From: Mehmet Ali Akgun  <makgun@i...>

Date: Sat 21 Aug 1999 10:08am

Subject: [EGIT-TR:590] Bir varmiiis, bir yokmuuus!!!!:)

THE KING AND THE CARPENTERS

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, there lived a wonderful kingdom full of happy people. They had plenty to eat and were not harassed by fire-breathing dragons. However, as in all fairy tales, there was one problem: There was a shortage of houses in the kingdom. Their carpenters and plumbers were old and not many were building houses any longer. No one was teaching children to build houses any more. (Everyone seemed to think the kingdom would be better off with more bankers and lawyers, and teaching house-building just did not seem interesting and important.)

"This cannot continue," lamented people. If some of the children do not learn to build houses, many of us will soon be without roofs over our heads."

They went to their King for help. He was a wise old fellow, and he knew exactly what to do. He charged  off to the schools and said to the administrators and teachers, "you must start teaching the children to build houses.!"

"But," said the teachers, "we have been teaching accounting and jurisprudence. We know little about house building ourselves. How are we to teach the children to do it?"

The King pondered  the problem. "There are still some old carpenters and plumbers," he said, " and others in our land who know ho to build houses." We will hire them to teach the children."

"Oh, no," argued the teachers, "those carpenters and plumbers may know how to build, but they do not know how to teach."

"They are not Kingdom Certified Teachers," said one venerable school administrator. "They must be certified to teach."

"Well," said the King, "then you educators can teach them how to teach." We will have special workshops called ITT I''ll Teach Trades." (Later the ITT workshops came to be known as Intensive Teacher Training, but that is another story.)

THE PROGRAM GETS UNDER WAY

After the carpenters and plumbers had completed their special training, they were certified as specialized teachers, and off they went to the schools to teach children how to build houses. Many of the children were very happy to learn how to build things since their previous classes in accounting and litigation had only taught them to count and argue. It seemed great fun to get a chance to make something.

Each morning the carpenter and plumber teachers would gather the children about them to discuss their plans for building for that day. (Those were called "Cooperative Learning Groups) The children would plan  the houses discuss how to get the job done. They seemed to learn the most, however, from actually building houses. At times things did not go well, and the teachers and students would sit together and discuss what they thought had gone wrong. Then they would set about making changes (revisions) in order to produce the kinds of house they could all be proud of.

Everyone in the kingdom seemed very happy. The children who were learning about building houses had lots of work to do. Houses were being built that were the envy of the surrounding kingdoms. The King was pleased. Once he had solved a great problem for his people.

The King himself was in need of a new house, and he had the new house building graduates build a strong and beautiful palace for him and his Queen. Near bliss settled over the land.

THE KING ENCOUNTERS SKEPTICISIM ON THE ROAD

One day the King announced to his wife that he had heard about a great education conference that was held during the Great Education Conference. "All of the Kings from all the lands were there," he told her excitedly. "They all told about how much the children in their Kingdoms were learning. I told them about the wonderful houses our children have learned to build," he said.

"But, they laughed at me," he moaned. "They said that just telling about houses was not admissible in the bragging meeting. They said that I needed test scores to really show what the children are learning. They said that test scores were the only reliable and valid way to show what students are learning.

"Just telling does not count," he lamented to his wife. "I even told them that I would bring pictures of the great houses, and they said pictures did not tell what the children were learning. They said that only test scores would count," he said sadly. "They even told me that if we do not have test scores, people from other lands will not know how good our schools are and they will not bring their new businesses to our kingdom. I must go to the schools to ask the teachers about the children's test scores."

The next week the King met with  all of the teachers and asked  if the children were really learning anything. "Of course," said the carpenter and plumber teachers. "Just look at the wonderful houses in our land. Indeed, you live in one of the houses."

"I know, I know," replied the King, "but I went to the Great Education Conference of the great kingdoms, and other kings showed their test scores. The had plenty splendid graphs and charts in many colors and with lots of numbers showing how much their children have  learned." (Some may think the moral of this tale is that you should not send your Kings to conferences, but there is more to this story.)

"Can we have test scores?" asked the King. "Can I have graphs and charts to take to the next Great Education Conference? There is a bragging meeting where all of the kings show their test scores. If we show our test scores, people in other lands will see how much our children have learned and how good our schools are. They will want to move to our kingdom and bring their businesses here. We will prosper even more. I must have test scores!!"

The carpenter and plumber teachers shyly responded that they did not know how to make tests. They said that they knew only how to make houses and other kinds of buildings, and to teach children to build houses.

"Then I will bring a test builder to our kingdom," the King shouted. "I met many test builders at the bragging meeting. They helped the other Kings with their graphs and charts. I will find one to help us. I must have test scores so my country can flourish."

The teachers did not know what to make all of this. However, they agreed that if the wise old King thought it was important, they certainly should try to help.

TEST BUILDER ARRIVES IN THE KINGDOM

Several months later, the test builder arrived in the country and came to the schools to talk with the teachers. The test builder always  seemed to carry a clipboard with him. (Later the carpenter and plumber teachers developed a motto that read,  'Beware of people carrying clipboards.')

"If I am to build a test," said the test builders, "I must know what you are teaching the children. Tell me, what is it the children are learning?"

The carpenter and plumber teachers looked at each other quizzically and wondered at such a strange question. Didn't the test builder see the houses? "Why?," they responded, "we are teaching the children to build houses. Surely you can see that."

"Of course, of course," said the test builder with a pained expression on his face. "I know they are building houses, but there is more to teaching than that. What is it they learn each step of the way?  We must understand each skill and subskill and assess it carefully."

The teachers did not know what to say. "They build nice houses," blurted one of the teachers, hoping that was what the test builder wanted to hear.

"No, no, no!" he responded. "What do they do first?" What would someone do as the very first thing in starting to build a house?"

One of the carpenters thought the test builder's questions were all a big joke of some sort, so he yelled out, "Why, the first thing is to pick up a hammer and hammer a nail in a board to start making a wall."

"Good," responded the test builder, "now we are getting someplace."

"They have to know the names of nails," called out another teacher.

"And the different kinds of wood," another joined in.

"Excellent! You really do know what you are teaching," said the test builder.

The teachers were very happy that they were able to please him.

The test builder announced that all of the teachers must attend an after-school meeting the next Friday, so they could work together to make long lists of these things the students must learn. He called it "Teacher-Guided Item Formation" or "TGIF" for short.

The teacher were tired after a long week at school, but they agreed to attend since they knew the King was so excited about securing some scores. They worked very hard and produced long lists of the things the test builder seemed to want on the lists. Indeed, the longer the lists became, the happier the test builder seemed to be.

After the meeting, the test builder announced that he would take all of the wonderful lists the teacher had produced and would build a test to measure all of those things. The house-builder teachers were relieved to see the test builder was going to do with all of those lists.

They had lost most of the weekend, but they were, nonetheless, eager to get back to teaching children about house building. Besides, they realized that they did not know anything about test building. "Some people build houses," they said, "and some build tests. And after all, our wise King knows what he is doing. If he believes these tests are important for our country, then surely there can be nothing wrong with them."

THE SCORE GATHERING BEGINS

A year after, the test builder returned and announced that it was now time to test the children. The teachers were not shown the tests beforehand although they were very curious about what was on the tests. "Security is very important with tests," said the test builder. "We do not want anyone to know what we are testing before we test it."

That seemed strange to the teachers, since knowing what one was doing seemed important to them when they built houses. Nevertheless, the teachers were taught how to administer the tests, an activity which did not seem to them anything at all like building houses. However, they did what the test builder asked. They told their students not to ask questions, not to work together, and not to look at each other's work. All of this also seemed strange to the teachers, since these were the very things they had always encouraged the children to do when they were learning how to build houses.

Unknown to the teachers, to the test maker, and even to the King, a storyteller was observing silently in one of the house building classes when the tests were given. The first question on the test was the very  first thing the teachers had told the test builder when he had asked them exactly what they taught children. The test item read:

Given a wall and some nails, which of the following should you pick up?

a. a sledge hammer

b. a claw hammer

c. a ball peen hammer

d. no one of the above

e. all of the above

The storyteller noticed one of the children poking the student next to him (when the teacher was not looking) and he heard the child whisper, "Hey, Billy, did you know our hammers had names? I am gonna call mine 'George'. George is not one of the choices, so I guess none of the above is what I should mark."

Many of the students were as confused as this student, and the test results were not good at all. Indeed, when the test builder returned with a huge pile if test score reports, he told the King that the students had scored  very poorly. He advised that the King should not tell anyone about the test scores. "Be especially careful," he said, "to see that the scores are not published in the newspaper. And," said the test builder, "you surely cannot go to the bragging meeting with those low tests scores because everyone will know what a poor education the students in your kingdom are receiving."

The King was devastated. "What am I to do?" he wailed. "I thought our children were learning, but these test scores show they know nothing. I will never be able to go to the Great Education Conference again, and I will never get to brag at the bragging meeting! People will not want to move to our kingdom. We will not be able to attract new business to our land. Our test scores are too low.

The  test builder said that he knew of other countries that had faced the same problem, and they had been able to solve the problem. "What did they do? You must tell me!" pleaded the King.

"They hired an educational consultant," said the test builder. " The educational consultant was able to help the teachers teach better. When the teachers taught better, " said the test builder, " the test scores went up."

The King hurried off to tell the teachers the bad news about how poorly the children were learning. But he also told them the good news. He had a solution once again. An educational consultant would be hired to help them teach better, the children would learn more, and the test scores would go up.

Will the educational consultant carry a clipboard? the teacher wondered.

THE GREAT CONSULTATION BEGINS

Several weeks later, the great educational consultant came to the land. He had no clipboard, but he had a book he had written with a picture of himself on the cover. He was very pleasant and always seemed to smile. He also carried a great bag full all kinds of colored paper, paints, and other such things. One of the teachers said to his friend that he thought the educational consultant looked like a travelling art store.

The educational consultant met with some of the teachers to begin planning how they would improve education in the land. "What is  it you teach?" he asked.

"Oh, dear," thought the teachers, "this is the same way the test builder started out. This time we must attempt to tell more exactly what we teach."

"Well," said one of the teachers, "I used to teach the children how to build houses, but the King seems to think the children are not learning anything because they have done so poorly on the test. So, I guess I should teach what is on the test."

"Good," said the consultant. "You know where you are going. You have your objectives clearly in your mind. Now let's look at those tests to see what it is the children must learn. Then we can conduct workshops on how to teach those things."

The educational consultant and the planning teachers scoured the tests and made lists of all the things that were asked. One of the teachers said that it seemed that they were now doing what they had done with the test builder, only now it was happening in reverse. "This education business seems very complicated," many thought, not sure that they could fully understand it. Some of the most thoughtful teachers looked bewildered. Everyone looked forward to getting straightened out at the workshops.

"Don't worry," said the educational consultant." we are going to see just what we have to teach and then we will teach it well. The children will learn more. And," he said beaming. "the test scores will go up. Everyone will be happy once again. You'll see."

The educational consultant planned a number of after school workshops to help the teachers learn how to teach the list of stuff included in the tests. Some of the workshops were called "Make-and-Take Workshops". At  sessions, all of the teachers would make the things to help the children learn. At one of the make-and-take workshops, some of the teachers drew wonderful pictures of the different hammers on big pieces of cardboard. On the backs of the cardboard pictures of hammers, they would write the names of the hammers. These big cards were then used in classes to flash the pictures to the children so they would learn to immediately recognize the names of the hammers. These came to be known as hammer flashcards.

Another groups of teachers drew pictures of the hammers in a column down side of a sheet of paper. In a second column, they wrote the names of the hammers. However, they did not put the correct name of the hammer beside picture. "We will have the children draw lines from the pictures of the hammers to the correct names of the hammers. This will be good practice in learning the names of the hammers."

"And when they finish, they can color the pictures of the hammers," shouted one of the teachers. "That will make it fun and interesting for the children. The educational consultant has reminded us that the learning is supposed to be fun."

The educational consultant was delighted and would visit the schools to see how the teachers were putting all of the new ideas to work with the children. As the educational consultant walked up and down the hallways of the schools, shouts of " Ball peen! Ball peen! Ball peen!" could be heard coming out of the rooms. The children were obviously learning from the flashcards. Later the shout would become, "Ball peen! Claw! Sledge!" as the teachers taught more and more complex distinctions. Some of the teachers were sure they were now teaching higher order thinking skills. They all felt good because the children were learning so many things.

"I am naming the hammers, so I can tell them apart," one self-conscious student bragged, slashing nonetheless. His teacher's  chest swelled with pride. The student was practicing metacognition.

However, some of the teachers were worried about the class time all this was taking. Would the children be able to use this new knowledge to once again to build houses? "Of course," the educational consultant explained, "but first they must know all of the skills. Once they know the skills, the rest will be easy."

THE PLAN BEGINS TO PAY OFF

The King was so pleased that he issued a proclamation that all school administrators should select the new curriculum. For several years, the new educational program was implemented in the schools throughout the kingdom. It was called the School-Licensed-Improvement-Program (SLIP) and was dedicated to developing Effective Schools.

"This is a grass-roots movement," said the educational consultant, "the teachers defined what they thought and they helped plan the workshops."  teachers had taught other teachers. Some talked of how they had "adapted management practices to restructure their schools." It was heady and heavy stuff.

Some teachers did notice that there was not much house building going on. However, no one seemed very concerned, since the children were telling their parents about all that learning and carrying home many practice sheets with pumpkin faces and other honorific stamps on them. Some parents even bought their own sets of the hammer flashcards so they could help their children at home.

Each year the test scores showed more improvement. The King was happy and knew before long he would be once again go to the Great Education nce and for the first time show off his test scores at the bragging meeting. However, he wanted to wait until the test scores throughout his country were sure to be the highest of all the kingdoms.

THE SCORES GET HIGHER DESPITE ONE DROP

As he waited, he and his wife decided to have an addition built onto the summer mansion they had built years before-long before, there was a shortage, before the test score program, and the before the new educational system. "A new addition built by children with such high test scores will surely be wonderful," the King told his wife.

As the addition began to take shape, the Queen looked at the work with growing concern. "It does not look very solid," she said, "especially the new balcony on the back. I think it is drooping to one side."

"Don't worry," said the King, "that addition is being built by children who have the highest test scores in the history of our kingdom. Those are the best educated house builders we ever had in our land."

Before the new addition was completed, the latest test scores were released and they had once again gone up. "These new tests scores are marvelous!" the King cried, puffing up. "I can now go to the Great Education Conference and attend the bragging meeting. I will show my test scores and be the envy of all the kings. People will want to come to our kingdom because of our great education system. We will have new businesses. Our kingdom will be the of all."

Off the King went to the Great Education Conference. He took his educational consultant, his test builder, and even several teachers to tell all about education in their land. However, when it came time for the bragging meeting, the King did not want anyone to speak for him. "I alone," he announced, "will tell the other kings about our test scores."

The King had charts and tables with bar graphs. They covered an entire wall and were of many colors. They included percentiles, stanines,  squizziles, and staybecks with many lines, bars, and connected dots. (squizziles and staybecks were new ways of presenting scores developed by the King's test builder just for this meeting.)

Everyone at the bragging meeting was astounded! Such high test scores! Such sophisticated charts! Such wondrous analyses! This is the best bragging they ever heard. This is a King who is a great education leader.

The King returned to his country and a special parade was given in his honor. "Long live the Education King," the people shouted. The King had never been more popular nor more certain that he knew how to help his people. "You just have to set targets," he thought to himself, "and then find out where you are and where you have to go. The test builder and the educational consultant really knew what to do."

The King and his wife returned home at the end of the celebration to find that the addition to their house was now finished. It looked kind of shaky, but the King was sure that was just a benchmark of  modern architecture. His wife said it looked not only shaky but also dangerous! She announced that she was not going out on the balcony until it was proven to be safe.

The King scoffed at her concern and reminded her that the balcony had been built by students who had achieved the highest test scores in the history of their kingdom. " These are the highest test scores of all the kingdoms," he proclaimed. He seemed always to be giving speeches now.

The King took his test score reports and marched out on the balcony. There was a terrible noise, like thousands of nails being ripped from their places. The balcony swayed... And then buckled...and then crushed to the ground!

Somewhere in some kingdom, there is joy in the land. Somewhere in some kingdom, laughter can be heard. But not in this kingdom, where the newer houses had all begun to fall apart.

.....................

The moral of this story became obvious to even the most faithful subjects of the King. It was written and read as a kind of qualification or caveat at his memorial service. Can you put it in words yourself? You are encouraged to try if you like. There will be no test on it.

Yazarin kendine gore cikardigi dersi daha sonra yazarim. Simdi arkadaslarin

goruslerini ve cikardiklari dersleri dinleyelim, ne dersiniz??? :)))

Kaynak:

Farr, R and Tone, B. (1998). Portfolio and Performance Assessment: Helping

students evaluate their progress as readers and writers.  2nd Ed. Harcourt

Brace College Publishers: Philadelphia.