Chapter 3
High stakes testing have been the norm since the start of NCLB. Students are expected to pass tests in order to prove their mastery of a subject. Often teachers and schools as a whole have felt the need to teach their students in order for them to do well on the tests as these tests have been used to judge, rank, and even punish schools based on their test scores. This history has yielded students who are lacking in artistic, critical thinking, and problem solving talents. As they graduate from high school they are unfit for college and for life. What we have been doing throughout the years is not working. I believe that it has been an overwhelming factor in our lack of global competitiveness. Our students lack the skills to not only join our country's workforce but also to compete for jobs against graduates from other countries. In chapter 3 Tony Wagner includes a long standing definition of rigor as mastery of more and more complex academic content... more homework... more math problems... He explains that memorizing facts was needed in a time of limited information. But that now in an era of influx and information we simply look things up. Memorizing facts isn't as essential as it used to be. Wagner redefines rigor as follows:
The rigor that matters most for he twenty-fist century is demonstrated mastery of the core competencies for work, citizenship, and life-long learning. Studying academic content is the means of developing competencies, instead of being the goal, as it has been traditionally. In today's world, it's no longer how much you know that matters; it's what you can do with what you know (p. 111). Don't think that this means that you shouldn't memorize anything at all. There is some information that everyone should have as a base for doing something with what you know.
Wagner also addresses the lack of will in today's youth. Young people seem to want to be constantly entertained and for things to come easy to them. If things are not fun enough or if they get too difficult they give up. Wagner offers this as an explanation for the high drop out rates in our country. "In a national survey of nearly 500 dropouts from around the country, about half of these young people said they left school because their classes were boring and not relevant to their lives or career aspirations. A majority also said that schools did not motivate them to work hard" (p. 114). It all seems a bit confusing. How can kids complain about being bored at school and also complain that they are not being challenged enough? Although Common Core aspires to address some of the current shortfalls of education I do not believe that implemented exactly as they are written will solve our problems. There IS a need for learning skills in the traditional boring way. Students cannot just wake up one day and be critical thinkers without a baseline to support their thinking. We will see how all of this plays out.
Chapter 4
In this chapter Wagner suggests that if we want to change our country's educational system we should look to teachers to change the way that teaching and learning have traditionally been approached. He supports this statement by explaining that teachers are ill prepared for their jobs. He offers his experience as a teacher in training in order to further support his statement. Wagner offers a very detailed and real description of his days as a teacher in training and throughout his career. Reading his story takes me back to a place of uncomfortable insecurity. I never fully understood what my first master teacher wanted me to learn from her. She offered few opportunities for learning and fewer opportunities for practicing. My second placement was a lot more structured but when I was done I had more questions than answers. I was a teacher. But, I didn't feel any different than when I was a student. I felt so insecure about my abilities to lead a class full of students to success. But there I went in search for a job.
I remember my first day on the job. I was given my key, shown my room, and lead to it. Then came evaluation time. My principal offered no help or support. He had more questions for me about what exactly I was saying (since he didn't speak Spanish) and no feedback about what I was doing well or what I could improve on. The only thing that he wrote on my evaluation that I could do differently was that I should continue to work on classroom management and that my room seemed a bit cluttered. I suspect that he was referring to all of the information I had on my walls for my students to refer to . When I asked him about what I could do in order to help clutter he offered no advise. He simply told me to ask someone else. I felt so lost all year.
Wagner continues on to describe important jobs in his career which motivated him to write this book. He ends this chapter with a very important question "How do we motivate today's students and tomorrow's workers to want to work hard and to achieve excellence? (p. 166)" I wish I, we, had the answers to this question. I do not believe that there is just one thing that can be done in order to motivate today's students and tomorrow's workers to want to work hard. I don't believe that teachers or schools can do it alone. We need more than educational reform. We need a reform of our society in general. The educational system cannot be held responsible for all of the problems of society. I, as a teacher am not willing too take all of the responsibility on my shoulders. There are things that essential for students to be successful and they are not all found in books or computers. Some have to be hardwired into them. Unfortunately there are things that are hardwired into our students but they are not all skills needed in order to be successful. Some are quite the opposite of that. What can and will we do to rewire our students? It really does take a village. What will the family do? What will teachers do? What will our society do? in order to ensure that the future for our youth is not limited? In order to make sure that our youth can be competitive in the world's job market?
High stakes testing have been the norm since the start of NCLB. Students are expected to pass tests in order to prove their mastery of a subject. Often teachers and schools as a whole have felt the need to teach their students in order for them to do well on the tests as these tests have been used to judge, rank, and even punish schools based on their test scores. This history has yielded students who are lacking in artistic, critical thinking, and problem solving talents. As they graduate from high school they are unfit for college and for life. What we have been doing throughout the years is not working. I believe that it has been an overwhelming factor in our lack of global competitiveness. Our students lack the skills to not only join our country's workforce but also to compete for jobs against graduates from other countries. In chapter 3 Tony Wagner includes a long standing definition of rigor as mastery of more and more complex academic content... more homework... more math problems... He explains that memorizing facts was needed in a time of limited information. But that now in an era of influx and information we simply look things up. Memorizing facts isn't as essential as it used to be. Wagner redefines rigor as follows:
The rigor that matters most for he twenty-fist century is demonstrated mastery of the core competencies for work, citizenship, and life-long learning. Studying academic content is the means of developing competencies, instead of being the goal, as it has been traditionally. In today's world, it's no longer how much you know that matters; it's what you can do with what you know (p. 111). Don't think that this means that you shouldn't memorize anything at all. There is some information that everyone should have as a base for doing something with what you know.
Wagner also addresses the lack of will in today's youth. Young people seem to want to be constantly entertained and for things to come easy to them. If things are not fun enough or if they get too difficult they give up. Wagner offers this as an explanation for the high drop out rates in our country. "In a national survey of nearly 500 dropouts from around the country, about half of these young people said they left school because their classes were boring and not relevant to their lives or career aspirations. A majority also said that schools did not motivate them to work hard" (p. 114). It all seems a bit confusing. How can kids complain about being bored at school and also complain that they are not being challenged enough? Although Common Core aspires to address some of the current shortfalls of education I do not believe that implemented exactly as they are written will solve our problems. There IS a need for learning skills in the traditional boring way. Students cannot just wake up one day and be critical thinkers without a baseline to support their thinking. We will see how all of this plays out.
Chapter 4
In this chapter Wagner suggests that if we want to change our country's educational system we should look to teachers to change the way that teaching and learning have traditionally been approached. He supports this statement by explaining that teachers are ill prepared for their jobs. He offers his experience as a teacher in training in order to further support his statement. Wagner offers a very detailed and real description of his days as a teacher in training and throughout his career. Reading his story takes me back to a place of uncomfortable insecurity. I never fully understood what my first master teacher wanted me to learn from her. She offered few opportunities for learning and fewer opportunities for practicing. My second placement was a lot more structured but when I was done I had more questions than answers. I was a teacher. But, I didn't feel any different than when I was a student. I felt so insecure about my abilities to lead a class full of students to success. But there I went in search for a job.
I remember my first day on the job. I was given my key, shown my room, and lead to it. Then came evaluation time. My principal offered no help or support. He had more questions for me about what exactly I was saying (since he didn't speak Spanish) and no feedback about what I was doing well or what I could improve on. The only thing that he wrote on my evaluation that I could do differently was that I should continue to work on classroom management and that my room seemed a bit cluttered. I suspect that he was referring to all of the information I had on my walls for my students to refer to . When I asked him about what I could do in order to help clutter he offered no advise. He simply told me to ask someone else. I felt so lost all year.
Wagner continues on to describe important jobs in his career which motivated him to write this book. He ends this chapter with a very important question "How do we motivate today's students and tomorrow's workers to want to work hard and to achieve excellence? (p. 166)" I wish I, we, had the answers to this question. I do not believe that there is just one thing that can be done in order to motivate today's students and tomorrow's workers to want to work hard. I don't believe that teachers or schools can do it alone. We need more than educational reform. We need a reform of our society in general. The educational system cannot be held responsible for all of the problems of society. I, as a teacher am not willing too take all of the responsibility on my shoulders. There are things that essential for students to be successful and they are not all found in books or computers. Some have to be hardwired into them. Unfortunately there are things that are hardwired into our students but they are not all skills needed in order to be successful. Some are quite the opposite of that. What can and will we do to rewire our students? It really does take a village. What will the family do? What will teachers do? What will our society do? in order to ensure that the future for our youth is not limited? In order to make sure that our youth can be competitive in the world's job market?