beginning weeks of instruction for how and why the student should be interacting with the text.  I demonstrate how students should mark on it, annotate it, question it, whether they love it or hate it.  Students take time in class reading and interacting with the source material and are then required encouraged to write a one-page response where they support an idea they've formulated while reading the issue.

I. Love. This. Activity!

Why? Because it gives students a reason to reading critically.  So often we ask students to provide us with a simple summary of a text.  Don't get me wrong, summarizing is necessary before moving up to higher order thinking.  AOWs are springboards for critical thinking. Students read about something of which they might have a working knowledge just from listening to the news or their parents speaking around them and then formulate an original opinion in writing based on facts and emotions from a credible source. Reading+Critical Thinking+Writing Clearly!! Oh man, this is the dream child of any educator.

There is one problem, however.

Many students don't care, and a handful will refuse to do it.

Yes, I said it.  So many of them don't care to learn about the world outside of their four walls.

If you feel like that sentence is a harsh statement, you are correct.  It hurts me just to see the words "students" and "don't" and "care" strung together so haphazardly.  It hurts because as an educator I want to feel like I've created this undeniable exigency for knowledge, a curiosity for culture, and an enlighten educated spirit in each and every student. I want that feeling because it means I've done my job in teaching valuable life skills. I can't make my students care, and that hurts worse than physical pain.

Regrettably, so many of them fail to see the value in this opportunity. Many students hate strongly dislike this activity. Why? The simple answer is because it forces them to think.  It paves an avenue for them where thinking is required. It's not a "read-this-and-answer-the-question" assignment, but rather a pleading for applied logical thought. I'm certain there is a more complicated answer, but I'm still working my way through that particular debacle.

Several times I hear students and parents alike complaining about the lack of applicable life skills being practiced in the school setting.  Sadly, these are the same students who would rather sit on their cellular devices doing various cellular device type things (things they are not supposed to be doing in the first place) than actually read and think about a global issue. How dare I expect them to be living, breathing, thinking human beings?!

As you can probably tell, this extremely frustrates me on several levels.  At what point do I give in to their silent demands?

This leads me to the other being speaking in my ear: Mr. "Teach-to-the-Test."

There comes a point in every semester where I step back and ask myself, "where exactly did you go wrong?"  On that day during the semester, I resign myself to contemplating my significance in the universe.  It is, in my opinion, an existential crisis day. It is a time for self-loathing and questioning of ever single seemingly meaningless decision I've ever made in life.  This day passes each semester; each time I must pull myself out of despair and reassess my purpose in the classroom.  In some cases, I must redirect my instruction to the dreaded practice of teaching to the test!

 

I lost a little of your respect just then, didn't I?  I know fellow educator, I know.  I too am ashamed of this. But it is something we all must do sometimes.  It is the proverbial deal with the devil we must make in times of desperation. Test scores mean something to the powers that be and if my students do not do well on said test, then I'm branded with the scarlet color of my EVAAS failure--forever known as a sub-par educator, a poor excuse for a teacher. Parents will oh so subtly start sending me applications to Wal-Mart and making suggestions for leaving the classroom.  I digress.

 I could sit here and type out an example of how I photocopy excerpts from Schoolnet and go over exactly how to read it and locate the best answer and then have the students explain why that particular answer is the best answer, but you've seen it all before.  It's boring and  takes up close to the last two weeks of my instruction. This type of instruction kills a small piece of my soul each year.

But why must this be so? Why do the powers that be place so much emphasis on taking a simple test? This is a string of rhetorical questioning for I have neither answer nor reason for it. Alas, a test at the end of the year seems to become the end-all-be-all of my students' measurement of success.  I hate it, they love? hate? deal with it, and administrators devour it. 

There comes that point in every semester where I must begin teaching to the test.  Student don't mind practice because it means less thinking on their part.  To be honest, it is easier for me to plan this type of instruction as well.  This should be a win-win so why does it feel like a lose-lose?

In writing these musing I realize I have not been at all inspiring for my fellow teachers, so let me leave you with this.  It is okay to teach to the test, in moderation. It is also okay to expect higher order thinking skills, just don't burn yourself out with it. Don't worry about the angel and the devil sitting on your shoulders telling you what you should and should not be doing in your classroom. Listen to the needs of your class and yourself. It'll all work out in the end.

Leave me a comment with your classroom content struggle.  I'd love to hear from you!