Joy Hakim's style of learning / writing is infectious. It begs you to read more....much like a good novel does. Being a left brain person, you must show me the details. I scour a movie looking for missed details but reading history the way Hakim presents it, is similar to a college professor I once had. Everyone loved his lectures. He spoke the way Hakim writes. The only problem way his tests came straight from the textbook. Loved the class, got lousy grades! I imagine some of my students face a similar conflict.
Today in our school (and many others as well) we are faced with preparing and dare I say, teaching to the standardized tests. Back when I was in college (eons ago) it was pounded in to us NOT to teach to the test. But we are doing more of that today than ever before. Am I alone in thinking the tests favor the logical left brain thinker??
Do any of you enjoy Gary Paulsen's books? One of his newer ones is Woods Runner. It is written in the same style as Joy Hakim's book. It is historical fiction but every chapter or so Paulsen inserts a page of facts to back up his story.
I found myself taking notes on Hakim's book just so I could refer back to certain passages or points of interest that I might want to include in a future research unit for my students. Also, love the maps in the back of the book. Geography is a lost subject these days. These maps or making these maps with your students to reinforce the subject would be great.
I think most research would support your idea that tests favor left-brained learners. I also think that is why we have resisted the idea of teaching to the test. However, if the test is (could, would be) a well-designed assessment of skills, then what else would we want to teach except those desired skills? The test design, administration and scoring are the issues that interfere with this concept.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who took 10 NYS Regents exams before graduating high school, I'll concur that it's possible to teach a good solid class that allows students to do well on the standardized test without teaching to the test! Of course, as Kathy notes, the tests have to be well-designed assessments for this to happen.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be given two maps during the June institute, as well as participate in a map activity with State Archives staff around the 1792 Reading Howell map. This was the first map of the STATE of Pennsylvania. Hopefully you can find ways to incorporate them into your resouroce lessons!
My third grade teacher had a neat reward for those of us who finished our math workbook early. I was able to do a special project working with a road map during math time. I don't know if it lead to my interest in maps or if it was just a fortunate coincidence!