PARCC ~ n ~ PLAY

I don't want to be too political on a Friday night, after half a day of teaching and half a day of Professional Development, but I do want to recount a few salient bits of the day.

The morning was spent teaching, or rather managing, my classes, as they are all doing their Shakespearian productions this month and this was the last day of rehearsals. March is a month with no vacations, no long weekends and the teenagers hormones start running. Not only that, but my Seniors are finding our if they can afford to go to the schools they've been accepted to, or not, and my Juniors are taking the SAT's. So I keep them busy by making them act out scenes from Julius Caesar (Juniors and World Studies) and Hamlet (Women's Lit. [Seniors] through the lens of Ophelia & Gertrude). They have to produce a 10-15 page promptbook and a 10-20 performance next week and have been working on them for the last 2 weeks. It was good to see the classes I saw (only 2 out of my 5) seeming to gel this morning! However I was still worried about my two regular Junior classes and their preparedness.

We have to complete the performances next week, as the following week the MCAS (MA's state assessment test) are being administered . On top of that the PARCC test (new role out of the Common Core, state by state, to national test) will be administered for the first time during the window of 3/30-4/10. May is the season for end of year MAP testing and will, also now be the month to roll out the final new PARCC piece. June holds the final SAT's of the year.

This afternoon's Professional Development was teaching my department (ELA) the basics of PARCC;   different sections, models of sections, scoring, standards met, practice tests, and how-to and not-to mark your answers in the test packets. We were paired up to do the sample test (first three from the March/April roll out). My partner and I chose 11th grade, as we teach 11th &  12th. We found the language very complex, the time constraints too tight, the directions deceivingly simple and the writing components analytically rugged. This would be fine if the majority of our student body wasn't so verbally impoverished, unconfident with new formats, slow readers and, in some cases, incapable of accessing the material. Many accommodations on IEP's and 504 will not apply for this test. Extra time, yes, but not much else, for example. Forget about the FLEPed kids (newly English proficient).

We, the ELA teachers, are going to be administering to the 9th and 11th graders for the first three parts in the March/April window. The Math teachers are administering theirs to the 9th grade only. The tests (3 per first round, 2 in the final round in May) take longer than one class period and yet, we're to administer them in class? The total of 5 class periods, or a week, of teaching the Common Core and Curriculum Standards will be on hold. So a week of content gone, filled with testing. On top of that, in an email I receive from the MTA (Mass Teacher's Association- the Union), says that it's received word that administrators are going to be asked to sign a privacy agreement?! Geez-louise!

We were asked between now and the first window to teach our kids about the format of the test and to  give them practice tests of sorts, too. Not sure how many class periods they expect for those lessons. And I've already mapped out my lesson to April 1st, so this will undo and squeeze my already shrunk schedule with MCAS in 10 days!

However, my Shakespearian Extravaganza will not be interrupted or compromised! After the development meeting I returned to my classroom to gather up test to be graded and to tie up a few loose ends. My corridor was mostly empty as I was packing up to leave for the weekend. As I got to my door, I was met by 4 Junior boys in one of my classes. Although the day had ended for them at 10:45, here there were at 2:45 at my door. They'd come back to school, on a Friday afternoon, after half a day off, to ask me some questions about the play. These were not my Honors World Studies nor my Honors Women's Lit kids, these were my Regular English kids, a company I had worried about over the last two weeks. And here they were; shy, goofy, unconfident learners, and asking for help!

They asked if they could use my room to rehearse and look at the exemplar promptbooks again. I said I'd have to go find Dennis, the custodian, but if it was alright with him (as he'd have to clean and lock up after they left), it was alright with me! Fortunately Dennis finds kids fighting with swords in my classroom and rehearsing in the hallways fun to watch, as his own daughter is a theater kid! The kids were thrilled, I was tickled and it made me hopeful, that even when these same boys had to take the PARCC and they would most likely not score very well, that at least there are showing initiative with an interactive Shakespeare term project and that is really what it's all about!

Good night, Players and PARCCers, G'night!