Sunday, March 15, 2009

Testing

We don't ask kids in wheelchairs to get up and walk.
We don't ask kids who are blind to read the board.
Or kids who are deaf to listen.

However, kids with learning disabilities or reading disabilities
should be working at grade level
otherwise we're leaving them behind.

I was tutoring a student on Thursday night who is dyslexic.
She came with her homework--
a test passage on her grade level which was ions too hard.
She's super bright,
but sometimes she sees words on the page
differently than other kids do.

Working on a test passage that is too hard doesn't help her.
Taking the test doesn't help her.
In fact, it's probably taking away time where she could be doing things that might actually help move her forward.

It was agonizing.
Reading the passage,
looking for answers,
sometimes the answers were unclear
(and I am far beyond third grade).

It's bad practice to make kids,
especially kids who are struggling,
do work that is too hard for them.

It doesn't accomplish anything.
In fact, it may hurt.

When she doesn't pass
we will shake our heads and sigh.

Start working to get her ready
for fourth grade instead of
helping her to see.