I currently work at a Title One junior high school, which has struggled the past three years to met our state’s AYP (annual yearly progress) goals in reading, writing, and math. As a part of our action plans in the area of math, the math teachers have created new curriculum maps for each of the courses that we offer. Each course is also aligned to the direct skills that will be tests on our state tests. Furthermore, they have created quarterly math assessments to help track student’s progress and provide remediation. The goal is to make sure we are teaching the students what they will need to know in order to take the state assessment. The problem that I am facing, as a resource teacher, revolves around the alternative curriculum used in my classroom. The curriculum that I use is the 5th grade component of the district’s curriculum series. I have chosen this material because it best reflects the needs of my students. However, since my students are not being exposed to the grade level material that they will be on the state test. The dilemma for me has become: What is my goal in a resource class, what is the main focus? Do I work at the student’s level and provide opportunities for success or do I expose them to the grade level material so that they will be more prepared to make an educated guess come test time? I know that this is not an easy issue and I know that often we have too low of expectations for our LD students - however I am really struggling with the idea of teaching to a test that is so far above my student’s abilities. I am also struggling with being asked to teach the higher-level curriculum at a slower pace (isn’t this an accommodation that could be done in the general education class)? What is the job of a resource teacher to work on skill deficients or to teach the general curriculum just at a slower pace? Any thoughts?
Re: Frustrated with meeting AYP goals in the Resource setting
Well, we all know that trying to cram higher-level material in for the test is going to have very little success and absolutely no retention.
Can you look at overlaps and continuations? For example fractions are absolutely vital to learn around Grade 5 level so you *can* do ratios and proportions and equations with division as a fraction bar in algebra. So you teach fractions properly and when asked, well you are teaching ration and proportion and pre-algebra. Then after some fractions are mastered, you do show the more advanced problems for test prep. Areas are important in Grade 5, and they are used in a lot of things in junior high including Pythagoras. Decimals and percents are taught in Grade 5, and certainly some of the junior high test problems will involve these.
I would venture to say that *good* Grade 5 skills with a little test practice to follow will get your kids a lot farther than studying just the test.
Re: Frustrated with meeting AYP goals in the Resource setting
Exposure should be limited to cameras. Otherwise it’s indecent.
If those kids learned from *&^ exposure, they would not be behind, they’d be ahead.
However, you can twist that concept to meet their needs to a point. Having a taste of advanced stuff — knowing that 2 ^3 is 8, not 6, because you did 3 **very** simple exponent problems (and just wrote out 2 ^ 3 - 2 x 2 x 2 = 4 x 2 = 8, or better yet making a drawing of it) — could give them a little higher score on that wretched excuse for a so-called “test,” without interfering with teaching them in the appropriate sequence they need to actually USE math.
The other “repeated exposure” I would do, on a daily basis, is adding fractiosn with like denominators until they really knew, without any hesitation, that the denominator was the size of the ‘piece,’ and that that stayed the same. So 1/3 + 1/3 = 2/3, and it’s true every day.
Re: Frustrated with meeting AYP goals in the Resource setting
Funny thing, just had a “security” inservice on the freakin’ tests. Seems that all my special ed. kids have to take it, including those who are mentally retarded. Only one kid in the whole school is authorized to take the alternate accessment, which is, as I understand very low level. There is no in between. I hope I don’t have to watch these particular kids take this thing.
—des
Re: Frustrated with meeting AYP goals in the Resource setting
I’m afraid I end up teaching the cognitive precursors to civil disobedience when these things come around. I tell my students that while there really might be good reasons to have the tests around, that this is a misuse of them and while they should probably go in and take ‘em, they don’t have to pretend that they *mean* anything, and if there’s a loophole - many states *do* have a “If your parent says it’s okay, you don’t have to take ‘em” policy that they don’t publicize - I encourage ‘em to use it.
I hear you. I work with hs kids who are reading between a primer and 4th grade level. But you can’t use goals from the grade school level, but rather those from the hs level. There are really no goals on for teaching reading to hs kids. I have found some of the more general, sometimes something like subgoals. Read the fine print. I have a kid that reads on grade level, comprehension on grade level, but spells on a 2nd grade level. There is only one thing I can really do with this— it’s so general as to not be too meaningful.
Still I think they are idiotic goals. I also like to have individualized goals for kids. Sure you might make some kids have the same goals, if it is appropriate. But I can’t use improved PA as a goal, as it isn’t in the hs standards. Bleah!
—des