Re: Fw: nclb-learning loss

[Teachernut@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/23/03 12:49:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Bussardre@aol.com writes:

> It assumes that relatively little forgetting occurs between September and 
> June but a huge amount of forgetting takes place between July and September. 
> 
> This seems implausible on the face of it. Moreover, the  difficulties of 
> measuring such loss are often dismissed butthey are large.

I just have to jump in here with something anecdotal. I teach grades 1-3 
which means I have most of the children in my classroom for three years and I 
teach by strands. Two years ago my student teacher and I did an in-depth unit on 
fractions and decimals. We did lots of hands on activities as well as paper and 
pencil. I thought this year, we could just do a little review and go on. Not 
only did my students not remember the information we taught the year before 
about fractions and decimals, they didn't even remember DOING fractions and 
decimals. 

I remember the years when I taught a straight grade I mentally harangued the 
teachers who taught the students the years before for not teaching the 
children a concept, or strategy, or benchmark they were supposed to know. Last year 
was an important lesson to me, that some things just aren't remembered no 
matter what, how, or who teaches them. 

Nancy Creech