I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
1–10 of 464 posts
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#2(2017), and original source is located at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/standardized-tests-are-so-bad...
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#3This feels like the literary version of the "what in tarnation would you ever need this new-fangled multiplication for" critiques of common core math.
> Holbrook wrote that asking students to guess an author's intent in writing a piece of literature is doomed to be a pointless exercise.
It's pedagogy! Students aren't trying to divine the One True Meaning of the piece. They're trying to learn how to read a piece of literature, identify literary techniques, and think critically about it. If a student can produce a justifiable answer, they're winning.
I agree that dissecting literature is not fun, and I agree this is probably not the optimal way to teach it. But these are precursors to learning how to read and analyze critically, and we need more of that in society.
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#4>"My final reflection is this: any test that questions the motivations of the author without asking the author is a big baloney sandwich," she wrote. "Mostly test makers do this to dead people who can’t protest. But I’m not dead. I protest."
I guess that the result of this will be the test makers using long dead authors more.
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#5Better than some other cases (http://archive.is/TEp6g) , in which not only is a dadaist bit of a very wild book (which i really like and recommend) used as a test question, the ending was changed so it really really makes no sense!
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#6I have mixed feelings about this article. On the one hand I’m completely here for the argument that standardized tests aren’t a good way to evaluate poetry (or other sorts of literature).
But in the current environment that frequently reduces to an argument that because it’s not obviously quantifiable we shouldn’t do it. That I disagree with. Most problems don’t have objectively quantifiable metrics naturally so being comfortable in frameworks that allow for that ambiguity is important.
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#7(2017), and original source is located at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/standardized-tests-are-so-bad...
and a nice discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13348672
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#8I have mixed feelings about this article. On the one hand I’m completely here for the argument that standardized tests aren’t a good way to evaluate poetry (or other sorts of literature). But in the current environment that frequently reduces to an argument that because it’s not obviously quantifiable we shouldn’t do it. That I disagree with. Most problems don’t have objectively quantifiable metrics naturally so bein…
[deleted]
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#9This feels like the literary version of the "what in tarnation would you ever need this new-fangled multiplication for" critiques of common core math. > Holbrook wrote that asking students to guess an author's intent in writing a piece of literature is doomed to be a pointless exercise. It's pedagogy! Students aren't trying to divine the One True Meaning of the piece. They're trying to learn how to read a piece of li…
But they're not being asked to produce a justifiable answer. This is multiple choice with only 1 'correct' answer.
The only way to really test comprehension is through essay questions but then the complaints on subjectivity are raised and we're back at standardised multiple choice
Re: I Can’t Answer Standardized Test Questions About My Own Poems (2017)
#10This feels like the literary version of the "what in tarnation would you ever need this new-fangled multiplication for" critiques of common core math. > Holbrook wrote that asking students to guess an author's intent in writing a piece of literature is doomed to be a pointless exercise. It's pedagogy! Students aren't trying to divine the One True Meaning of the piece. They're trying to learn how to read a piece of li…
they're not being taught to read a piece of literature, identify literary techniques, or think critically; they're being taught how to choose one "correct" answer from a selection of garbage. whether they can justify that choice or not never enters the picture, this is a standardized test and there is only one acceptable answer.