Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

Real Kindergarten worksheet shows we're preparing youngest to be great test takers, not learners. (from BadAssTeachers).  When I was a student, I remember learning this...in high school.



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Comments

Anonymous said…
That has to be the saddest kindergarten worksheet that I have ever seen.

Observer
10/28/13, 10:12 PM
Maje said…
Was this from a Seattle school?
10/28/13, 10:30 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I know it wasn't Seattle but I didn't see a notation which state it came from.
10/28/13, 10:33 PM
Anonymous said…
From the elementary schooler, "That's so dumb, I can bubble pretty well." (me, it's for kindergartners). "Wow, they really had to do that?"

(So sad all around)

zb
10/29/13, 7:18 AM
Anonymous said…
Off topic, but needs a mention: Tim Eyman's latest self-serving initiative gives him (and his paid signature gatherers) unfettered access to all public buildings....including schools.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/10/28/retailers-fighting-eymans-i-517/

CT
10/29/13, 7:53 AM
Anonymous said…
I don't have a problem with students learning to fill in a bubble. Especially, if it saves me from having to reteach my university level students this skill. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to hand re-grade an exam for students who missed out on bubbling training in grade school! In a class of 100 students this wastes time better spent developing great lectures.

Think of it as a skill that can be used for voting as well as test-taking. A civics lesson perhaps.

-Bubbles are part of life

10/29/13, 8:28 AM
Anonymous said…
playing devil's advocate, unless I opt out of standardized testing altogether, I'd like my child to at least know how to do it and not get marked off for technique? in the seattle schools context, especially for kids who have never used a computer, I hope kindergartners are receiving a few weeks' instruction/familiarization with mouseclicking, etc prior to sitting down in front of a computer for a high-stakes MAP test. i don't think that always happens. i'm guessing many more upper income kids have familiarity with computers prior to taking MAP vs lower income? the bubble sheet is silly, but the concept is real.
-diane
10/29/13, 8:31 AM
Anonymous said…
While I don't see the need for kindergarteners to do this, I encountered bubble-filling and standardized tests LONG before high school back in the Jurassic period. Might have been 4th grade, maybe but for sure in the 5th.

OTOH, it's not rocket science and a minute or two before a test to go over how to do it should be enough.

T. Rex
10/29/13, 8:49 AM
Anonymous said…
Are primary school students with undiagnosed neuromuscular challenges like dysgraphia are labeled as slow, because they take too long filling in the bubbles? Or because their attention slips and they miss a bubble or more, or read question 8 and fill in the bubble for question 9?

"Oh dear, Rainier's put his head down on his desk after the test, the little love's brain reached the breaking point after a ten question test!"

Are some teachers then surprised when a child's test session changes to online, and the student can't move to the next question before answering the one displayed on the screen, so the child's recorded score of material mastery shoots up from pencil-era "emerging/developing" to "proficient"?

"You must understand this computerized, standardized test is not aligned to state curriculum and is multiple-choice. Rainier must have fluked his way into the Spectrum bracket two consecutive times in both math and reading. Of course your child receives adequate challenge with curriculum: we ask Rainier to use a pencil!"

--I(pad)E(ducation)P(lease)
10/29/13, 10:19 AM
Anonymous said…
I encountered bubble forms in the 4th grade, I think. I don't think a Kindergartner needs to learn to bubble and think very little of what they are learning can be effectively assessed with bubble forms (other than the ability to bubble, which does transfer to some other skills).

zb
10/29/13, 12:42 PM
Anonymous said…
We took bubble tests in the mid 80's when I was a kid. If I remember right, they were California Achievement Tests.

APP Alum
10/29/13, 4:04 PM
Anonymous said…
Can't be Seattle. Around here it's mousing lessons in kindergarten.

Chris S.
10/30/13, 11:41 AM
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