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Sunday, April 22, 2012

School Tech Connect: Pineapples

School Tech Connect: Pineapples:


Pineapples

I know there's been a lot of attention to the pineapple question on the New York test, but I'd like to point out that these terrible test questions are as common as the rain. You only hear about them when someone takes the risk of pointing them out. It is a testing violation for teachers to look through the testing booklet to see what's on the test.

I did this very thing several times at my own risk over the years, just to see if the tests had any remote relationship to the things we were doing in class.  I would never do it now, in the current police state around testing.

I recall two writing prompts in Arizona that measured god only knows what. I'm only slightly paraphrasing here:

Your spaceship has landed on an unknown, alien planet. Describe what you see as you leave the capsule and