I read Timed Tests for Tykes? which appeared in the May 2008 edition of Educational Leadership. The article begins with a question directed to the author from an elementary school teacher about 1st and 2nd graders taking timed tests weekly. The district's motives for it seems to be directed to improving test scores at 3rd grade levels and above as a result. She also states that students receive awards for perfect scores and parents of low achieving students are encouraged to help students at home. The author of the article makes a case for the purpose of assessments. He states that formative assessments, if used properly, can lead to big gains in student learning. He goes on to say that these types of tests are "potent" tools for educators. I totally agree with a few of his statements in the article but perhaps I am missing the point. He later states, "weekly tests that your 1st and 2nd graders are taking while a stopwatch ticks are anything but helpful." If used effectively, aren't these tests valid for teachers? I necessarily don't agree with how that school district is using the timed tests but I feel timed tests can be used with other intent in a purposeful manner.
I see nothing wrong with taking timed tests in the classroom. How else are teachers going to measure student progress within basic facts? Perhaps the school can get away from the awards. What is wrong with asking parents to help their students at home? I firmly believe the teacher needs to use the data from the timed tests and use it to better his/her instruction. If a child is not doing well, what are we as educators going to do with that child to help him improve. Hopefully, the educator is working with the child or a group of children throughout the week to help them improve.
Why not ask parents to contribute to their child's learning as well? I have used timed tests for the past number of years and my emphasis is for students to improve on their past progress. I encourage all parents to work on building basic facts at home and now after working on my action research, I feel I am better equipped to give them tools and ideas for what to do at home. Although I am not implementing timed tests weekly, I am using them bi-weekly to track student progress. However, I am targeting those students who are not fluent in their facts and working with them throughout the week with number sense activities as well as daily math games in hopes of improving their fluency and mastery of basic facts.
I guess these basic facts seemed to come easy for me and it is something I always enjoyed taking part in during my elementary years. My sister was the opposite, she was not very good with them and thus had slightly different feelings. We were given one minute each day to answer as many facts as we could. Then our score was the ones we answered correctly, but once we got one wrong our score ended. So if you answered 15 problems but got the 3rd one wrong - your score was a 2. As I look back, what was the purpose in taking them? I do not recall the teacher giving us instruction to help students improve, but rather just offered us to take the timed test each day and try to improve our score.
I see nothing wrong with taking timed tests in the classroom. How else are teachers going to measure student progress within basic facts? Perhaps the school can get away from the awards. What is wrong with asking parents to help their students at home? I firmly believe the teacher needs to use the data from the timed tests and use it to better his/her instruction. If a child is not doing well, what are we as educators going to do with that child to help him improve. Hopefully, the educator is working with the child or a group of children throughout the week to help them improve.
Why not ask parents to contribute to their child's learning as well? I have used timed tests for the past number of years and my emphasis is for students to improve on their past progress. I encourage all parents to work on building basic facts at home and now after working on my action research, I feel I am better equipped to give them tools and ideas for what to do at home. Although I am not implementing timed tests weekly, I am using them bi-weekly to track student progress. However, I am targeting those students who are not fluent in their facts and working with them throughout the week with number sense activities as well as daily math games in hopes of improving their fluency and mastery of basic facts.
I guess these basic facts seemed to come easy for me and it is something I always enjoyed taking part in during my elementary years. My sister was the opposite, she was not very good with them and thus had slightly different feelings. We were given one minute each day to answer as many facts as we could. Then our score was the ones we answered correctly, but once we got one wrong our score ended. So if you answered 15 problems but got the 3rd one wrong - your score was a 2. As I look back, what was the purpose in taking them? I do not recall the teacher giving us instruction to help students improve, but rather just offered us to take the timed test each day and try to improve our score.
Students need to be able to perform in a certain period of time. We do not always have all the time we want to in order to accomplish things. There are deadlines and sometimes we need to perform in a certain amount of time. Why not start at a young age and help students understand this process. However, the teacher plays a big role in helping students understand the need for timed tests. If used in a purposeful manner, they can help us improve our instruction.
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