I get the feeling that his school is being very proactive and
strict about the FCAT process and encourages the parents to get involved. I
understand that Mathew is foreign and English is his second language as this
may pose a problem for him in school and at home with no native English
speakers assistance. However, today he seemed very frustrated with FCAT. I
asked him why he disliked it so much and what made him frustrated the most so
that he could vent about it and then I could address his concerns. He was quick
to express his feelings that quickly escalated to anger and then loss of
patience.
Needless to say, I had him start the reading practice but
this passage had a short response box. This aggravated him more. I timed him
roughly to 45 min to complete the passage and answer the questions. He read the
story and then answered all the questions except for the short response. I
asked him why he skipped it and he said that he was too tired to write and it
wasn’t the real test so it wasn’t required. I loosely translated this to his
fear of not knowing the answer and or his inability to express himself
correctly in FCAT standards.
As previously stated, FCAT is literally being pushed onto
these young students and it can get boring and repetitive. As a student of the Florida
public school system I remember going through FCAT at that young age and
feeling the same frustrations. I can only imagine what it feels like for a
student that can barely speak or understand the language of the test.
As the session went on, Mathew became very irritable and
started being rude to me. I tried to give him some sort of reward if he at
least tried to complete the short response on his own but he was not receptive
to this idea, so I told him I would help him locate the answer and put it into
his own words. He snapped at me and told me to leave him alone, so I did. After
the 5 min break I asked him to regroup with me and express his concerns with
the writing sample. He was still apprehensive to talk to me about his
frustration so I just proceeded with the lesson. He eventually answered the
short response with the most minimal effort but I couldn’t ask more of him through
his anger with FCAT and his frustrations with me.
While I do think Mathew is improving I think the school is
definitely taking the test a little overboard and having negative effects on
the students.
B
No comments:
Post a Comment