What if somebody built a new concept car that was far better than anything ever built before it? Would car mechanics then not invent new tools to allow them to properly work on the new car? Or would they just try to use the tools they already had to do the job?
We are not inventing new tools to work on stories. We are timid to rewrite curriculum, thinking we lack the power to boldly confront administrators who themselves clearly need drastic re-education (see category on the right side of this page on Administrator/Teacher/Parent Re-education) to keep up with the changes that are happening in foreign language education.
A complete retooling is necessary in all three areas of our education plan: curriculum, instruction and assessment. This is one of the reasons why stories have not taken off like a rocket in our schools, the necessary infrastructure wasn’t there to support and uninformed administrators and teachers kept trying to weigh us with a tape measure. If any academic program is to be successful,curriculum, instruction and assessment must align.
Carol Gaab commented to me recently:
…assessment is so misunderstood and unmastered….
So just like with the curriculum problem, where we think we are the ones who need to align with those in our buildings at the district level who are so stuck in the past, so also are the assessment tools that we now use on stories insufficient and not reflective of what we do in storytelling classes so now we have to invent brand new ones. Stories are that different.
Teachers have suffered too much, and their students with them, when really it is the administrators who need to do some mental suffering to cut loose the outdated model that they, without even reflecting on why, use say, to evaluate the instruction in a math class. Administrators need to embrace a curriculum and assessment model that actually reflects what we do.
Someone has to push for rewriting of curriculum and assessment tools if there is to be a completion of the change that stories have initiated. Unless we want to be like foolish mechanics who can’t figure out how to adjust a carburetor on an electric car.