I’ll try to limit myself to just two paragraphs. Not even John Updike paragraphs.
Portfolios can assess three different categories (at least in Clarke County): achievement, creativity, and motivation. I’m stuck on the motivation part. I guess if you’re motivated enough to complete a portfolio that may end up taking eighteen months (sheesh, children have been planned, debated, rejected, accepted, conceived, and born in less time), then you are truly motivated. Wouldn’t motivation be a factor of any portfolio? I guess if you’re not too independent with it, you’re not too motivated. Time bothers me a lot with these portfolios. I spend most of my time designing assignments that are less than a week or two in duration because of the relatively short attention span of most of my students. Whether this is a perceived attention span or reality, I’m not sure. Maybe my kids could handle an assignment that lasts all semester long. With our block schedule, that’d only be four months or so.
I think we as teachers are portfolio creators. When we sit down to design a semester’s worth of work, we try (sometimes) to develop common themes. My tenth grade classes are all about death and failure. The texts we have—Julius Caesar, Things Fall Apart, Lord of the Flies, Antigone, Night (Holocaust)—all concern themselves with the failures of mankind. I joke that there are no happy moments in tenth grade. You’re not a freshman anymore, so you can’t use that excuse. And you’re not a big kid yet. Even the name, sophomore, means wise fool. They can’t win.
I would be (holy crap, third paragraph—don’t count the first one as a paragraph) terrified to grade a portfolio, a true portfolio. Too many variables, too much that could be left open to interpretation. There is also, for me, too much room for the personal feelings of the judge influencing the assessment of the product. Our guest speakers made an offhand comment that if they were confronted with a portfolio that looked like money, looked like it came from Hobby Lobby and dear old Mom and Dad spent their hard earned cashola on the decorations, it would be almost immediately dismissed. But what if? What if the expensive supplies were used in creative ways? What if, too? What if I just don’t understand what the kid was trying to do? What if, again? What if the kid had no clue what he was putting in the portfolio and is just good at making crap up when he’s explaining it. Too many what if’s for me.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
GES-2 Motivation Assessment
It would be funny to say that I was not motivated to do well on the Motivation Assessment. Funny.
I cheat on tests like this. I rarely answer questions truthfully when it comes to motivation, personality, and things like that. I spend a great deal of time analyzing questions trying to figure out what my answer would mean by rating it on the like to dislike, true to false scale usually provided. I am not fooled (or so I think) by the test makers randomizing the types of questions found on the test. The GES¬-2 is a fine test and I have no problem with it other than the fact that it tries to test too much at once. You can use this test to . . . okay, according to a creativelearning.com website, it assesses giftedness in intellectual, creative, specific academic, and/or leadership ability (or in the performing arts). As a test taker, I was all my questions sorted. I don’t want to have to figure out which questions are the creative ones and which are the motivational ones.
I’m confused, though. GES means Gifted Evaluation Scale. Is that the test? or just the scale used to assess the test.
Sheesh. According to the hes-inc.com website, you can purchase the GES-3 for a mere $90. Are we really motivated enough to spend that much money on a kid who might be like me and lie throughout the test to give you the answers he thinks you want? Not me, bucko. I want to spend that money on high-interest materials that will make all kids interested.
We can’t talk about race that much. We can’t talk about gender that much either. There’s a lot of things I won’t say here (whether I believe them or not) about why this person or that person will do better on the GES. Even saying that there are things that I won’t say is problematic.
I am, however, a product of my environment. My father is a workaholic. He remained retired for about four months before he got himself another full-time job. He had worked with the phone company for nearly thirty years. My folks aren’t rich, but they certainly don’t need the money. I grew up with a mother who rode horses and stayed home with the kids (my sister and me). She worked a little, part time jobs, mostly horse-related. I grew up with the understanding that men were supposed to work and women were allowed to work. It’s okay for a woman to have a job, nothing wrong with that, but it’s secondary to the man’s job. I know I’m supposed to be motivated to work, to build, to create just because I am a man. For my twelve years of married life, my job has been the primary money-earner. My wife is not far behind and she does work full-time. I wonder, though, does she work full time because we need the money (which we do, bills to pay) or is it because she wants to work. I’d love to stay home and take care of the house and read books all day long, but that would make me less of a man, wouldn’t it? That would mean I’m not motivated. But just like my father, I plan to stay with the same career for the rest of my life. My wife has had four different career-type jobs in the past 12 years.
Let’s leave race out of this, shall we?
I have to say I am at a loss as to who should administer the GES and why. I don’t see what motivation (specifically) has to do with giftedness. I see that as an independent factor. I can be motivated to build houses but suck at it. I can be completely unmotivated to design new cars and yet be the foremost genius in the field. Yeah, I get it. You have to be motivated on some level to allow someone to be able to see your giftedness. I get that. Yet I still mock.
Scoring. I understand the need for different scales for different ages, even for male/female test-takers. The six-year-old taking charge of doing his homework is highly motivated, but we can’t exactly expect this kid to start a local chapter of Amnesty International. I’m sure there’s some six-year-old out there who’s done it, but it’s rare. Older kids, the teens and late teens, they have to do more to be considered motivated. Makes perfect sense to me.
I dislike, however, the flaw in the system. The judge. Handing these out to various teachers, coaches, parents, friends who are involved in the allegedly gifted kid’s life puts a kink in the system that is, as I see it, unavoidable. You have to trust other people. Even if those other people might have a grudge against the kid. Now we get into statistics and standard deviations and margins for error. I, as a tenth grader, was a perfect child behavior-wise for my first five classes. When I got to sixth period, I was a nut. Can’t quite explain it, but if my sixth block Geometry teacher had filled out any sort of behavior-analysis form on me, it would have contrasted starkly with my other five teachers. It’s a flaw, but unavoidable.
I cheat on tests like this. I rarely answer questions truthfully when it comes to motivation, personality, and things like that. I spend a great deal of time analyzing questions trying to figure out what my answer would mean by rating it on the like to dislike, true to false scale usually provided. I am not fooled (or so I think) by the test makers randomizing the types of questions found on the test. The GES¬-2 is a fine test and I have no problem with it other than the fact that it tries to test too much at once. You can use this test to . . . okay, according to a creativelearning.com website, it assesses giftedness in intellectual, creative, specific academic, and/or leadership ability (or in the performing arts). As a test taker, I was all my questions sorted. I don’t want to have to figure out which questions are the creative ones and which are the motivational ones.
I’m confused, though. GES means Gifted Evaluation Scale. Is that the test? or just the scale used to assess the test.
Sheesh. According to the hes-inc.com website, you can purchase the GES-3 for a mere $90. Are we really motivated enough to spend that much money on a kid who might be like me and lie throughout the test to give you the answers he thinks you want? Not me, bucko. I want to spend that money on high-interest materials that will make all kids interested.
We can’t talk about race that much. We can’t talk about gender that much either. There’s a lot of things I won’t say here (whether I believe them or not) about why this person or that person will do better on the GES. Even saying that there are things that I won’t say is problematic.
I am, however, a product of my environment. My father is a workaholic. He remained retired for about four months before he got himself another full-time job. He had worked with the phone company for nearly thirty years. My folks aren’t rich, but they certainly don’t need the money. I grew up with a mother who rode horses and stayed home with the kids (my sister and me). She worked a little, part time jobs, mostly horse-related. I grew up with the understanding that men were supposed to work and women were allowed to work. It’s okay for a woman to have a job, nothing wrong with that, but it’s secondary to the man’s job. I know I’m supposed to be motivated to work, to build, to create just because I am a man. For my twelve years of married life, my job has been the primary money-earner. My wife is not far behind and she does work full-time. I wonder, though, does she work full time because we need the money (which we do, bills to pay) or is it because she wants to work. I’d love to stay home and take care of the house and read books all day long, but that would make me less of a man, wouldn’t it? That would mean I’m not motivated. But just like my father, I plan to stay with the same career for the rest of my life. My wife has had four different career-type jobs in the past 12 years.
Let’s leave race out of this, shall we?
I have to say I am at a loss as to who should administer the GES and why. I don’t see what motivation (specifically) has to do with giftedness. I see that as an independent factor. I can be motivated to build houses but suck at it. I can be completely unmotivated to design new cars and yet be the foremost genius in the field. Yeah, I get it. You have to be motivated on some level to allow someone to be able to see your giftedness. I get that. Yet I still mock.
Scoring. I understand the need for different scales for different ages, even for male/female test-takers. The six-year-old taking charge of doing his homework is highly motivated, but we can’t exactly expect this kid to start a local chapter of Amnesty International. I’m sure there’s some six-year-old out there who’s done it, but it’s rare. Older kids, the teens and late teens, they have to do more to be considered motivated. Makes perfect sense to me.
I dislike, however, the flaw in the system. The judge. Handing these out to various teachers, coaches, parents, friends who are involved in the allegedly gifted kid’s life puts a kink in the system that is, as I see it, unavoidable. You have to trust other people. Even if those other people might have a grudge against the kid. Now we get into statistics and standard deviations and margins for error. I, as a tenth grader, was a perfect child behavior-wise for my first five classes. When I got to sixth period, I was a nut. Can’t quite explain it, but if my sixth block Geometry teacher had filled out any sort of behavior-analysis form on me, it would have contrasted starkly with my other five teachers. It’s a flaw, but unavoidable.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Class, December the first, 2009
It's guest speaker day, apparently. That's okay. Not like movie day. Movie day is great.
Vicki Krugman is first. I think that's how you spell her name. She's the goto contact for all matters gifted in Clarke County. She has a swanky office at the board office. Sweet.
The first thing that happened, before Vicki appeared on the scene, is some folks handed out some . . . handouts. All four concern portfolio plans.
Srivistava. She's talking. Portfolios. The kid who uses Lilith as an alter-ego/avatar.
Here's my impression of what it means to do well on a portfolio: you have to care enough to keep on talking about your feelings. You also have to not care too much about other people possibly laughing at you. To create a good portfolio
a portfolio needs a good ten to fifteen items or artifacts they're called
you have to be willing to go on and on about the artifacts you have chosen. Your emotions must show through in the works you create. People might laugh at you because you have to, just as in any good metaphor, make an unnatural comparison between the artifact and what it means to you.
portfolios are not used a lot around the state of georgia
Why not? Because they're so difficult and time-consuming to create. Look like a booger to assess too.
it's useless to do a portfolio that is not in one of the student's strength areas
Sure. I'll buy that. Vicki just admitted that the most difficult area of portfolios to assess is the creativity component. Well, not really a component, but I like that word. There are three target areas for portfolios: achievement, creativity, and motivation. Going back to Srivistava's presentation of her student's portfolio, I would have sworn it was on creativity. Looked that way to me. Not true. It was motivation. Go figure.
Know what? This reminds me a lot of what we in the English department go through when we try to select kids for the English honors distinction around graduation. We want kids who are self-motivated, pursue their interests outside the classroom (reading and writing in the case of English).
Rapport. That's a funny word.
How much does environment play into portfolio development and the reality of the creative process. The third guest speaker, no clue who she is, but she seems attached to Vicki, mentioned a kid who would not/could not write a lick in writing class, but at home she was creating magnificent lyrical poetry (songs, I mean). I write different ways after reading different texts. One story I wrote sounded like Kafka. that's because I had just read several Kafka short stories. Read The Trial, too. That makes me cool.
Who is that third lady? She really seems to know what she's talking about. Has a great deal of information.
I'll be right back. I'm going to find a like to put in this blog.
Hoagies' Gifted Education Page offers some information on skipping a grade by using a gifted portfolio. It's an article by a woman named Sandy advocating for her fifth grade child moving directly into seventh grade. I wouldn't do that. Middle schoolers are cruel. That's a horrible age to be different from the people around you. Then again, it would really bite to be an overachieving sixth grader stuck in a sixth grade class.
Woman3 is still wearing her scarf and it's not that cold in here. Maybe she was bitten by a vampire. Stymie. She said stymie. Definition two.
My wife calls me a supersniffer. I blame my mother. She wore too much (and too much for me is any) perfume, Chanel no. 5, on car trips. Made me nauseous. I sit here in this new elementary school and can smell nothing but the New School smell. The carpet's too clean. The walls are too freshly painted. Too few bodies have gone through here. I dread the day I have to drive my own new car. Will I ever get one? Doubt it. I like used. But that's because I don't have enough money to buy a new car.
You know what I've missed through this whole thing? Why? That's what I've missed. If this portfolio takes up to a year and a half to create, why are the kids doing it and what do they get when they finish it that they could not get in other ways?
Outliers. Vicki made reference to outliers. I have a visual memory of the book. The link is to the author's own website concerning his book, Outliers. That title sticks with me.
three types of gifted services within the classroom: collaboration, advanced content, and cluster
Liberty County offers more models than we do. Go them. The pdf file does, however, offer pretty succinct definitions of the different models offered at the three educational levels (elementary, middle, high).
Vicki Krugman is first. I think that's how you spell her name. She's the goto contact for all matters gifted in Clarke County. She has a swanky office at the board office. Sweet.
The first thing that happened, before Vicki appeared on the scene, is some folks handed out some . . . handouts. All four concern portfolio plans.
Srivistava. She's talking. Portfolios. The kid who uses Lilith as an alter-ego/avatar.
Here's my impression of what it means to do well on a portfolio: you have to care enough to keep on talking about your feelings. You also have to not care too much about other people possibly laughing at you. To create a good portfolio
a portfolio needs a good ten to fifteen items or artifacts they're called
you have to be willing to go on and on about the artifacts you have chosen. Your emotions must show through in the works you create. People might laugh at you because you have to, just as in any good metaphor, make an unnatural comparison between the artifact and what it means to you.
portfolios are not used a lot around the state of georgia
Why not? Because they're so difficult and time-consuming to create. Look like a booger to assess too.
it's useless to do a portfolio that is not in one of the student's strength areas
Sure. I'll buy that. Vicki just admitted that the most difficult area of portfolios to assess is the creativity component. Well, not really a component, but I like that word. There are three target areas for portfolios: achievement, creativity, and motivation. Going back to Srivistava's presentation of her student's portfolio, I would have sworn it was on creativity. Looked that way to me. Not true. It was motivation. Go figure.
Know what? This reminds me a lot of what we in the English department go through when we try to select kids for the English honors distinction around graduation. We want kids who are self-motivated, pursue their interests outside the classroom (reading and writing in the case of English).
Rapport. That's a funny word.
How much does environment play into portfolio development and the reality of the creative process. The third guest speaker, no clue who she is, but she seems attached to Vicki, mentioned a kid who would not/could not write a lick in writing class, but at home she was creating magnificent lyrical poetry (songs, I mean). I write different ways after reading different texts. One story I wrote sounded like Kafka. that's because I had just read several Kafka short stories. Read The Trial, too. That makes me cool.
Who is that third lady? She really seems to know what she's talking about. Has a great deal of information.
I'll be right back. I'm going to find a like to put in this blog.
Hoagies' Gifted Education Page offers some information on skipping a grade by using a gifted portfolio. It's an article by a woman named Sandy advocating for her fifth grade child moving directly into seventh grade. I wouldn't do that. Middle schoolers are cruel. That's a horrible age to be different from the people around you. Then again, it would really bite to be an overachieving sixth grader stuck in a sixth grade class.
Woman3 is still wearing her scarf and it's not that cold in here. Maybe she was bitten by a vampire. Stymie. She said stymie. Definition two.
My wife calls me a supersniffer. I blame my mother. She wore too much (and too much for me is any) perfume, Chanel no. 5, on car trips. Made me nauseous. I sit here in this new elementary school and can smell nothing but the New School smell. The carpet's too clean. The walls are too freshly painted. Too few bodies have gone through here. I dread the day I have to drive my own new car. Will I ever get one? Doubt it. I like used. But that's because I don't have enough money to buy a new car.
You know what I've missed through this whole thing? Why? That's what I've missed. If this portfolio takes up to a year and a half to create, why are the kids doing it and what do they get when they finish it that they could not get in other ways?
Outliers. Vicki made reference to outliers. I have a visual memory of the book. The link is to the author's own website concerning his book, Outliers. That title sticks with me.
three types of gifted services within the classroom: collaboration, advanced content, and cluster
Liberty County offers more models than we do. Go them. The pdf file does, however, offer pretty succinct definitions of the different models offered at the three educational levels (elementary, middle, high).
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