Today my school had the Cambridge testers over. Now, I have nothing against these people particularly, but I have a huge issue with forcing tests onto 4, 5, and 6 year old kids.
This is just wrong, in my opinion. I get really riled when I see the amount of pressure that gets placed on these little shoulders by their parents and by the teachers in the kindergarten. Ridiculous, and harmful, to my way of thinking.
Today they showed up, after two weeks of panic and pressure. We spent the past two weeks reviewing all the target vocab with the kids, thus missing our own curriculum’s goals and greatly increasing our own workload. We worked them on all the different categories, sentence patterns and whatnot. And then what happens?
Our manager goes into the test with the first kid, sees that each category’s flash cards are in an envelope with only the category’s word on the front. She comes to each of the English teachers and interrupts the class to tell us we have to show the kids what the word “colors” looks like so that all the kids will choose what, in her opinion, is the easiest category (colors and shapes).
Now, I am confident in my teaching abilities, and I am confident that most if not all of my kids will do well in that test no matter which they choose. And I’m irritated by the assumption on my manager’s part that my kids WON’T do well unless they choose this one category.
I didn’t tell my kids which category to choose. I told them I knew they would do well, and to just relax. How can I tell them that I think this test and all others like it are a big f****** joke at this age, and their parents are idiots for signing them up? Especially when my manager wants to ‘rig’ the test in some way!
[quote=“FearsomeOrange”]Today my school had the Cambridge testers over. Now, I have nothing against these people particularly, but I have a huge issue with forcing tests onto 4, 5, and 6 year old kids.[/quote]Are you talking about the YLE tests?
The school screwed up by calling it a test. They should call it “A Special Guest Visit From People from England!”
Assessment is important at all levels. Pressure is inappropriate at that age.
Maybe give the manager of the school some feedback. Call it suggestions for next time. Then you’ve done your part. Unlikely you will be taken seriously, but at least you can try.
I don’t mind the testing aspects as much as I worry about the results. If the test is used to help find the weaknesses of the students(ergo, the program) so that adjustments can be made, then ok. But if the test is supposed to be a true evlaution/determination of the students’ ability, then… :raspberry:
See, that’s my issue! This test isn’t testing our curriculum, it’s testing someone else’s!
All the topics covered in the test we cover, but not necessarily in the same way or in the same order. Some things they called ‘advanced’ (runners) we taught at a basic level and some things they had as basic (walkers) we hadn’t yet taught the kids.
And don’t doubt for a second that the management and parents were looking for passes and fails, even though this test doesn’t purport to give such delineations…in fact, there were bonuses up for grabs in classes that had a high enough ‘pass’ rate.