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As a society, we have become consumed by standardized tests. When I was growing up, high school was my first exposure to the famous scantron sheet. I was so particular about precisely filling in those small circles that it intensified my test anxiety—I was so concerned that scribbling outside the bubbles would immediately negate my answers.
Today, kids are exposed to these tests early in their elementary school years. According to an article in Washington Post, between Pre-K and 12th grade, a student may have taken as many as 112 standardized tests. By the time students get to high school, effectively filling in bubbles is probably the least of their worries.
Having strong reading comprehension skills is naturally an essential component of achieving success on standardized tests. As a result, many parents are becoming increasingly concerned with improving their children’s reading fluency. Are parents focusing on fluency for the right reasons? Are they emphasizing this skill at the right time?
Fluency and Comprehension Are Not Synonymous
Our education system is frequently too focused on the fluency of a student’s reading. If a child can read passages in front of the class with little to no hesitation, he or she is generally considered to be a strong reader. Seldom do teachers stop to ask if that student understands the meaning of that articulately read passage. It's assumed that comprehension naturally coincides with fluency. But this is not always the case. According to an article on Psychologicalscience.org, “Issues with reading comprehension can often go undetected, because no one asks fluent readers if they know the meaning of what they read.”
According to Kevin Horsley, author of Unlimited Memory, reading should be a visual process of creating a mental movie in your head. Many children prefer watching movies over reading books for that very reason. The visual element is often missing from the reading process. Words in a book are nothing more than a jumbled mess of letters if kids are not comprehending the text. While fluency is important, we do not want our children racing through paragraphs and not gaining the requisite content from that endeavor.
Fluency is Not Just for Standardized Tests
Yes, standardized tests are important. How can they not be? After all, there is currently no legitimate pathway to a credible university without them. Though there has been much talk of eliminating standardized tests, the administration of these exams shows no immediate signs of waning. When considering the vast disparity from one school district to the next, what other options exist? Standardized tests have seemingly become the most effective means of leveling the playing field within our vastly diverse educational landscape.
As teachers, students, and parents we are largely powerless against the widespread dissemination of these tests. While little can be done to dissuade the governing bodies from administering them, a great deal can be done about how children prepare. In many respects, the preparation has been one of the bigger problems within our learning environment.
The problem does not arise from kids being ill-prepared for the standardized tests, but rather from not being sufficiently prepared for learning in general. As the above title suggests, children need to work toward becoming fluent learners, not just fluent with timed reading passages. According to an article from a prominent cognitive learning center, “Much of the learning that kids do in school is oriented around “getting by.” After all, how often do we hear about kids staying up late and cramming for tests?
Consider this quote from Unlimited Memory:
Many people are not recalling what they know, and they are constantly learning and forgetting, and learning and forgetting…
When so many children are merely learning enough to get an A on the next test, they have not adopted a fluency-based learning approach. To be fluent in concepts is to know the material as well as one would know the alphabet. It is about being able to recollect a concept at any given moment without giving it a second thought. Children are doing far too much memorization and regurgitation of facts. Fluency is more than memorizing. It is about having knowledge that can be applied whenever necessary—not just on test days.
The Critical Thinking Quandary
As parents or educators, it is important to realize the purpose of academia. Certainly, schools and teachers are in place to bestow knowledge upon the students—but to what end? It is certainly the hope of society that our children will graduate with the essential tools to navigate the real world as responsible and pragmatic adults.
Pragmatism is not developed through an overnight cram session or a series of test-taking tactics. This quote from Caty DuDevoir, a high school student, is particularly telling:
Critical thinking is what is lacking in many high school education programs. Learning these skills now would make college an easier transition, and standardized tests could be given less frequently.
It is extremely refreshing to see a high school student not only recognize the importance of critical thinking but to be further cognizant of its deficiencies within our schools. While her statement is quite accurate, the process of educating students on critical thinking concepts should begin well before high school. A foundation for critical thinking can begin to take shape through the use of the following methods:
- Identifying Concrete Features (things you can see)
- Expanded Features (where you might find it, what you might find it with, etc.)
- Making Connections
- Inferencing
To simplify the above items, let’s begin with a water bottle. A teacher can ask a child to describe the physical attributes (concrete features) of that bottle. It may be blue, cylindrical, have a push spout, etc. When asking for expanded features, the child might say: It can be found at a sporting event or it could be attached to a bike. The child can then make connections by assigning the water bottle to a category and say that it is a lot like a jug or a much smaller version of a tank.
As children become more fluent with these basic concepts, they will then become more adept at making inferences from reading passages. These tasks set the groundwork for more advanced critical thinking and pave the way for an easier transition to college, as the above quote from DuDevoir suggested.
Conclusion
Within the education environment, just as in life, proactive measures should be taken over reactive ones whenever possible. Success does not come overnight. Instead, it is attained by building a solid academic foundation from which children can accumulate knowledge and begin the process of developing professionally. There are no shortcuts. Through nurturing a disciplined skill-set of comprehension, fluency-based learning, and critical thinking; this establishes a vital foundation from which children can more seamlessly transition into adulthood.
