Foot: Firestone Experience

While at Firestone, there was not a whole lot of opportunity to just talk with my student beyond anything other than the OGT. However, we did manage to work in a little bit of technology and other multi-modalities. For example, my student used his cell phone to calculate a math problem. This kind of worried me because I did not want him or me getting in trouble because this was before the school day was out and because Mr. Martin was in the library at the time, standing near us. I asked him if they were allowed cell phones and he said that they were not supposed to have them on them, but kept in lockers. He put his cell phone away after this, and I will admit, I felt a lot better. We also talked a little bit about T.V. shows, when it was applicable. For example, there was one reading passage about the differences between anthropologists and archeologists and how both of these professions can be used to help solve crimes. We talked a little bit about the T.V. show Bones because it is the same basis. Dr. Temperance Brenan and Special Agent Seeley Booth work together to solve crimes. I love this show and could have kept talking about it. My student said he knew the show and liked it, but I could tell he did not really want to talk about it. But beyond these two examples, I was so focused on working on the OGT making sure he was prepared, even though he did not really need the help, to talk about other stuff.

While I might not have infused many different modalities in our tutoring sessions, I can see how it would be helpful. One idea I had applies to the English section. I thought, if the school had them, a whole class could work on a reading selection or writing questions on a SmartBoard. For example, a class could read through a reading selection and use the SmartBoard tools to highlight important sections. Or, if in the writing section or even a short answer response in another section, students could draft a response on the SmartBoard.  I know we did similar activities in my high school classes. For one of my English classes, the teacher showed us how to formulate and write a thesis statement on a SmartBoard. While it is basically the same thing as an overhead or a chalk board, it was fun doing it on a SmartBoard because we could work in different colors and move around different segments of the sentence. I also think this could really help with math classes too. Since math can be difficult to comprehend and is sometimes easier to understand when an example is shown, this might help students understand different types of problems. It would be a lot easier to do this on a SmartBoard instead of an overhead or the chalk board, but those two can also work.

I think giving students multiple practice opportunities is a good idea too and the questions do not have to be just OGT sample questions, since that would sort of be like teaching to the test. However, I see no reason why teachers could not use what they are currently doing in the classroom to help students prepare for the test. For example, if a class is reading The Crucible, the teacher could formulate questions like the students might find on the test. There could be simple plot questions, questions about the tone of the passage or the author’s intent. There could be short answer responses that have students examine a theme or a certain passage in the text. These are all questions students could encounter in the test and would be different than just using OGT sample questions. This way teachers could still teach what they want (according to standards and whatnot), but still prepare their students for the test.

Also, while I am not going to post specific sites, there are a ton of resources out there we can use to help our students prepare for the OGT. There are grammar sites, answer analyses, practice tests, test taking strategies, and so many others. I simply Googled “OGT Prep” and got a ton of hits that teachers could just skim through and find what would work for his or her individual class.

I used to be totally against the OGT and other forms of standardized tests. It was not the tests so much, as that there is so much emphasis on passing them and I do not feel that not passing a state test is a good enough reason for a student not being able to graduate. They could simply be really poor test takers, but otherwise really good students. I feel that the OGT is good in theory. I think education should be standardized across the country and that we should seek to catch up with other countries, which is what the OGT and other state tests seek to do. But, it does not actually work in practice. I feel like the standards should be the same everywhere and it is up to each individual teacher and school district to meet those standards. While this would put a lot of work on teachers and administration, since we are the ones who are with our students, I feel that we are the best to determine if our students are meeting the standards and not some strangers that put together and grade a test.

I cannot say that literacy is really decreasing or not, but I do feel like people are reading less and many people are only reading because they have to.  For me, I think the best way to fix this is to get students hooked on reading earlier in their school careers. Teachers should show that reading can be fun by introducing a variety of texts and not just the classics. I feel like approaching the text with the right attitude is important as well. Someone should not approach a text with a negative attitude, even if they know that it will be hard and a struggle to get through.

I feel like preparing for the OGT could be merged with multi-modal literacies. Teachers could use a variety of texts, maybe even T.V. shows or movies as their “reading” selections for practice. Or, like one example from class, using music the student is interested to help them understand poetry.  However, while getting the students prepared is one of the most important jobs we have because the test is critical to graduating, I also feel students need to be prepared for the form the OGT is in. Using different methods to prepare them is great, but students also need to know how to deal with the way the test is worded and the type of questions found in the test.