Teaching to the Test

Last night, I attended Literacy Night at school. The teachers were impressive, the information useful. But this is the second time in about a week (the first being at parent-teacher conferences last week) that I realized just how much teaching to the test is going on.

In kindergarten and first grade, I'd heard such talk from parents of older kids. But other than MSA practice for older kids disrupting the younger ones' schedules, I hadn't really experienced it.

Do you know, for instance, what a BCR is?

The answer: Brief Constructed Response. If you're scratching your head, saying "huh?" you're not alone. Here's how it works. Child reads or is read to. Child answers question. For instance: What is the problem and solution? Use details to explain your answer. The details part is the catch here. Not only must a child be able to identify the information, the child also must be able to refer to information from the text to explain how he knew the answer. Oh, and not too many details, please. The answer shouldn't be longer than a paragraph as it needs to fit in a specified box.

I followed up with kid this morning. Do you know what BCR is? Yes, he said, answering brief constructed response. Do you know what that means, I asked? "No," he said with that deer-in-a-headlights look.

We learned last night about the developmental inappropriateness of memorizing lists of spelling words and how to approach them through patterns. We learned about different games we could play to make reading work fun. We learned about the importance of continuing to read aloud to our second-graders. So, how 'bout those BCR's? They're really developmentally-appropriate, huh?