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Surely they could have come up with a better essay topic! What happens if they say something like Mama has a boyfriend, or Daddy carries a gun or Brother sells drugs? Will they have to tell the law?
I have always told my kids that somethings stay in the family and we don't discuss them with outsiders, like family illnesses, financial concerns, travel plans,tragedies, etc.
I would be really ticked if my kids were encouraged to write about secrets.
WHAT??? Third graders are being assessed on writing on standardized test? NC doesn't do that at all in 3-5, not sure when they start. No wonder my kids writing skills are so poor.
But, then again..... at least they could write an informantional piece that is much better than that article... the whole article didn't add anything that wasn't said in the title.
WHAT??? Third graders are being assessed on writing on standardized test? NC doesn't do that at all in 3-5, not sure when they start. No wonder my kids writing skills are so poor.
In IN 3rd-8th is given standardized tests... 3rd grade gets reading, writing and math assessed...and if they don't pass the reading portion of their test they automatically have to do summer school...if they don't pass summer school then they are automatically held back a grade
I teach 4th grade in Texas. On the writing portion of our state test, students have to write a personal narrative composition as well as an expository composition (this is done over two days - as well as answering editing and revising questions in multiple choice format). On the narrative, students know they can make something up if they cannot come up with a true experience or if they do not want to share a true experience... as long as what they make up does not sound made up (we have been told the narratives have to be realistic, so no "fantasy" comps allowed). Knowing my students and what they tend to write throughout the year (you would not believe the number of compositions we are required to have them write during the school year), they would not use the state test as a platform to share deep, dark family secrets. I don't like the prompt, but then again, I don't like many of the prompts I have seen on these tests.
I do not know how it works in all states, but our state tests are sent off and scored by a testing company. There is no identification information on the composition itself as read by the test scorer. I work for a national scoring company each spring scoring compositions from other states. If we read a composition that has anything that needs to be reported (a student reveals abuse, for example), we do send it for immediate review.
I don't think it's as big a deal as some are making it out to be. I think the state probably figured that it was a prompt that might interest the students and that might result in more being written and possibly better scores. In retrospect they probably didn't fully consider the negative ramifications, or simply felt they weren't significant enough to outweigh the positive.
I am still laughing at the question because I can just imagine what some third graders could do with this question. My son has one friend that ended up being a college professor of writing and the head of his department. His teacher years ago was calling me to get our address so she could send my son a thank you note for the end of the year present he gave her. She revealed to me that she was concerned about one of her students that she considered to be troubled. I knew what she was talking about because on the last day of school this now college professor came home with my son to spend the afternoon.
I found these two in a huddle having so much fun and of course as a mother I had to get to the bottom of what was soooo funny. My son's friend did not like this teacher and he did not like to have to do an essay so he made it well worth her time to read it. I think his essay ended up with the teacher getting hanged. Can't you just imagine what kind of secret he could dream up?
I have mixed feelings about this assignment. I don't think children should be asked to go against their conscience and tell a secret. I don't like what that is teaching; but if these teachers think they are going to learn any secrets, they may get more than they bargain for. Third graders can have some really wild imagined stories.
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People are so crazy these days. The secrets they probably wrote about were "billy likes jamie". What is it with these forums and oversensationalism.
