Hi Everybody!
Saw this in yesterday's Parade...please read it and tell us what you think:
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_09-23-2007/Intelligence_Report
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Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
A forum for students to share their initial field observations, comments on readings, and suggestions and recommendations from research on the web and elsewhere.
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Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
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7 comments:
At first I thought-What does Bill Gates know about testing...then I read the article and 100% agree with him.
We are failing at teaching the basics-and if we (parents and teachers)made sure our students could read in the earlier years-they would not have such a problem with the testing in the future. I think part of this is not to rely on text books alone. It is clear that not all children fall in love with reading books early on- so lets give them comic books, sports magazines, and fan magazines instead-anything that is a page turner for them.
I also agree there should not be a drop out policy.(Though Mr Gates would have to come up with a way to enforce keeping the children in school)
I personally feel if a student is failing academically they still need a skill set to be a functional member of society. I feel that if a student wants to drop out-they should have to choose/complete a vocational program first. We have plenty of kids going to school who want to reach the sometimes unobtainable career-like (Lawyer,Doctors) we need more plumbers, electricians, hairdressers, and cooks. I think if a child can work with their hands (and are not yet ready for the academic world) lets teach them skills they can really use-and get them jobs in the future. Perhaps once they feel "good at something" they will have more self confidence and be better able to pass the courses the struggled with initially.
I too, saw this yesterday and thought it was very interesting. I'm not a fan of more testing although I agree that having one standardized national test would be ideal and then that should be it. Of course it would have to be free from bias in order to work. I agree with having smaller schools and classroom size-that can only be better for the kids but he wasn't clear on who would be paying for that. He is a big advocate of Phonics and I know nothing about it but my Mother who is a Reading Specialist is very much against phonics as a learning tool.
I was a little surprised by this article, but I definitely agree with Bill Gates, we need to focus more on the basics before we move on to the more complicated stuff.
As Jennifer said not all children love reading so give them things that they enjoy. One thing in particular that I remember was summer reading assignments. Every summer your given a list of five books to choose from, why can't the student choose what they want to read over the summer? Won't that encourage more reading becaue they will be enjoying it rather than reading it because they have to?
My first intial thought was of course Bill Gates wants to push techonology in classrooms. He makes a profit off of it, but I he made the point later about how through the lose phonics we have suffered in our reading. I do believe that money does help a lot of situations in schools, but not in the home. I hope that a lot of people will figure out that it is not simply the school that makes it hard for the kids to pass. I think the Gates are able to do a lot with their money it is cool to see that they are making efforts to change things.
I’m not big on the whole testing thing, but I do understand the reasoning behind and importance of a standardize national test. The test would allow schools to know what their weaknesses are and what the teachers need to focus on. I liked Gates idea to have smaller more personal high school. I think a smaller environment would encourage kids to reach out for help. Also teachers would be able to better detect students that normally would slip through the cracks. Gate's idea that we need to start with the basics such, as making sure that all students are able to read and write make a lot of sense, because if students can’t complete tasks as simple as these how do we expect them to do well on a standardize test. Teachers along with parents need to make reading a priority in their children’s lives. Like Jennifer said not all kids enjoy reading, and the key to getting kids to do something they don’t take pleasure in is to make it fun, exciting, and interesting.
When reading the article, I was content on how Bill Gates is involved in our education. I agree with him as well. I believe test should only test you on what you learned. Testing should not be heavy in a students life. Not all students have things in common. This is where teachers should use various learning techniques for children to read. Teachers, currently, are teaching everything that will be on test. Learning is not the basics anymore, they are pushing more and more to these students making these students drop out! Coming from a big school like Elizabeth High School, i feel that Bill Gates should pass the law to make high schools smaller. It can get rid of all the disputes and cliques.
Interesting article. I completely agree with Bill Gates. I like how he wants to fix our schools. The children do need the basics. I also agree that high schools should be smaller. My high school was overpopulated and it just keeps on growing, but that's not really the point. Smaller high schools would help eliminate cliques. Though I think another way to help eliminate cliques are uniforms but I'm going off the point here...
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