This semester i have the delightful task of a clinic placement at a certain (unnamed) elementary school in the area.
(Mild rant inserted before actual inspiration for this post): I have no desire to ever work in the schools. I did it for a semester after my undergraduate work, and have spent many additional hours in elementary schools while in graduate school. I cringe every time I walk in and see the gross inefficiency of time management that must needs come from trying to constantly corral 30 children. My very schedule oriented, to-do list focused person cannot fathom how it could possibly be adequate to turn a herd of children loose on a library for 27 minutes and call it "literacy". Elementary education friends, feel free to correct me. I'm sure there is much I don't know. But my skin still crawls whenever I see what I perceive as a flagrant abuse of educational time. (Note the emphasis on "perceive")
No hate mail due to that above paragraph, please.
This morning I was testing a young lady regarding her vocabulary, receptive and expressive language. She was hilarious.
One of the tests consisted of a picture. I would provide a cue and then the child would complete the sentence or story. Most pictures only require one-word, or at most one sentence answers. My dear little testee was too involved in the story to provide the expected short answer. For example:
(picture of John breaking a lamp and then of John talking to his mother)
Me: John was playing and broke his mother's yellow lamp. What is John saying to his mother?
Girl: Mmmm! He shouldna done dat! He say, "I sorry mom. I sorry." And she say, "John, you be bad! You's broke my fadorite lamp. I gonna give you a whippin'." And den John get a whippin, and it not be good. He shouldna done dat...
And so it continued.
There was nothing in the answer key to appropriately score her answers.
I completed an hour of testing without laughing. I deserve an award...
No comments:
Post a Comment