Blog 9

I responded to Chapter 7 of 9R right away, probably because it addressed issues I am already facing or will be facing in the near future. The gray box at the beginning addressed assessing what is easiest to measure, which is an issue that has come up in conversation several times during our class discussions. We keep coming back to the fact that good teaching techniques often require more time and effort than many teachers are willing to give. I also think there's an underlying issue of personal accountability. If teachers can refer to an answer key or award a certain number of points for fulfilling the various requirements of an assignment, they remove the responsibility from themselves if the grades they give are questioned by students, parents or administrators. It's safe.

"Ours is a nation obsessed with assessment" (93). As a student and especially as a future teacher, I am already beginning to see how much time teachers spend on preparing for "the test" and how much influence statewide standardized testing has on everyday assignments and activities in the classroom. The argument is that the testing needs to be revised, but that's not as simple as it sounds. I went to school in Kentucky during a period of extreme educational reform, and students were required to submit math and writing portfolios in grades 4, 8 and 12. It sounds good, but teachers fell into the same patterns of assigning pieces specifically for the portfolios, and students quickly learned which formats and formulas seemed to work best and adjusted their writing accordingly. The focus was still on the assessment itself, just a different type. I was surprised to read that 80 percent of Kentucky's teachers endorsed the portfolios because every English teacher I had hated them.

"Courage is of more enduring value than any writing technique or strategy" (94). I found this quote to be a refreshing one, and a true one, especially in middle and high school classrooms. Students at that age are so worried about what other people think, and most of them have already decided whether or not they can write well and whether they like to write or not. With all of the techniques and strategies out there, both for writing and for teaching in general, I thought it was important to be reminded how powerful a tool the simple act of encouragement can be.