Teaching or Testing?

Recently I went to see Margaret Kilgo speak, as I have many times before. She's a very smart lady and has truly figured out the connection between our standards and how the test writers must write assessment questions based on what they say--verb, concept, and context. However, add our process standards into the equation and it becomes a little more complicated.

Every time I hear her speak, I am reminded of important things that must be implemented instructionally, but I also feel the work we've done in our district is validated because we are doing many of the things in her research model.

Margaret Kilgo says, "No multiple choice practice." Why, you ask? She says multiple choice is testing, not teaching.  I agree with her. We cannot know what our students understand about a concept simply by looking at the answer they chose. We need to see evidence of their thinking to help them. Giving students open-ended problems to solve forces them to show what they know, even if that is they don't even know where to start.

The student tasks that a teacher plans should directly connect to the verb in the SE. If the verb is describe, then student task should have them describing. If the verb is identify or solve, then that's what the students should be doing in the task. But, wait. Here's where those pesky process skills come into play. Students have to use tools, representations, make connections, use a problem solving process to solve problems, and justify their thinking among other things.  They have to be doing that on a daily basis to be able to do it when test day comes.

Students don't magically connect the task they did with the way it's tested on the test. We, as teachers, have to explicitly help them connect the task to how it will be tested. There is a place for multiple choice in helping them connect task to testing, but that should be after they have demonstrated understanding and can show and tell what they know.