State Curriculum, Tests---Keeping My Bearings with My Internal Compass

I am teaching construction technology from a state curriculum which resolves with a final exam, a state-designed exam which I never see. Last year was the field test for the new curriculum. This year we're playing for real---real state scores, real accountability I suppose. I really cannot say I have a grasp on it all.

In the end though, after taking my students through the state recommended textbooks and embellishing with my own turns on teaching carpentry and building, I still believe in my internal compass, my own observations as to whether or not my students really get it. When I taught them how to calculate, layout, and cut pattern rafters for a roof, as I did today, who among them truly followed what was going on? Who can now use a calculator, framing square, and rafter table to produce the structural members for a roof with precision and even craftsmanship?

Fortunately the curriculum requires a hands-on, performance aspect to assessment in this largely carpentry course. But I haven't locked onto it necessarily with the intentions of delivering specifically what the curriculum says is critical to know. One reason is because I understand that the technique and knowledge underpinning what I have done for over 30 years is the sum total of a craft. The resulting accuracy and functional suitability of the resulting product is what counts in the end. The craft is in the path to it. How we learn the fine points along the way, how to get there and what we end up with, is strictly determined by who our carpentry "daddy" was and his knowledge, talent in imparting it, and who taught him (or her). Because it is a craft, there are myriad ways to arrive at excellence, all valid.

So as I listened to Dr. Peter Afflerbach's podcast this evening I considered all this and what he had to say about how the daily teaching activities, and teachable moments zeroed in at the right time in the classroom count for so much in reaching the final test or exam. I understood him to say that there should be multiple assessments used along with the "final exam", assessing how the teacher and class reach the intermediate benchmarks in content learning, as a more effective measure of student achievement, teacher accountability and goodness. This, Afflerbach said, he could support.

Afflerbach gives me hope that in the end, it's alright for a beginning teacher like myself to rely on what I know about my content area, what I observe of my students in the classroom---are they learning? Will the way I impart my knowledge and experience make it interesting for them, awaken passions, and give them real ability to produce a fine product with tools and materials in their hands? For right now I'm struggling to calibrate my background with what one source, the curriculum, says is critical for them to know come exam day.

Still though, I hold my internal compass of what is working as my most accurate instrument. It points the way when I hear probing, critical questions from my students, and see them working hard together in small crews, many for the first time, and at a feverish pace to frame their first walls and roof on their own. Afflerbach's message to me is never put away my own sensitivities to my students and what they look and sound like when real learning is taking place. Thank you Dr. Afflerbach for the self-assurance when I need it the most.