If you have a fourth grader you know what happens this week. The writing portion of the FCAT, the utterly useless way to measure what our children have learned in elementary school about writing. I have heard about nothing but this portion of the test for the last 2 weeks. My daughter has told me how much time she has, which writing styles she may have to use, how much paper she will have, that she needs a good nights sleep and that she has to have a good breakfast. Over and over and over I have heard it. "what if I have to write a fictional narrative", that is apparently the hardest one as opposed to some sort of expository....I would like to put the whole thing in the nearest repository.
What does it really tell us, it tells us that their teachers have been forced to make them write these styles over and over and over so they have memorized how to take the test. The stress level is ridiculous, my daughter stresses out over a regular test but the amount of pressure they have for this is like taking a college entrance exam. There is a parent meeting one night this week so we can learn how to help them take the test, they sent home a booklet on what we should be doing at home. Blah, blah, blah.....
I am trying to downplay it and just keep telling her, you will be fine, don't worry. I am not worried, she will be fine, now if I can just convince her of that!
