Make a table.

So, we are in the middle of APA (Alternate Portfolio Assessment). For those of you who don't know, this is the "testing" that is mandated by the state. It's basically a huge waste of time. I think it's admirable that they want to hold teachers accountable for what they teach, but less than admirable to make students with significant cognitive disabilities achieve "grade level standards." I am ALL about exposure, don't get me wrong. However, the amount of time that is required to prepare these activities, as well as the amount of time getting the kids to "memorize" the information is ridiculous. I say "memorize" because in order to "learn" something, you have to acquire the pre-requisite skills. For example, in order to know the factorial of a number, you must know your numbers, as in: identify two when I say, "two." So, as I teach my kids what a factorial is, they are not actually learning the skill, they are memorizing the task (when my teacher hands me the cards, I must put them in this order). I am okay with that, though, because I recognize that this is clearly above their ability level and the furthest away from being a functional skill for them. We have to make a first round of activities that show the kids are "not proficient" and then make more activities by April to show that they've met the proficiency level expected. Yes, the teacher has to create each and every one of the eight activities per student (in my case, 40 activities X 2 entries). Tons of work.

Today's assessment was on "collecting data from a survey and creating a frequency table." Don't worry, if you just had to go google what a frequency table is, I also had to look it up as I was creating the tasks for the kids.

First, they had to ask their friends what their favorite season was. Then, they had to put tally marks next to the season as their friends responded. One kid wrote the seasons in the boxes in the data chart. The other kid made tally marks, but they weren't to the corresponding seasons. Almost!

We are just supposed to let the kids respond without assistance, and mark their score at the end. I kept telling them they were doing a good job, because this was so above their heads.

The next step was to put the "data" that they collected into the frequency table. I read the directions, "Put your numbers into a frequency table." This means they had to write the seasons and put a number as to how many people chose that season as their favorite.

This is what one of my kids did:

I'd say that's an "A" for effort. He made a table. Bless his heart. Take that, State of New Jersey! This is higher level thinking at it's best. The data is "in" the "table."

Nice work, bud.

The only hope is that we are proficient at making a frequency table by April. And I don't mean a table with chairs.