Second Day of First Benchmarks
Two 45-minute sessions of the Writing Benchmarks were scheduled for today. The class returned from the two-hour specials that regularly hog their Wednesday mornings and took the first part of the writing test without too much fuss. They went to lunch and recess and returned without notable squabbles……….and then, suddenly there was chaos. Christopher was at my table telling me that he “had to go see Ms. Wendy” and then he was gone and across the room falling out of his chair and onto the floor with his desk on top of him while Alaina came sobbing to me saying she “had” to talk to me and Nelly B., Teacher’s Pet for the day, came to tell me that two boys should miss recess because of their language and I looked across the room to see Robert taunting Christopher and then retreating into the kitchen. I stopped everything, asked the students to sit at their seats with their heads down and called for help. It was slow arriving, but the principal did come and in front of the students we talked about this kind of breakdown and what to do about it. I declined to point out individuals when she asked because I was certain I couldn’t get it right. The principal suggested that we not try to do the second writing session, but instead write about our problems and how to solve them. When she left, I elaborated on that strategy, gave them some specific directions, and we spent the next two hours talking about how to create a respectful community. Is this kind of social malfunction related to testing, to the atmosphere of apprehension and uncertainty that assessments creates?
Six Cases and how they reacted to the first two sessions of Benchmark Testing:
Jonas, our sixth grade boy, focused with seriousness on the reading test and appeared to do his best, finishing the 70-minute test in about 40 minutes. His work during the afternoon was poorly focused, however; and he got in trouble for talking too much, which resulted in a lost recess today. Jonas seemed to take today’s Writing test seriously, too, again using more than half the allotted time and writing his rough draft with obvious effort to put forth his best.
Melissa got a slow start both on Reading and Writing tests. On Tuesday she worked at the Writing test for the full 70 minutes; and when the afternoon came, she had difficulty focusing on her work. She was noisy and social, appearing to need some relief. This morning on the first part of the Writing test she had trouble beginning. She raised her hand and asked me to explain the writing prompt (which I couldn’t do), but I suggested she read it slowly again to understand the story she was being asked to think about.
Louis spent about 50 of the 70 minutes actually focused on the Reading test yesterday. Today he was whisked away by the Assistant Principal to a TV station where he participated in a program that will air a spot about our school, a grant received by the Assistant Principal. Because of this special program, he missed the first part of the writing Benchmark, but spent the afternoon doing it while we tried to resurrect our classroom norms.
Amanda focused totally on the Reading test yesterday and then had a fully productive, almost wonderful afternoon of work later. Again for the Writing test today she was focused and used most of the testing time to complete her rough draft and the other multiple-choice questions that completed the Writing section of the Benchmarks.
Mason focused totally on the Reading test and used most of the 70 minutes to do it. The Writing section was clearly more challenging. He pored over his plan and rough draft for most of the 45 minutes and produced only a scant paragraph for a story.
Rosalee needed special help with the directions for the Reading portion of the test and raised her hand for help with words several times (help which I was not at liberty to give.) After giving instructions today for the Writing test, she started with the third instead of the first part, which was to “plan” your composition. I let her finish the multiple-choice questions that constituted the third part and then guided her back to the first part, the planning of the composition. When she left the page blank, I explained again how a plan worked, and I encouraged her to write something down in the way of a plan for her composition. Eventually she began to write something down and then wrote two pages of a “story” before the time elapsed.
C & I Time today: 2 hours (devoted solely to group norms and problem-solving)
