I've definitely been liking the kids more now that I know their names. It's crazy. It's like they're people now. Although most of the time, I can't tell if they like me or if they're making fun of me. That's a thing. Oh, well.
My teacher used a pop quiz today, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, because I'm generally not into tests and quizzes when we can use writing projects instead. However, it quickly became clear that this was a practice situation for the STAAR test. The questions were difficult, but all of the kids tried, and they seemed to do a really good job. I was proud of them.
I talked to my teacher after class about their writing on the STAAR test. It's hard for me to think about it as something horrible and difficult, because I know the secret - there is no right answer. I tried to ask if there was a good way to tell them that, that they don't need to stress out because there isn't a "right" answer, there is just your answer and your defense of your answer, and that's all that matters. But, she pointed out that a lot of kids aren't having trouble so much with finding the "right" answer, but understanding the question and constructing a coherent response. It hadn't really occurred to me that that would be the problem.
I'm thinking a lot about Kylene Beers and finding problems within reading, deconstructing the reading process and rebuilding it in a more productive way. We did an exercise to build their confidence with a part of the text with which they didn't identify. Everyone picked a character from Keesha's House that they didn't quite get or couldn't identify with. They were asked to identify the conflict that that character faces, told to close their eyes and visualize it, and then sketch a moment from that conflict. They then listed all of the adjectives they could think of to describe that moment. Last, Deb asked, what if it was you? And it was like a bunch of the kids clicked in that moment. They got something.
When surveyed, the kids said that the hardest part of the STAAR is that the stories are boring, so they can't engage with them. I'm not sure if this exercise will help with the super, extra boring ones, but if the problem is identifying with a character, I think that we made a step forward today.
