Standards and Accountability

In my Service Learning placement I see many different standards being addressed, but the main standards I see being focused on the most are English Language Arts, English Language Proficiency, and Mathematics, This morning while I was in a second grade class, the teacher had the students work on reading. Some of the students were asked to read silently at the book corner, others worked on reading at the computers, and the teacher took a group to her reading table. The teacher and the students in the group read a book together. Then the teacher let them start again at the beginning, but she had the students start at different times so they weren't reading the same words. When they finished reading she asked the students questions about the book such as the setting, characters, and plot, which tested them on their comprehension. In  my learning placement I have also seen alot of focus on math. The students are currently learning about place value, counting to a hundred by 5's, 10's, and using symbols >, =, <, to record results of comparisons. I have not seen alot of emphasis on the social studies and science standard yet. I wonder if that is because this is taught in the afternoon when I am not there, or if there is so much to be taught with reading, writing, and math that there is not as much emphasis on these subjects.

I spoke with my cooperating teacher about standards and standardized testing. She understands that teachers should be teaching the same concepts, but she finds it very difficult to agree with standardized testing. She doesn't understand why they do not trust the teachers to show what the students have learned. She feels the testing is not fair because it doesn't show everything the child has been taught and learned during the school year. Some students do not do well on tests and this makes the tests even more difficult to understand what the child has achieved.