FIAE Chapter 3 Response

One question that arose in my mind very early into this chapter was: if we as teachers are supposed to be very clear about what information the students are going to be “tested” on or assessed on, how do we show students that the content they are learning is important for reasons beyond the test or assessment?  On page 21, Wormeli says, “it may be radical, but go ahead and give students the end-of-unit test on the first day of teaching the unit… when you teach the unit and mention an answer to one of the test questions, students will perk up and listen, elevating the information to importance.”  While I understand Wormeli’s point in that by introducing the test material at the beginning of a unit, students will immediately know what to expect and what to look for, thus giving them more incentive to pay attention as the unit moves forward.  It’s kind of like showing the students the backward design process as you are giving them an outline of the desired goals, and it also makes it more likely that they will succeed on the test.  However, I do not feel that this strategy comes without drawbacks.  The biggest concern I have about introducing a unit with test questions is that it could make students feel as though the only reason they are learning the content is to that they can use it on the test, not because it has significance outside of the classroom.  I also worry that the students may be more likely to “zone out” during parts of the unit that do not pertain directly to the questions on the test because they will not find the information important and/or worthwhile simply because there aren’t any test questions about it.  For these reasons, I will be very careful if I ever chose to use this method in my classroom and make sure that I show students how what they are learning is important can be applied in the “real world.”