Tag Archive for ‘writing’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

Tag Archive for 'writing'

Text, Yes, But Is It Reading?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 28, 2008 in Assessment and Testing and Literacy. 3 Comments

Are the hours kids and teenagers spend prowling the Web a threat to literacy? Or is it simply a new form of reading and writing? A sprawling New York Times thumbsucker notes that “as teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.”

Clearly when kids go online instead of turning on the TV, they read and write instead of passively consuming video. But critics of reading on the Internet say they see no evidence that increased Web activity improves reading achievement. “What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading,” Dana Gioia, the chairman of the N.E.A., tells the Times. “I would believe people who tell me that the Internet develops reading if I did not see such a universal decline in reading ability and reading comprehension on virtually all tests.”

“Reading a book, and taking the time to ruminate and make inferences and engage the imaginational processing, is more cognitively enriching, without doubt, than the short little bits that you might get if you’re into the 30-second digital mode,” adds Ken Pugh, a cognitive neuroscientist at Yale who has studied brain scans of children reading.

According to the paper, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which administers reading, math and science tests to a sample of 15-year-old students in more than 50 countries, will add an electronic reading component to next year’s tests. The United States, among other countries, will not participate. “A spokeswoman for the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the Department of Education, said an additional test would overburden schools,” the Times notes.

The Unlived Life Is Not Worth Examining

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 21, 2008 in Curriculum and Higher Education. 7 Comments

Why do colleges insist on personal essays with applications? Could changing the requirement create better prepared students?

The Associated Press ran a piece about college admissions essays over the weekend and the sturm und drang associated with them. Since the die is already cast on SAT scores and grades, the essay gets a disproportionate amount of attention from students and families, the AP notes, spawning a veritable industry with books and counseling and editing services.

Does it matter? “Applicants and their families have somewhat of a belief in the redemptive value of the essay,” Barmak Nassirian, of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers said. “It’s an urban myth that a student who has goofed off his whole academic career can get in with a come-from-behind epic struggle in which the essay serves as the primary tool. It’s not a substitute for a rigorous curriculum, good grades and evidence that you’re going to do well,” he said.

What if applicants were asked to write or submit a research paper instead? Which is more predictive of college success, past academic work, or a personal essay, where students labor to make themselves seem well-rounded, fascinating and irresistible to schools?

Dropping personal essays could have an interesting trickle-down effect as far down as elementary schools. The “curriculum” in my elementary school (the tedious and content-free Teacher’s College Writer’s Workshop), forces children as young as third grade to grind out endless personal essays, “small moment” stories and memoirs (!) designed to plumb the depths of their eight-year old souls. But it seldom, if ever, called for kids to write anything approaching a simple five-paragraph expository essay, let alone a research paper. That might change if doing so became a requirement for college admissions.

Last year’s common application, used by scores of colleges and universities around the country, asked students to discuss an issue of personal concern, a person, fictional character or historic figure who influenced them, a life experience or a topic of their choice, the AP notes. At the risk of sounding churlish, the unlived life is not worth examining. Rather than require 17 year old to unburden themselves of their life experiences, how about three pieces of actual academic work, graded by the student’s high school teachers?

Teaching to the Tex

Published by Robert Pondiscio on July 21, 2008 in Assessment and Testing. 1 Comment

A section of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) is coming under scrutiny. Even Texas’ best students struggle with a section of the test that asks students to express themselves and back up their claims with evidence, revealing either faulty tests or preparation.

Three short-response questions require students to stretch their brains by generating clear, reasonable ideas from a reading selection, the Dallas Morning News reports. Then they must support those ideas with evidence from the text in a well-written response. ”Students are passing the ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade language arts TAKS at higher rates than ever, the paper notes. “Some even post near-perfect passing rates. But on the short-response portion, fewer than half of North Texas students pass.”

Texas Education Agency officials say the short-response questions provide a better window into how well students can think, communicate and write. ”This paints a much different picture for teachers and parents than the multiple-choice test,” Victoria Young, a testing official with TEA tells the paper. “You’re finding out two very different things about kids.” Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association said curriculum doesn’t have the depth it used to because teachers are pulled in so many different directions by the TAKS demands.

Here’s the scoring rubric for the short-answer reading section of the test. Seems a reasonable set of tasks for high school students.

Punctuation? Capitals? W/E.

Published by Robert Pondiscio on April 25, 2008 in Teaching. 0 Comments

The informal style of e-mails and text messages is seeping into teenagers’ schoolwork, according to a study cited in this morning’s New York Times.

“Two-thirds of 700 students surveyed said their e-communication style sometimes bled into school assignments, according to the study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the College Board’s National Commission on Writing,” notes the paper. “About half said they sometimes omitted proper punctuation and capitalization in schoolwork. A quarter said they had used emoticons like smiley faces. About a third said they had used text shortcuts like “LOL” for “laugh out loud.”

“I think this is not a worrying issue at all,” said Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project, which aims to improve the teaching of writing, who opines that texting style, like slang, offers a teachable moment on what’s acceptable in academic writing. He also noted that some e-mail conventions, like starting sentences without a capital letter, may well become accepted practice.”

No more capital letters? A writing professor really said that? WTF!!! (For those of you who are not IM savvy, that stands for “Welcome to Finland.”)

Come to the Rug, Writers!

Published by Robert Pondiscio on February 7, 2008 in Education Practice and Teacher Training. 0 Comments

Some people have a way with words. Others not way have. New York City’s Department of Ed will be looking for more of the former, according to the NY Daily News, which reports prospective teachers will have to write an essay to get a job.

The paper doesn’t mention it, but presumably would-be teachers will be required to “turn and talk” with their writing partners, and write seed ideas on Post-it notes before beginning their essays. Screeners will undoubtedly be obliged to hold mini-conferences with prospective teachers and give each applicant a compliment, before discussing strategies for drafting. Presumably, teachers will also have to sit on a rug to write their essays, since we know that it is impossible to write unless one is on a rug.

Off you go!!