For the students in 5314

Hello everyone...well, those that chose to check my blog to see how the heck this thing works. There are a couple of caveats for you, should you decide to keep reading and become a follower: 1) This blog is not about Dr. Wilson. It is about me, Jenny. It is personal and yet public, but not the same as teaching a class or being a stand for something and, 2) This blog, because it is personal contains only my opinions, thoughts, regurgitations, and a lot of cuss words. So, be forewarned.

So, now for the practice blog.

Reading: Here I would, if I had my book input about 10 bullets, quotes, summaries about the actual text. These would serve me as a review sheet for the final. Especially if my professor decided to print the blogs out and let those that did them use them on the final.

Connections: So far, I have really been thinking about high stakes assessment and the impact it has on students. I have known of the ill fated students who stuggle to pass and the impact it will have on future and further schooling, but I think that this reading is the first time that I have been thinking of my little brother in particular. It took him 3 times to pass his exit level TASP test in high school. Our school, at the time, made everyone take it as sophmores and if you passed, kudos. If not, you were remediated so as not to fail when it must be passed, namely as a senior. I took it as a sophmore and-Kudos. I never thought about it again. Eric, my little brother, took it and took it. I think it made him feel like a failure for years, schooling did, high stakes tests did. Sad thing is, he is smart. Even though college was hard, he worked his ass off and made it, in engineering! I mean really! But, he never did do well on tests, never did do well with high stakes and still today, despite owning his own business and graduating college, does he believe he is a good student, a good writer or a good thinker. It is so damaging to have such high stakes attaached to a test. It should not just be a test that makes the difference. Scary.

Is it possible that high stakes do in fact help keep standards and expectations high?