Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 (Please if you reply, discuss general topics, rather than actual test questions.) So we did end of the year testing last week. It did bring to the forefront a few things that my kids were lacking in. Most weren't surprising, but one did catch me off guard. American StudiesOf all kinds really. It's been two years since we studied anything touching US history. It's been seven years since we lived in the continental US. We've been more aware of Lei Day or Girls' Day or German National Day than the uniquely US holidays. So I wasn't surprised at my kids missing these questions. I was a little disappointed with how shallow some of the questions were. Specific things that I'll need to arm my kids with better knowledge of: Top five US presidents/early political figures. The sort of people who are depicted on currency. US holidays that are political/historical in nature (Labor Day, MLK Day, Memorial Day) Major Native American divisions and some of their characteristics Major African American figures (I can think that the questions are shallow and only test a kid's ability to identify the picture on a bulletin board without knowing anything substantial about them. I can be frustrated that they don't even expect the kid to know what century they lived in - let alone which decade. But I need to make sure my kids can answer the shallow questions as well as discuss the larger topic of civil rights and slavery.) Major US landmark buildings (the sort of stuff that shows up on iconic posters) DH and I will be putting together an American Studies elective for my poor global nomadic children so they aren't so clueless. I really love chronological study of history and a focus that looks at a broader geographic area than just the US. But I also have to realize that there is a game to be played with the tests and that there are things my kids ought to know as Americans (even as expat Americans) like what state the Golden Gate Bridge or the Statue of Liberty is associated with or who that head on the quarter is. Language Arts: Prefixes and suffixes. This is the one that caught me off guard. This style of question wasn't in the practice book we used. A word would be given, with a part underlined. The student had to answer which other word used the underlined letters in the same way. (Made up example: undone a) under b) unusual c) uncle ) These were part of the third grade level. So I've got a copy of Wordly Wise on order so we can spend some time on roots and prefixes/suffixes. Anyone else identify something from testing that they need/want to add for next year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Math. We're a bit behind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchfire Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Estimation is always 'behind' her other math scores. I still remember the wasted half a year we spent on "ways to estimate" when I was in fifth grade, so I tend not to do anything with it. I probably should at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 Estimation is always 'behind' her other math scores. I still remember the wasted half a year we spent on "ways to estimate" when I was in fifth grade, so I tend not to do anything with it. I probably should at some point. Oh, I imagine that my youngest is way behind on American units of measurement too. (As if he ever sees anything packaged in a pint or a gallon. I had to buy a special jug of orange juice to do that lesson last year, because our commissary didn't sell milk in gallon jugs.) I always put off that math lesson because I have to scrounge for containers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThelmaLou Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Math speed. We're in the midst of testing right now, and the only tests any of my kids have failed to complete have been math related. Yikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I don't give the Social Studies or Science portions of standardized tests because I know that what we've studied doesn't line up with what's tested. And frankly, some of the things you listed seem to be more about political correctness than in actual historical significance. If they're important, we'll cover them but I don't believe in studying something just for the sake of making some minority group feel good about being included. Last year, testing revealed that my DD need more work on estimation & rounding in math, and punctuation & capitalization in English. I'll know in a few months whether there's anything that jumps out at me as a gap to cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Capitalization of names (like groups) :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 17, 2011 Author Share Posted May 17, 2011 I don't give the Social Studies or Science portions of standardized tests because I know that what we've studied doesn't line up with what's tested. And frankly, some of the things you listed seem to be more about political correctness than in actual historical significance. If they're important, we'll cover them but I don't believe in studying something just for the sake of making some minority group feel good about being included. Last year, testing revealed that my DD need more work on estimation & rounding in math, and punctuation & capitalization in English. I'll know in a few months whether there's anything that jumps out at me as a gap to cover. I do think the way some of the questions are presented is shallow. I don't care, for example, if my kid knows what a particular gov't building looks like, but I do want them to be able to explain the three branches of government and checks and balances. On the other hand, at some point my kids will return to living in the US long term. I don't want them to not know what the White House or the Capitol looks like. Or not know who is on Mount Rushmore. I want them to hear or read the words of MLK's I Have a Dream speech and get the same chicken skin that I do. And have a picture in their head of what he looked like. I knew their geography was lacking. The test did underscore some of the cultural literacy that I haven't made sure they picked up. On the other hand: Yesterday Cauliflower asked me why anyone would choose to be a Keynsian and then said that it seemed like a lot of people needed "schooled in the Austrian perspective". So I don't think I'm getting it all wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I'm still waiting for our test results to come back, but I did notice the kids got a couple of "social studies" questions wrong -- probably because we do actual history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama2cntrykids Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 My oldest was a tad below ave in Math this year for computation. I know why though, he's just not quick enough and didn't finish that portion of the test. He went above and beyond for everything but math. I knew it isn't his strong suit though. Now with my youngest ds, I'm scared to get the scores back. Really, I am. Is it because he's not smart? NO! It's because this was his first year testing, he has Asperger's and he had a really hard time. Next year, he'll do the Peabody. I think it'll be a lot less stressful for him. He even had bad dreams about testing this year (poor kid). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Spelling. He tanks at recognizing which word in a list is misspelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Grammar. Particularly phrases that contain direct quotations. After getting his test scores we ditched growing with grammar and got FLL3. I don't think grammar will be a problem next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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