Think back my educational experience in China, the most popular essay question in our tests were asking us to write an argument based on a scenario or a reality in society. Mostly, they were also the easiest essay for us to write. Why? Because we had a great amount of models and samples to follow. Teachers gave us sample starters, sample conclusions, sample examples, and sample words to use. Believe it or not, some of us even memorized significant famous persons and their quotes. If there was a chance to read what we wrote, they were pretty much about the same. When we were in the college, we found out all those practice only served for exams, we didn't learn anything about critical writing.
Here, it was kind of similar when I took ACT. I didn’t go to high school here so I didn’t have any idea how high school students prepare for ACT. But I realized if I want to do better on writing test, I’d better know the model and some specific sentences beforehand, such as what to write in the beginning, what examples to support my opinion, and how to write a good conclusion. It seemed we were writing a critical essay, but we didn’t really think critically.
However, jump out of the circle of modeling, making an argument is very important to our life. As teachers we can’t just teach students write for exams or tests. We need to teach them write what makes sense to themselves by providing evidences. It is our responsibility to teach students how to write supported by rational reasons.
Question:
Do you have experience that you have to write for tests or exams?
What would you do to balance between real critical writing and "write for tests" in your teaching?
Hi Bing!
ReplyDeleteLet me just start by saying that I HATE writing for tests. I am a slow writer and it takes me a long time to get in my writing mode, so to me, it is extremely hard to think on the spot of what topic to write on my test. On time, I will have to keep track of the time limit, so that's another unnecessary stress everyone have to deal with while taking the test. Overall, I am not a fan of writing test.
The way I would balance real critical writing vs writing for test is maybe giving my student a prompt where they can express themselves, so they can think of writing as a form of expressing themselves. Although I will let them to freely express themselves in the prompt, I will still hold them accountable to certain criteria such as writing complete sentences. This way they are still writing to express their thought and practicing skills that will prepare them for the test.
Hi Bing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your school experience. I think that the way you were taught about writing for tests is the way our country is trying to educate their students. I learned the basic essay format and how to write a strong one that gets to the point. Those were the ones that would score high. I think that allowing your students to choose what they want to write about will make a huge difference. You can strengthen their writing abilities and have some fun at the same time.
Hi Bing,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing some of your experiences. It was really interesting. I always hated the writing portion exams of testing especially on the ACT. My junior year of high school, I hated writing because all we worked on was argumentative essays and learning about how to write a good thesis. I didn't enjoy writing anymore because I felt that I wasn't engaged. I wasn't able to write about anything that I enjoyed anymore.
I think student's need to learn the necessary skills that they need in order to construct different writing pieces, but you can make it more engaging for students by allowing them to pick different topics that interest then. When doing practice writing exams, you can come up with topics as a class and give your students a choice.
Great post,
Resilda
Bing, Nice post! And nice visual, I really liked how you brought in your own experience from China and was able to really branch out to us with your post. It gave us a new perspective and I really enjoyed that from what you wrote. I think just answering the 2nd question that you posed, it makes sense to get familiar with being able to adjust and balance between real critical writing and "write for tests" in the teaching that we will do. It's hard to do just because there are so many different standards or pressures that are placed on teachers. When writing for tests, it's just to see how well you are able to answer questions and be able to provide evidence in the writing. For real critical writing it is mainly to see how the brain is able to contain the information and also be able to see what the brain is able to comprehend and what it is able to do with the information given as well.
ReplyDeleteI had to write for my ACT and that was very stressful because you had to make good points in a short amount of time and also follow a certain criteria and that was challenging for people like me who do not like writing.
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ReplyDeleteHey bing!
ReplyDeleteYour experience sounds so interesting!
It's really difficult to prepare for the ACT when you have no idea what the test is about or any expieriance with it. So good job!!
I definitely think teaching students to write for tests and exams is not the way to go.
Students have to think in ways that lets them bring their own style and life into their writing. As teachers, we should encourage our students to think about themselves and relate their thoughts to whatever we are working on, and write about that!
If students are told to write about a subject they have never heard of or can't relate to, they will not do a good job at all. They will do it just for the grade or to pass a test.
So I believe it is best to let students bring their thoughts to writing and get creative!