How Rafe Esquith “Teaches to Shakespeare, not the Test”

I’ve been continuing my article searching in hopes of finding more real-life English teachers explaining how they deal with the issue of standardized testing.  This article that I ran across explains how one teacher, Rafe Esquith of Los Angeles, CA, deals with the constant pressure of testing and the curriculum.  

The fitting title of my blog, “Teaching to Shakespeare, not the Test” actually comes from a blog written by the journalist of the article I found named Paul Nyhan.  Nyhan evaluates Esquith’s teaching style, his ability to teach Shakespeare to fifth-graders, as well as critiques the various books that Esquith has written.  To view Nyhan’s complete blog, please click here. 

But for today, I have chosen to focus on the article that Nyhan wrote about Esquith’s classroom because I think it makes two crucial points about teaching “away from the test.”

Author urges educators, parents to foster passion
by Paul Nyhan, journalist
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 29, 2007

Seattle parents will choose their child’s first school in the coming months, and best-selling author and educator Rafe Esquith urged them to think a little less about WASL scores and more about passion.

Esquith spent a quarter-century teaching at one of the tougher schools in Los Angeles. He succeeded by bringing his passions — Shakespeare, for example — into the classroom, and breaking free of the limits of public school curricula…

The public school model crushes teachers by telling them what to teach, how to teach it and when to teach it, the former Teacher of the Year said…

“The first rule of teaching is never ask permission,” Esquith told the audience of teachers, parents and students. “Ask forgiveness.”

I stopped here when I was reading this article the first time through.  I’ve heard this motto several times throughout my life, as my mom is a 6^th grader Language Arts teacher.  It slightly saddens me that teachers have to practically live by this rule—that their administration doesn’t “have their back” when it comes to choices in the best interest of the students.  But I’ve seen this happen to my mom, and I’m prepared for it to happen to me.  This seems to work for Esquith in his classroom.  Why does he succeed you might ask?  Why isn’t anyone cracking down on his lack of curricula in his classroom?  Because his methods are successful.

Esquith gained attention because he succeeded. Despite coming from poor homes where English is often the second language, his students score in the top 1 percent on standardized tests, according to his publisher, the Penguin Group.

view complete article

In my mind, those two crucial points about teaching “away from the test” as I call it, are passion and success.  As the teacher, I think you have to feel confident in your methods, and continue to do what’s in the best interest for your students.  Secondly, your students need to be successful.  Although academic success is difficult to define in today’s world of testing and standards, there needs to be a way that as a teacher, you can defend that what you’re teaching is beneficial.   

I felt both of these topics, success and passion, were addressed in this article, and again, I got to see into the classroom of a real English teacher who’s battling standards and testing in order to teach his passion.

A Real English Teacher Battles Standardized Testing

In my first blog entry, I posed several questions to myself that I hoped to answer throughout the semester as I researched this topic of standardized testing.  Two of those questions read: Why and how do teachers “teach to the test”? and As for those exceptional teachers who seem to go above and beyond the required curriculum, how do they do it and what do their colleagues think about their teaching methods?  I was very excited when I found this article that I have chosen to discuss below because it gives me a window into the life of an English teacher and her struggles with standardized testing in the classroom.  This article serves to shed some light onto real issues that I (and the rest of my classmates) will be dealing with in the near future.

 

The article is written by a secondary English teacher, Jennie Rook.  Jennie expresses her frustration with standardized testing, as well as some of the ways it’s changed the way she teaches reading to her students.

State assessment tests have lost their value
by Jennie Rook, Clarence Center secondary education teacher
The Buffalo News, January 27, 2007

In 2002, No Child Left Behind had a comforting ring to it. No child will fall through the cracks; no child should fail. Five years later, I am truly struggling with this education legislation.

My primary goal as an English teacher is to help kids grow into better human beings. I hope that through the literature and writing I discuss with them in class, they can better shape their thoughts, clarify their positions and decide what they believe in.

I stopped here when I was reading the article—this sounds exactly like the teaching philosophy I have been developing in my mind over the past two years.  I want my students to discuss, debate, laugh and struggle, and ultimately, to obtain a better understanding of communication and literature in our world.  Now, whether this “ideal” will change over the course of the next few years I can’t say, but I paused for a moment while reading this article to put myself into Jennie’s shoes, because I can see myself with this same mind-set as a new teacher.  The article continues:

Sadly, the human aspect of the humanities class I teach has been stripped from my curriculum and replaced with preparation for standardized tests. The logic of this is unclear, unless the only thing we want our children to learn is how to be good test takers…Rather than honing students’ skills, No Child Left Behind places pressure on administrators, and therefore on teachers, to raise test scores so we can score higher than our neighboring districts. How do I know this? If the act advocated the building of skills, I could still teach those skills through the literature and activities I once used.

Instead, I rush through “The Outsiders,” which teaches the importance of loyalty and friendship, and “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which fosters discussion on genocide, social activism and oppression, so that my students can take last year’s assessment.

I stopped here again to consider the YA Lit. that Jennie mentioned.  She admits to “rushing through” novels that, in her opinion, are crucial in teaching students that “human aspect” that she referred to.  This short paragraph saddened me, as I saw myself facing this same problem.  As Jennie struggles with this problem, she discusses her teacher education that prepared her for the classroom.

My education classes in college had titles like “Methods in Teaching.” I wonder now if there ought to be “Methods in State Assessment Preparation.” Student teachers are often criticized for not being familiar enough with the state assessments. In content, state assessment expertise has sadly taken the place of Langston Hughes or Mark Twain. Perhaps we should replace “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” with “The Celebrated List of Jumping Test Scores in Erie County.” …

The approach to these tests has corrupted the way we teach. Every teacher is being left behind in terms of ingenuity, creative lesson planning and integrity within the classroom. Every child is being left behind when it comes to character development, varied educational experiences and autonomous thought.

view complete article

This article has opened my eyes to the real-life struggles of a classroom English teacher, and has motivated me to begin my search on potential solutions for this problem that Jennie presented.  I hope to explore through future blogs and various articles the ways in which teachers deal with the pressure to “teach to the test.”  How do they fit both test-preparation and important novels (like Jennie mentioned) into their lessons?  I know there are teachers out there that manage to do both, and I’m sure Jennie is trying her hardest as well.  Can I find lesson plans where teachers integrate both the humanities aspect and test-prep. together?  My search for answers continues… 

Is Standardized Testing Taking Over the Classroom?

For my blog entries this semester, I have chosen to explore an area that seems to be growing in controversy.  Since 2001 when the No Child Left Behind Act passed, standardized testing has become a huge topic of conversation surrounding education.  I chose this topic to research and write about because I think it’s a topic that will affect me and my teaching someday in the near future.  Will I teach what I know is right in my students’ best interests—or do I feel pressured by administrators and the state to “teach to the test.”  I’m sure we’re all familiar with this method of teaching.  I know many of my classes in middle and high school were solely focused on preparing us for Michigan’s most infamous standardized test: M.E.A.P.

An article I found from the Lansing State Journal gives a very objective definition of the MEAP test.

What students should be learning in school
by Charles Dumas, superintendent of Portland Public School District
Lansing State Journal, January 14, 2007 

In 2001, the passage of a federal law called the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) required states to annually test students in grades 3 through 8 in English language arts and mathematics. Michigan uses the Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) test to assess children every year in English language arts and mathematics, or in other words, by grade span from grade 3 through grade 8. Grades 5 and 8 also get a dose of MEAP testing in science while grades 6 and 9 take a social studies MEAP test. The MEAP test covers all four core curriculum areas for students in grade 11. Testing at the end of a grade span works well with the way Michigan’s benchmarks had been established. 

view complete article

I like this unbiased explanation of what the MEAP is all about, and I think it’s a good starting point for my blog research.  Although I want to explore MEAP because it directly affects Michigan, I am more broadly focused on the topic of standardize testing.  There are several questions that I want to explore.  How do test scores affect the schools they represent?  Why and how to teachers “teach to the test?”  As for those exceptional teachers who seem to go above and beyond the required curriculum, how do they do it and what do their colleagues think about their teaching methods?  How do the students feel about standardized testing?  How do parents feel about their children being tested so often?

In answer to my last question, I found a blog from a mother, Jeri, who is not in favor of standardized testing (WASL in her state):

Smug Puppies: School and Snow Days
Personal blog entry by Jeri
Found via Goggle Blogs, January 17, 2007

When did education become all about teaching to the standardized tests? I’m not sure that’s what No Child Left Behind – of which I am NOT a fan – was all about, but it’s the end result! I am sorely tempted to keep my sons out of school on standardized testing days just to hold my own little private protest. I care about learning, first and foremost! Then the acquisition of life skills is second, learning to think and problem solve, achieving decent grades, and performing decently on college admission tests. Our kids are graduating poorly prepared to compete in the global economy with the Japanese, Koreans and East Indians – and teaching with the WASL as primary objective sure doesn’t help matters. 

view complete blog 

Out of my research, I hope to gain a better understand of the above-mentioned questions, as well as where I stand personally in the standardized testing debate!

*As a note, the feeds in which I am going to be using throughout the semester (which may be added to if I feel the need) are: BBC News, New York Times, and the Lansing State Journal, as well as various Google New and Google Blog searches (“standardized testing”, “English MEAP”, “teaching the test”, ect), and of course, my classmate’s blogs!  I am using Google Reader as my RSS syndicator, and have found it very useful thus far in finding articles.

First One

This is just a test of my first ever blog post using WordPress.  My REAL first blog assignment will be completed sometime in the next few days!