Earlier this week, I shared a meme I thought was funny: “All these kids been learning Common Core math, ’bout to learn how to “Carry the One” from their new homeschool teachers…” I suggested in my post that we tend to teach how we were taught. We ourselves weren’t taught with Common Core methodology. The meme illustrates something…
“All these kids been learning Common Core math, ’bout to learn how to “Carry the One” from their new homeschool teachers…” This was a meme, and I found it hilarious! With the event of the Coronavirus, parents have been immediately thrust into the role of homeschool teacher, a role they weren’t ready for and didn’t…
If you start a question with one of these words, appraise compare contrast criticize discriminate judge justify support you’re asking questions at the highest level of thinking, Evaluation. Questions on this level contain elements of all the other types of questions. Evaluation, the sixth and highest level of thinking, requires making judgments when there is no one…
You could reschedule testing, but do you want to? Do you have to? Why would you? The reason for asking seems obvious. The coronavirus! One suggested option circulating among home schoolers is, if your examiner has canceled your exam, simply ask your examiner to reschedule. The problem with this suggestion is that any rescheduled date…
Weeks ago, President Trump decided to suspend requirements for end-of-the-year standardized testing for public school students. The question surfacing immediately in home schooling communities was, “Does this apply to us?” Basic Skills reached out to the Oregon Department of Education for clarification. We requested, in light of the Coronavirus, that there be some modification of the…
Why would someone say that frisbees, microwave ovens, and Velcro are “strange bedfellows”? To answer this, you’d have to know their origins, the stories behind the inventions. In the 1940’s Yale students sailed pie tins through the air and played catch. Ten years later, Walter Frederick Morrison, a flying-saucer enthusiast, improved on the idea. Morrison and…
A ten-year-old student was shocked when a substitute teacher handed back a recently scored pop quiz. To his surprise, he was awarded an “F” missing 10 out of 10 points. One question missed went something like this: Katie went to the store to buy flour for her mother. She found a one-pound sack of flour for $.40 and a…
A common saying most of us have heard before goes something like this: “Those who can do, and those who can’t… …teach.” I know. The above quote attributed to H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) is cynical. Are teaching and doing mutually exclusive? His point is that there is more to understanding, to comprehending, than simply knowing and…
In my last article, I explained the first category of questions your student will need to be able to answer in the reading section of an achievement test. These questions are fact or knowledge based. Being able to “know” and parrot back a piece of information is a “first step” kind of question. The utility and value…
An achievement test measures three areas: reading, language arts, and mathematics. When you think about the reading part of the test, you’re probably thinking how well does my student understand or comprehend what they just read? You’re right in a general sense. But, how well your student comprehends what is read is broken down into seven…