The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss, picture by Crockett Johnson. Harper&Row 1945
Unless you’ve opted your child out from taking these
- Common Core Standardized Tests loom on the horizon for public and charter
school kids. As crocuses and allergies bloom, English Language Arts and Math teachers
are expected to fill kids’ heads with strategies for taking the tests. Teachers
work diligently, as they are graded on the standardized returns, and with
consecutive low scores, careers are at stake.
But, preparing for the content of these mysterious and high stakes tests
is always guesswork because students are not being tested specifically on content
that has been taught in class. It’s all about thinking like the test
maker. Compassionate teachers try to
make prep time less tedious and as commonsensical as they can, but it’s likely
that your child may arrive home feeling toasted, stressed out and worried.
The test days arrive. Regular instruction is
suspended. Kids are shuffled around to any available rooms for testing. (Last
year, my ELA students were delegated to the tech room, -an unfamiliar setting -
where they sat on backless stools for 1½ hours at a time.) Walls are emptied. Guides to solving equations or writing a
paragraph are taken down or covered. Conference rooms are stacked with teacher
packets and bulky bundled tests that many trees gave their lives for, and where
many tax dollars are spent. I think back
to the cupboard of dog-eared class novels, many of them falling apart, even
with best efforts to tape them back together.
The tests, in comparison, are fresh off the press, in pristine
condition. A monastic silence in the
halls is maintained, the regular schedules are disrupted, and the effect is
disorienting for everybody – even teachers and students who are normally
cheerful. These days are about getting
through these days.
What you can do to help your child
Here are the emotional settings that (specifically
younger) students tend verbalize as they get ready to while take these tests. Students in upper grades tend to internalize
these concerns more.
I’m not smart. I’m a “1”
or a “2”.
I can’t remember
everything we did to prepare.
I won’t do as well as
everybody else in class.
I’m afraid I’ll
disappoint my parents if I don’t do well.
I’m afraid I’ll let (you)
my teacher down if I don’t do well.
Occasionally a student will say: I’m just going to do my best: That’s all I can do.
It’s pretty clear that a parent has proactively
cultivated that mind set. That student already has an advantage before coloring
in the first bubble with his number two pencil:
His parents have done the footwork in helping this child put the test
into perspective. He’s more relaxed and
is going to have more mental energy while taking the test. And he’s probably not going to spend time
worrying about how he did when he completes it.
His parents have given him a
valuable life skill tool with this mantra, and he gets to practice using
it.
Keeping a Broad Perspective:
Before distributing the test materials while looking
out at both sleepy and worried faces, I’d think through what I wished I could say: a disclaimer. The test I am about to give you does not reflect your performance in my class. But then
I’d need a disclaimer for my disclaimer: In fact, even though I’m a public school teacher standing here administering
them, I don’t buy into these tests at all, hang in there, and we’ll get back to
what we were doing in class.
What I’d actually tell students:
This test has nothing to do with how smart a person you
are.
This test doesn’t show all the talents that you may
have.
It doesn’t show that you are a good friend.
It doesn’t show the kind of learning style you have.
It also doesn’t show how hard you may work as a student.
If you want to know how you’re really doing, look at the
assignments that we’ve done together over the school year.
This test is about just doing your best, just for today.
For all involved, it’s like spending a sweaty day down
at the quarry chipping rocks.
So, when your child comes home from school after
prepping and testing, remember that lots of energy (and funding) is being spent
on something that is not the
culmination of what he has learned from his teacher’s lessons. He might appreciate your invitation for
him to decompress from the intensity of the day by inviting him to talk about
it. Or, he may not want to, and who would blame him?
These unsolicited questions are not helpful:
How’d you do? (He probably doesn’t know or doesn’t want to
think about that right now.)
Did you get a “3” or a “4”? (This is a reductive way to
look at the work a kid has put into something.)
Did you finish on time? (The test is a done deal. Is this really that important?)
Did you answer all the questions? (The test is a done deal. Is this really that
important?)
Did you check your work? (The test is a done deal. Teachers
have already reminded students to do this.)
Shouldn’t you spend time on review for tomorrow’s test? (…Really?....)
If anything, these kinds of questions reveal a parent’s anxiety, so now there are two stressed out people
sitting at the kitchen table. In
showing your own anxiety, you also may be inadvertently showing your child that
you place value on this impersonal and inaccurate measuring device – over the
teacher’s day-to-day classroom assessments
of your child’s progress. Which is a
better indicator? Which form of assessment do you actually take stock in?
These tests in no way determine how successful a
child will be in the future. But,
layered as they are, they can eat
away at a child’s self value, and make her question her capabilities, and that does sabotage future success. The most helpful comment that will
reverberate with your child during tomorrow’s test: I’m
sure that you’re doing the best that you can.
Instead of spending time on a post-mortem--examining
the now dead body of the test, this is the time when it’s most beneficial to
invite kids to let their brains breathe and to encourage them relax and
replenish.
I was
trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering. ~Steven Wright
It’s a healthy
practice to help your child cultivate for herself. As a culture, we don’t seem to value the
process of mind emptying. It’s all about
stuffing it with things. Although, many burnt-out adults fork out lots of money
to re-learn how to daydream or step back through self help classes; through
meditation or hiking classes to lower fight-or-flight
cortisol levels, or some class that will help them channel switch from stress
and strokes.
When my eldest
was a four-year-old in preschool, the mom of one of his classmates wisely
introduced to the rest of us new moms the value of ‘stoop settin’ time’. She had grown up in Brooklyn, and shared that
as a kid, when she and her friends got home from school, they’d set on the
stoop and hang out without any particular planned or structured activity; they
might play tag, or draw chalk people on the sidewalk, they might just chat; the
only time constraint being that they needed to go in for dinner in a couple of
hours.
We don’t give
ourselves much ‘stoop settin’ time’ until we’re old and we can’t move around
and we’re forced to sit and air out.
But it is key to mental health – we all need a breather in between. Although it’s within a young child’s nature
to stop and examine an ant colony, or, throw stones into a puddle, kids can be
further encouraged to decompress from a packed school day – to daydream, draw
pictures, play with the dog, listen to music, or play a simple game. It’s
relaxing to set time aside each day to do “nothing.”
Relaxing and replenishing lead to
better endurance.
If anything, the
tests measure a student’s endurance. If
your child is taught the value of (unplugged) relaxing, and the importance of
replenishing her energy, anxiety over the next test will be more manageable,
and she’ll have more energy to continuing to sit for the tests, and then move
on to more meaningful activities.
The
tension-filled rituals of preparing for the tests and the anxiety of everyone
involved can skew perspectives. Sitting
outside, looking up at the sky or over at the horizon, playing a game,
daydreaming or puttering around are the best therapies for putting the
Standardized tests in their place.
Sit in
reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle
seashore of the mind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Follow me on twitter: parentsplaybook
Follow me on twitter: parentsplaybook
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