As Stephen Brookfield points out in his book The Skillful Teacher, teaching can be described at times as white-water rafting. The feelings of going over the rapids and being totally out of control can over take a teacher at anytime during the course. One such white-water trip that I have experienced in the course of teaching that I have been unable to resolve and escape the rapids from is the students that are poor test takers. Although I know the student is knowledgeable in the subject matter and if verbal questions are asked of the student they are able to answer correctly, the student is unable to perform well in the format of multiple choice test questions. Although as the instructor I can change the format of my tests in my courses there is nothing I can do about the national certification exam the student takes at the end of their program. I had one student in particular that will always haunt me; he was a very bright young man with a lot of ambition and drive. This student was one of my top performers at the clinical site where the knowledge he had learned in the classroom was put into hands on action, but in the classroom he always struggled with taking tests. After observing him for some time I came to the conclusion that he had a problem with reading. In my classes I was able to offer him verbal quizzes so that I would read him the questions and he would verbally give me the answers. This worked very well for the student; the problem was that the national certification exam was a computer based multiple choice test that could not be administered in that fashion. Although the exam was not part of his course work and would not affect his grade in my class, it would determine whether or not he became nationally certified in the field he had come to school for. As I feared when the student took his national certification exam he failed, although that was the outcome I expected due to his test taking history it left me feeling inadequate as an instructor. I truly felt that I should have been able to figure out a way to help this student achieve success and was unable to. Since that student I have had others like him and every time I feel as though I am beating my head against the wall unable to help them achieve their goal of certification.
Is there anyway to get them into some kind of reading program? Can you make a case for the exam certification been giving in a different way. Take a stand on it and see if it can happen. You never know until you try. (And maybe you have tried...I couldn't tell by what you had written.
ReplyDeleteJennifer: Your white water rafting and example of dealing with the student who can't read is very common to schools of today. My question to you is, when the student first applied at the school and he was admitted, did the admission do a ADA on him? He qualifies for ADA according to the Federal law because he can't read does not disqualify him from taking the National test, just that he will maybe have to take it a different way. Is there a paper method on this test or can someone read the questions to him one at a time so that he can choose the answer he wants? There are ways to accommodate all issues especially reading and most National tests do have ADA written in. check it out and see whether your test has this and help the student. Poor test taking is quite often from not being able to read or can also be from anxiety of the test. My biggest suggestion would be to check the ADA act. good luck to you.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer! Shouldn't basic reading be a prerequisite to taking your class? It seems as though if it isn't, it should be! I wouldn't beat yourself up over this, there is only so much you can do and based on what you have written, I'd have to say that you went "above and beyond" to help your student out! I develop web-based instruction and we design them to be 508-compliant (for people with disabilities). If possible, I would suggest to your student that can't read to use a screen reader when taking the test.
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