There Are 9 Entries In The Guest Book sasha brinkova fernaenda@lycosa.com Tuesday, December 11, 2007 @ 3:12 AM Unknown Contrary to popular belief, the end of the year is one of the best times to look for, awesome descion ptgkwvu dpcaqt vckw@mail.com Tuesday, October 2, 2007 @ 6:45 AM ptgkwvu dpcaqt hgtc makybsdf ynkdaxeu ohflgzj edac gcvxtmw fysqtm Dr. R. A. Brunett rbrunett@tampabay.rr.com Wednesday, March 3, 2004 @ 10:25 PM FCAT Essay Habit It is pointless to debate this issue. I had already taught composition writing grammar Reading and Language Arts for over 10 years when I first moved to Florida from Michigan twenty years ago. I was aghast to discover I was one of about 40 teachers who actually had a degree in English (Grammar and Literature) and a Master's Degree. A Writing Enhancement Program existed in Hillsborough County Schools then and no doubt exists in some form today. It was at that time that I was introduced to the "three-point-five essay." That formula is ingrained in the GED tests across the nation as well as in other standardized tests as part of holistic scoring. It is used at the Community College and University levels where I have taught. It's not good writing but it can be. It is concise. And in an era of political correctness it is a formula to prevent anyone from being considered "illiterate". You can't say they can't write. You can say they may not be able to write well. Nevertheless it is a functional formula that serves its purpose. The thinking is and has been for as long as I've been in Education that the bright students "will figure it (writing process) out themselves." Fortunately they usually do. Brad Morrison brad@neosoft.com Wednesday, February 25, 2004 @ 12:35 PM Schools are okay. Tests are fine. We need PASSIONATE TEACHERS I was moved to tears when I read the eloquent description of Kaylee Stark's writing talent. I agree that public school and standardized testing are not the best environment to produce critical readers and writers. I am somewhat acquainted with the assessment methods for standardized tests which test for writing ability. My brother's sister is a reader for the essay portions of SAT tests here in Texas. She says it's by far the most interesting job she's ever had. She told me that "to say I enjoy it is such a understatement--I am inspired by it!" On the other hand she experiences extreme stress when it's time for the final assessments. I am writing because I noticed something very interesting about public school and standardized testing. Although my natural talents tend toward language I have a Math degree i.e. I studied Computer Science which is part of most universities' Math departments. In pursuit of the degree I studied more math than I knew existed and was exposed to a nearly all-new world. In it I found the same sense of purpose and satisfaction that you described throughout your article. I had of course experienced it with writing--and I was convinced that such an authentic experience was possible only in the liberal arts. For nearly a decade I held onto a darkly bitter resentment that the public schools I'd attended had administered math to me and my peers as punishment. And at last I'd seen their lies exposed: math is not a chore it is as necessary and natural to our experience as our native language. I submit that public school is no place for self-expression. Right wrong or just so this is a cornerstone of our education system. There is simply no way for our existing system to have every single student discover and harness his or her inner voice and become a persuasive writer. Is this bad? It's an excellent point that writing is a necessary make-or-break skill in higher-level academic pursuits Nobel Prize included. I don't agree that this is a critical skill to teach and confirm in the lives of teenagers any more than I feel that every high school student should master Calculus. I do feel that this level of mastery is an anomaly in 21st-century America. I also feel that that's just fine. For all of the incredible insights I experienced in college it was the exposure to the topics in high school that gave me the interest the desire and the basic skills to participate as fully as I wanted. There's nothing wrong with our schools or our tests. The problem is that people in the United States still view teaching--especially in a public school--as a last-chance employment option for college graduates. I yearn for the day when our citizens are fighting over who gets to go to Teaching School rather than Medical School or Law School. As it stands there is no Teaching School. Most teachers hold a Bachelor's Degree plus a Teaching Certificate. Many hope to earn a Master's Degree at night and in the summertime so they can become school administrators. We all agree that our most valuable resource is our children. Why then do we squander their inheritance on ourselves? Why isn't Tampa Bay Area Writing Project instructor Jennifer Albritton teaching? Why is Mitchell High's Honors English program full of young men and women who are smart enough to see through the facade yet powerless to do anything about it? We're selfish. It's much much easier to ignore the problem than to invest our personal time and resources to make a difference. It looks risky and certainly there will be people who insult us and try to stop us. Elizaeth Giles dgiles@tampabay.rr.com Sunday, February 1, 2004 @ 7:00 PM Great Article Thank you for focusing on the good being accomplished in the writing programs. As a teacher and member of the Tampa Bay Area Writing Project I was thrilled to see such a postitive article. Britta Hays distancediva86@hotmail.com Sunday, February 1, 2004 @ 3:18 PM thankyou! The only words to convey my complete satisfaction with the coverage on this story are: THANK YOU! I'm an eleventh grader at Seminole High and have suffered through my years of FACT writing standards or back in my primary school years: Florida Writes. In elementary school I had the privilege of being enrolled into private school and attended a public school once a week for gifted classes. Then in fifth grade I got into the lottery at Ridgecrest Elementary gifted studies department. I was always good at writing. I always earned 'A's' on my stories and did well. I can clearly remember the day in fifth grade after leaving private school being taught the Florida Writes format. The rest of my class had already taken this test in forth grade and I had never heard of it. For the first time in my life I was the worst in my class in my favorite and most natural subject. After a year of having this standard format impressed on my brain I was able to mechanically produce an appropriate essay that earned me a 4. So I continued through school and my scores improved in eighth grade I got a 6 in freshman year a 6 and in the pivotal sophomore year a 6 as well. Great I beat the system but what have I gained? I was always a good writer and I have always expressed myself best through writing. My mind throws words together into eloquent sentences so quickly that when I'm talking half the time people ask me to repeat myself so that they can understand. My closest friends almost lip-read because I stutter and stammer over my words from talking so quickly. But in writing none of these problems occur. I can form my thoughts rearrange them so they flow and dance across my paper. Currently I write for my school paper (and hope to be an editor next year) and I write for the St. Pete Times in the XPRESS section. Writing is more than formats and precision and the thought of scoring it by a format is ridiculous. Math is formulas and repetition. The expression ‘standardized writing’ is in itself a complete contradictory. Writing has formats for the kind of writing you are doing. If I turned in my term paper about the Legalization of Marijuana to my editor at the Times she would think I was crazy. The same holds true in the reverse. The nuances and differences in the style of writing and the style of the writer are what make it enjoyable to read. Writing is a passion to me. Even though I have escaped the encroaching grip of the FCAT doesn’t mean I stop caring about how future generations will grow up hating writing and reading completely brain washed by the system. Many poles have show the Florida is way behind on its standard of education. Stop setting a standard for us to reach! Encourage us to reach higher than anyone could dream we could. "Aim for the heavens even if you miss you will land among the stars." Being able to say that a certain percentage of students passed the test increasing the passing rate of last year by some meaningless number proves nothing. Each year kids become more and more like FCAT zombies that know how spit out the five paragraphs taught to them over and over and over to simply move on. I cannot remember the last time English grammar was taught to me. I realized how little I knew of my own language after taking five levels if French. The things I found most difficult were those that I didn’t know existed in English. Standardization is not the answer. I promote nothing but meritocracy. Robin J. Humphrey robmarta@tampabay.rr.com Sunday, February 1, 2004 @ 1:48 PM FCAT Testing Sunday February 01 2004 To :St. Pete Times Fm: Robin J. Humphrey Re: FCAT writing. The article by Rebecca Catalanello questioning the FCAT tests in writing skills elicits a couple of concerns. One involves what I believe to be the inculcation of social and economic skills in those attending our public schools to help make them productive and useful members of society. The other is what I perceive to be a widening gap between what our public school teachers think are the skills and disciplines needed of the “ in school “ generation and the actual skills industry and society must have to remain competitive in the Global economy which is inevitable and upon us now. As long as we humans are separated from one another by time and space the act of accurately transforming ideas into a medium that others can use in another time and place will be essential. Writing historically and currently is the way most societies have decided to do this. Teaching that ability is the job we have entrusted mostly to our teachers. Tests are the only way to ensure that this ability is being taught so that our Johnny or Sally can accurately cogently and precisely send his or her ideas across space and time. That is all it needs to be about. Decisions to expand this basic communication skill into more florid lucid and expressive forms of literature can be made by the student …and his/her teachers by expanding these skills in other classes and forums or in future higher education. Society has a right to insist that its educational resources are used to ensure that those taught are able to communicate in writing very basic ideas. Standardization and tests are the only way we currently have at our disposal to measure this. Skills beyond those mentioned should be developed separate from the basic requirement of expressing ideas in writing. My second concern is what I perceive to be a growing disconnect between the social and economic reality faced by most of society and the organizations whose primary driver is self- preservation and the need to demand that society subsidize their very real and growing structural inefficiencies and by extension organizational incompetence for the sake of self- preservation. I feel that a teachers group or “union” should have no more right to demand more taxpayer largesse than the US Steel industry has to do the same for the same basic reasons i.e.: resistance to change lack of flexibility and politization of their agendas. Non of which have anything to do with making a better product (steel or students) more efficiently. To stay competitive in what is clearly a growing capitalistic world Teachers rather than test each other to be certified (a Joke) should be required to spend at least 5 years working and surviving in the private sector in any country of their choosing. Perhaps this would be an interesting requirement .for the media to look into for its own reporters. Robin J. Humphrey 2250 N. Watersedge Dr Crystal River Fl. 34429 Deirdre Cullen djcullen@bellsouth.net Sunday, February 1, 2004 @ 11:15 AM testing and walling What I was testing in and testing out?... "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out And to whom I was like to give offence." MENDING WALL Robert Frost Bobbie Hausherr bmhausherr@yahoo.com Sunday, February 1, 2004 @ 8:22 AM More time please. Thank you for including teachers from The Tampa Bay Area Writing Project in your article. I participated in their summer institute two years ago and I recommend it highly. In Hillsborough County there are many wonderful teacher training opportunites and we have definitly moved away from "formula writing." Every year fourth grade teachers have the opportunity to write comments about the test. The teachers at my school have always requested that the time for the test should be raised from 45 minutes to one hour. Since they are only given two pages more time would not make the responses any longer to score but it would definitely allow students to edit and revise their work which is only fair. Since expectations continue to rise a one hour test would also help lower anxiety.