Case
Won't Show What She Knows

There is a student in Mrs. Moreland's second grade class that is extremely smart. Her work is great and she is doing better than anyone in the class. However, when it comes to assessing, she says she doesn't want to do it and that she isn't going to do it. As a result, all of the students test scores are the lowest in the class. The teacher has documented and the teacher has used incentives. She has also made administration aware but administration has said that the test scores are the data they are looking at. What can the teacher do in this scenario?

Posted on: 10/18/14 | Views: 924
Solution #1
Mrs. Moreland can change the format of the assessment, if able, to something that interests the child. A student that is able to show what they know if a way that is interesting to them they are more likely to complete it than just doing an assessment that does not interest them.

I agree with this solution. I feel the student would be more willing to cooperate if the assessment was something they could relate to and find interesting.

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Solution #2
I agree with the other solution that is posted. The teacher may get more out of the student if they are assessed in a different way. For example, the teacher may need to verbally assess the student or test her individually. It appears to me that she is searching for attention, and this is one way she knows how to get it. You may also work with the student to develop her own goals and incentives for her to do better. If she is involved in planning her own reward then it is obviously something she is interested in, and she may be more willing to do better.
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Solution #3
The teacher should have a conversation with the student to determine the lack of motivation. This could be bigger than just disinterest in the assessment. Something could be emotionally distracting (i.e. something at home).
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Solution #4
Mrs. Moreland should discuss the student with the gifted coordinator to figure out different strategies for assessing this student. It sounds like this student will do very well with a project based assessment or independent project that allows her to go deeper into the content area. It is also possible the student may have test anxiety. Allowing her to talk with the counselor might help in this case.
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Solution #5
I would talk with other teachers and academic/instructional coaches and come up with alternative ways to assess this student.
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