I got to score some reading diagnostics today. The outlook for our morning language arts classes is not so hot. The vast majority of our eighth graders are reading at a fourth grade level. Some are reading at fifth. ONE student out of 35 is reading at grade level. You go, Keisha!
Of course the tests exhibit cultural bias. The students are reading passages about ski trips, robotics, and white-ass beyotches like Emma Lazarus and Amelia Earhart. If we had some less triflin' texts about more engaging figures like Tupac or Beyonce or Ray Lewis, students' interest levels, and therefore their comprehension and recall, would perhaps rise substantially.
I saw a sample of the MSA test from last year. The texts the seventh graders read were about archery and farm life. No wonder Harford County muthafuckas scored 85% on that shit. Noboby in the McCulluh Street Projects is taking archery. Nobody in SoWeBo has ever been on a goddam farm. I'd like to see those Harford County students tested on passages dealing with spider caps, dimebags, and 5-0 terminology.
Maurice, Timothy, and Antonio think they are slick. They spelled out "Bitch" using ASL behind Lukie's back. I gave them props for knowing some ASL, but had to remind them about our language and respect expectations. I wonder what they spelled behind my back afterwards?
5 comments:
You do realize, you sound like an episode of 'Good Times' right? The one where Micheal refused to take a school apptitude test.
I would like to see HARFORD COUNTY take the Black SAT's and see how well they do.
BCPS HAVEN'T CHANGED ONE LICK!
Oh man, I forgot about that episode. Michael was an angry young man--but always a righteous anger.
Michael was always cool and leading the charge. That said, he would have failed the standardized tests. Ironically, I grew up in a small city and had only been on a farm once, but I had no problem identifying farm animals and buildings and equipment because I read books, or rather had them read to me when I was little. I don't know a single kids book that has "dimebag" as a word. But I'm betting there are a shitton that say "cow", "tractor" and "corn".
Michael? Who the heck was looking at Michael when Penny was around? Or Francine "The Furnace" and Samantha "the Human Panther" for that matter.
Thelma was THA SHIT.
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