I got this from a colleague who had asked me about using CI with the textbook:
Ben,
Thanks so much for the advice! The problem with not using the textbook (Realidades) is that our district has common assessments, so everyone has to give the same tests… which come from the book. I have tried to use the Realidades TPR resources, and it just confuses me. There isn’t really anyone else close by who does TPRS, so I sort of feel like I’m on my own there and sort of jumping without a parachute!
The way this is written, the vibe, made me realize today something I had never even thought of. The book companies and the creation of common assessments built around a certain book is probably much more ubiquitous than we think, and a yoke around the neck of the teacher who might want to explore everything available out there for her students.
It is astounding to think that a teacher wanting to implement CI into her teaching could be – is in the above case – held back because of the relationship between book teachers and their common assessments and book cartels. Once a district has a common assessment in place, which usually represents long hours and many dollars spent by the district, they will be loathe to give it up.
All teachers in the district must test the same way. I won’t go into it here, the topic is much too complex, but I maintain that the entire data driven/book based assessments are without actual merit – it only looks like they measure gains in languages. The teachers are part of a smoke and mirrors scheme to get people to think that their kids are learning something. The worst part is that they don’t even know it!
I say again – most students aren’t really learning anything at all from books. Just the four percent white females. Which is one reason the book and CI can’t mix. Books are for the four percent white females and CI is for the masses, for everybody. Can’t let the rabble, the Latino and African American kids and kids with nose rings and bad parents who might make things rowdy and raucous and, God forbid… fun, take over the class.
The teacher above. What is she supposed to do? Not even attempt to grow into what we hippies know works? It is very disturbing. New teachers can’t just toss the book. The cartels own them. If they toss the book, they toss their jobs.
There is something unfree, something that is against the very concept of what real teaching and learning are, in this email above. I feel very sorry for the Realidades bound teacher who wants to fly, but whose wings are clipped by common assessments. Just to be clear, I disagree with all in TPRS who say that books and CI can be mixed. I say to that idea, “Not really.”
And no apologies for the rant – it’s my blog. And Harrell quit apologizing for your rants. They belong here. I love reading them. They bind us in our common vision. This is the place to rant. Anyone who gets offended by how nuts we are shouldn’t be reading them. Rant on, brother!