As ‘bell work’ my students complete a DLR. After independent reading time we correct them together. These five minutes often give me valuable insight into skills that need to be taught, re-taught, or emphasized. Today, as we looked at a dictionary guide word question, I realized something.
It was not the fact the several students had no strategies for identifying what words would fall on a page in the dictionary.
It wasn’t that some of them still need to have the alphabet written out, or sing it to themselves, in order to remember the order.
It wasn’t that some of them would rather guess than take the time to do their best work.
All of the above are true, but my realization was that my daughter, at nearly four, will never have a question like this on a test (or at least she shouldn’t).
Why is that?
She will never use a dictionary in book form, most likely. For her a dictionary will be an electronic resource therefore her dictionary searching skills will look very different.
What realizations have you had recently? How do you see learning (and testing) changing for the next generation?
Testing! I am realizing that testing is here to stay in bigger and scarier ways unless teachers and parents unite. Sigh.
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