Testing Is Not Teaching

"A far more demanding yet fairer approach, for both students and teachers, is to have students write on a topic that interests them and on which they have already prepared their ideas and marshaled their thinking by reading and turning possibilities over in their minds." (p.46, TINT)

This idea resonates with me as it syncs beautifully with an idea from a book that I just read, How We Learn by Benedict Carey.  The book details a discovery by a doctoral student at ISU on 'deep learning with percolation' following a similar procedure with college students  in her academic journal writing classes.  Really interesting stuff....
How we learn


"The best teachers I know, whose students produce exemplary work, have individual expectations for each student.  What they may have stated as a direction is changed on, two, or three times in the space of an hour.  This is the reflective practioner at work." (p. 51, TINT)

This speaks to the heart of teaching, but I wonder how practical it is in our classrooms.  I have the luxury of individual expectations, but not sure I could if I had 80 or more students on a daily basis.