Our students are learning

 Why do districts tie administration's hands when assuming our students are not learning because of test scores? The answer eludes me.

 Four weeks in to the new school year and I have already had 3 great teaching lessons where the students are engaged in what they are doing, curious about what comes next, and using those brains to figure things out. 

Their work, for the most part, is being turned in on time; I hear them whisper about how fast my class goes by; and the only students who are not passing are those who have not been in school or checking in on  our online platform with me. One of the reasons for this is not because I am such a great teacher, although I think I am, but because my class does not have any of those terrible tests associated with it. My students have to pass my class, but there is no state test associated with it to bring them stress and I don't have the restrictions of teaching a test so my students will pass. I have a lot of freedom. 

The first thing I did this year was make a decision to read at least two books, historical in value, taking place in other parts of the world, and I would do the bulk of the reading out loud. The reason for this is the majority of each of my classrooms have specific learning disabilities with very poor vocabularies. The understanding of the story needs to flow, which can't happen when students don't understand the words they are reading. I read a chapter and they go back and put words they don't understand on strips of paper which are then hung with clothes pins on a word line. The next week we discuss the words, define them and re-read the lines they came from. Then I read the next chapter. It is working so well, I am tickled. The vocabulary they don't know from our first book, I Am Malala, ranges from gnawing to mosque. Words we may think everyone knows, but they don't. 

The second thing I am doing, while we are studying the medieval period is building castles from popsicle sticks. They can use anything extra they want to enhance their castles and the questions they are asking are wonderful. They want to learn the concepts of what the manor system consisted of. I am watching students who don't do well with writing or reading, flourish and become leaders in designing and building a simple castle. One young man even went to the Dollar store and bought a bag of army men, cut the guns off them, used them in front of his group's castle and then shared them with his other classmates. 

The final idea, which I have used with great success, are pen pals. You may think in the world of social media that having a pen pal has no redeeming value, but being in contact with students from another country and culture has continued to enthrall my students and made me very proud. They could not believe these German students, whose class is English, are excited to write to them. The comments range from, "Look how well they write. I am hanging this on my bedroom wall." to "I can't believe they find English an easy language. I am also learning it as a second language. I am going to see if he also wants to learn Spanish." Although they are exchanging social media contacts, they are also writing letters back.

What I expect to see is an improvement in their writing and understanding proper punctuation and spelling. They are receiving a grade for this, but I believe at this point, they would do it without a grade. One even asked if pen pals ever went to visit one another once they grew up. 

My kids are hungry for things like this. They aren't going to tell you that. They will show you that. I even had students who have entered the classroom after we began writing who have asked can they also write to someone to be included. 

So despite what we hear about how our students are behind or not learning, about how this generation is falling so far behind and about how are we to survive as a society if we don't get these student test scores up, I find that you just have to find a way to get them excited about what they are doing. The rest will fall in to place. 

Do I think I have all the answers. Nope, but my students are learning and growing using things which don't cost a lot of money but reap huge benefits. This happens without the stress of having a huge test hanging over their head at the end of the year. For that I am grateful.