Getting the right answer: This idea has been an issue for me since I began teaching 16 years ago. I started teaching in NY and used many resources given to me by an "experienced" teacher. The guided reading question sheets followed the textbook word for word. Just fill in the blank. I knew from an educational standpoint that "higher level questions" were a better option for student growth. However, from the first time I asked students to response to open ended questions their eyes got bigger and then panic would set in, a look of total fear. You mean you want me to think? You want me to have an opinion? You want me to share my ideas? I soon realized they had not been asked to think, how to read for understand, how to question, in school before, but they did understand how to skim and find a fill in the blank answer and then memorize that one answer for the upcoming test. We have trained millions of students to find the one correct answer. The one answer that is right: December 7, 1941. But what good is that? How does knowing a fact engage students in learning? Change the course of a individual? Help them to achieve in the modern world?
Take at look at this exam given to 556 seniors at major univesities (Brown, Harvard, Princeton). Only one student earned a 100% and the average from these Ivy's a poor 53%. What this tells us that the factoid is not really relevant in the world today or something that powerful minds will remember. Anyways, who need to memorize them now AG (After Google)--another topic.
It did not take me long to change the way I was teaching. No more fill the blanks, no more one word answers. This was not an easy task and after 15 years, is still not an easy task. Students are trained to want to find the one right answer--the less said the better. They have to be taught the difference between "Skinny" (closed) and "Phat" (opened) questions. They need to understand how to answer each type of question. They need to be trained to read between the lines for ideas hidden in text. They need main skills for the modern world that filling in the blank will not teach them.
This is a topic I will come back to, but today when a student said, "Is that the right answer, Mr. Holman?" I had to comment.
Take at look at this exam given to 556 seniors at major univesities (Brown, Harvard, Princeton). Only one student earned a 100% and the average from these Ivy's a poor 53%. What this tells us that the factoid is not really relevant in the world today or something that powerful minds will remember. Anyways, who need to memorize them now AG (After Google)--another topic.
It did not take me long to change the way I was teaching. No more fill the blanks, no more one word answers. This was not an easy task and after 15 years, is still not an easy task. Students are trained to want to find the one right answer--the less said the better. They have to be taught the difference between "Skinny" (closed) and "Phat" (opened) questions. They need to understand how to answer each type of question. They need to be trained to read between the lines for ideas hidden in text. They need main skills for the modern world that filling in the blank will not teach them.
This is a topic I will come back to, but today when a student said, "Is that the right answer, Mr. Holman?" I had to comment.
RSS Feed
