Teaching Beyond the Test, to Make Room Again for Current Events

[groovedaddy]

FARMINGTON, Conn. — To Robert Barry, a senior at Farmington High School, it seems normal to have a war or two going on while you’re growing up. “Afghanistan started when we were in third grade,” he said. “We heard about it, but it’s in the background — we stopped noticing it.”

Julia Morrow, also a senior in this upscale suburb of Hartford, said that she and her friends “grew up not following the war and got used to not following it.”

For their classmate Samantha Selldorff, the indifference is a reminder of a lesson in Advanced Placement biology. “We studied how animals stop reacting to a stimulus after a certain length of time,” she said. “That’s what the war has become to us.”

None of this was fine with Chris Doyle, who teaches A.P. United States history here. “These wars will be the defining experience of their generation,” said Mr. Doyle, who is 51 and has a doctorate in history. “And they learn nothing about them in school.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/nyregion/teaching-beyond-test-with-eye-on-current-events.html?hpw

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. We've spent the last two days learning about tornados

Some of my kids have family in Joplin. One has an uncle who is still missing. They are all fascinated with the tornado in Joplin so I've let them all get on the Internet and watch videos and look at pictures. They drew diagrams of their homes and are writing safety plans for their families. And we've studied clouds and they can all identify each type of cloud.

Of course none of this is in our curriculum or on any test. But I've managed to incorporate Reading, Math, Science and Social Studies all wrapped around the theme of the tornado in Joplin. And the kids love it.

This is what education used to be like. Sadly we have wandered way off in a different direction with this testing crap.