In the last class of the day today there were a couple of kids absent and several who were pulled for a meeting with the Gifted Coordinator. That left me and seven sixth grade boys. Tomorrow we are administering a reading test, the results of which will help determine whether kids take a foreign language next year, or continue on with reading, and I gave them the same spiel I had delivered to all of my classes. "A standardized test is like a snapshot..." I started.
My point to the kids was that there's no shame in doing their best on the test and finding out that it would help them to postpone taking another language for a year, but it would be a shame for them to blow off the test and miss out on the chance at a high school credit. I also reminded them that if they did take a language, then their grade would be important when they applied to college.
This group was confused. "What do you mean "apply"?" asked one.
"Well," I answered, "colleges don't have to let you go there. They get to choose who they want based on an application that you fill out.They look at a lot of things, but they definitely look at your grades."
"Whaaaaaaat?" said another student. "You can't just go somewhere?"
I shook my head.
"Did you go to college?" somebody asked.
"You can't be a teacher without a college degree," I shrugged.
They were unusually quiet for a moment, but then the silence was broken. "Let's get to work!" one guy suggested, clapping his hands in encouragement, and it was a very good class.
"My point to the kids was that there's no shame in doing their best on the test and finding out that it would help them to postpone taking another language for a year"
ReplyDeletePerhaps next time you could tell them this story about Winston Churchill: He attributed his mastery of the English language to being required to take remedial English over and over again while the more gifted students went on to other languages.