The Literacy Shed Blog
  • Blog
  • DADWAVERS
  • VIPERS

The Literacy Shed Blog

Gotcha!: Testing children or just catching them out? 

3/2/2016

8 Comments

 
As I have said in my previous posts - I am not opposed to testing.  I do not like high stakes testing and how the tests are used to judge teachers and schools. 

However, I am against tests that are filled with 'booby traps' and questions designed to confound and bamboozle young children.   I call them 'trick questions,' but it has been pointed out to me that they are not trick questions just difficult ones. 

I have come across a few sample SPAG test questions recently that have made me think. 

The first from the KS1 Sample test. 
Circle the verbs in the sentence below.

Yesterday was the school sports day 
and Jo wore her new running shoes. 
​
As you can see this is not a trick but there are some deliberate traps laid.   I can imagine Nicky Morgan and her cronies sitting around designing these tests.
Picture
"We want children to be able to identify verbs in a sentence." says one civil servant.

"I agree!" says Morgan "but how can we make it as tricky as possible?" 

"Let's put them in the past tense and make them irregular!"   

"Then just to trip those 6 or 7 year olds who may be stressed and flustered by the tests we'll put in an adjective that looks very much like a verb."

"Yes, Yes, Yes!" squeals Morgan with delight!  "Gotcha!" she shouts, pumping a fist in the air. 

The second question is from a KS2 Sample test. The question is testing the child's understanding of apostrophes for contraction.

So the (un) civil servants designing the tests have lots to choose from. In their question the could ask which words have been contracted to form the following: Shan't, Couldn't, Wouldn't or even Won't which is common but irregular. Which do they choose? One that is the most irregular. Unique amongst its peers.

Can't - You may not think this is very difficult. However, Can't is the only* contraction that is formed from a single word. Cannot - no credit will be given if the children write 'can not'. This is grammatically correct but it is again another trap, into which 10 and 11 year olds who have not been exposed to a full and rigorous grammar curriculum, will fall into.

I know they will because I carried out a very unscientific experiment. I asked the following question on twitter.
Picture
I would like to think most of my twitter followers are well educated adults, most of whom are teachers or within the educational system.  However, as you see from the image above only 1/3 of the 130 respondents would be given credit on a Spag test and this wasn't in a highly pressurised timed test. 

So 1/3 of adults would have got credit but many schools are aiming for at least 85% of their students getting these correct.  Fair?  I do not think so. 

Please share these examples far and wide.  Parents of our children need to be outraged by questions like this.  Parents need to know how the government are purposely trying to make children fail in their tests. 

As I always I welcome your comments. 

Rob 

*I couldn't think of another one word contraction other than cannot. 


​
8 Comments
Dominic McCabe
5/2/2016 06:38:59 am

The whole SPaG focus is questionable. It is easy from an objective, indirect assessment perspective to test the discrete subskills. Computer marked tests on non-global skills move the focus of education to the more quantitative factory system aspect of education and reduce teachers' roles to technical ones and learners' roles and goals to those centred around an mcq type approach to knowledge.

Reply
John Mitchell
5/2/2016 01:46:22 pm

This seems rather like politically biased claptrap

Reply
Rob
5/2/2016 08:22:18 pm

Please elaborate further John, I would love to hear some more of your comments.

Reply
Bas Aarts
5/2/2016 02:05:33 pm

See: https://grammarianism.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/booby-traps-in-the-spag-test/

Reply
Rosemary
5/2/2016 08:20:23 pm

I observed some very basic grammatical errors in your own sentences!!eg.this is..........trap into which children....will fall INTO. And surely one would not say "our government are" government here is singular.

Reply
Rob
5/2/2016 08:24:29 pm

Hi Rosemary,

Thanks for your comment, this is why the best authors and writers employ editors, sadly I missed those errors which I can rectify.

However, if I had made similar errors in a governmental test I wouldn't have the opportunity to reread and edit.

Glad you have got the message!

Reply
Tracey Ralph link
7/2/2016 10:18:53 am

Gosh.... seems some of your followers are also pedants....

The Twitter poll was a great example illustrating your point.

I think this writing served its purpose.

Phew... remembered "it" doesn't take a possessive apostrophe

Reply
Lindsey Thomas link
23/2/2016 09:15:46 pm

In the first round of SPaG tests, the question was:
Complete the following sentence with an adverb:
The sun shone ........ in the sky.

The mark scheme said 'accept any appropriate adverb'
The child who wrote 'bright' was marked wrong. After a long correspondence with the department, and comment from the likes of David Crystal, Pie Corbett and others, it transpires that flat adverbs are 'archaic'. Which is why we all work hardly and drive fastly.
One child wrote 'dutifully'. I thought this was fantastic - in a piece of writing more than 1 sentence long it would have set an atmosphere beautifully. It was marked wrong.

I've also seen Ofsted reports in which schools are congratulated for encouraging children to 'speak in full sentences' (no one speaks in full sentences) and for using 'correct English' (appropriate or standard, yes, but not 'correct')

If, in addition to trick questions, we have markers and inspectors who don't understand haw language works, what hope do our children have of getting it right?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Rob from Literacy Shed

    Just writing down what I think about school and education. 

    This blog is split into 3:

    The Main Blog
    DADWAVERS
    Books

    If you would like to write a guest blog please email me [email protected]

    Archives

    July 2020
    March 2020
    July 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    App
    Assessment
    Back To School
    #bookblast
    Books
    Champion
    Collective Nouns
    Competition
    Failure
    Fear
    Flanimals
    Grammar
    GreenPeace
    Inspiration
    Jabberwocky
    Knowledge Of Texts
    Ks1
    KS2
    Land Of Never Believe
    Lie Tree
    Literacy
    Moderation
    Persuasion
    Primary
    Pupils
    Rang Tan
    Reading
    Reading Skills
    Reading Vipers
    Rita Pierson
    Rules
    Show Don't Tell
    Social Media
    Spelling
    Teacher
    Technique
    Technology
    Twitter
    Twittiquette
    Vipers
    Vocabulary
    Whole Class Read
    Whole School
    Who To Follow
    Wicked
    World War 2
    Writing
    Writing Assessment

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Blog
  • DADWAVERS
  • VIPERS