I am just over a week into a class that I teach for the UW-Madison PEOPLE Program. A little background to this part of my educational career: the PEOPLE Program recruits and supports promising students in middle school and early high school who are from low-income families, students of color and/or will be the first in their families to attend college. I believe in the mission and goals of the PEOPLE Program and am proud to work with the students each summer. My role in the program has been to teach an ACT Prep course to students during the summer at UW- Madison. Teaching this class always brings up mixed feelings for me. I got into the PEOPLE Program through my cooperating teacher, Rob, who used to coordinate the ACT Prep classes. Rob used to say that the ACT was built to keep people out of college and that preparing students to jump over the hurdle that the ACT presents was an act of social justice. Inspired by "St. Junior" by Sherman Alexie, Rob would tell students that in doing well on the test they could kill Custer. Every day I teach for the program, I take this revolutionary attitude with me. With this class, as is with every class, there are some highs and lows that offer both questions and insight.
In case it wasn't already, I want to be clear and say that I don't think the ACT is a good test of student intelligence or ability. Knowing the test as well as I do, I would never want education to focus on preparing students for such a biased, short-sided, and time-centric measurement. That being said, as long as colleges still use this as a tool for evaluating prospective students, I believe it is only fair to prepare students to do well on the test. One of the challenges I face with my students building connections that foster a strong teaching and learning experience. I have fourteen students who are between their sophomore and junior year. We meet five days a week for three weeks, for 75 minutes a day and use a canned curriculum to prepare for the test. I didn't know my students before this class and I don't have a lot of time to get to know them now. While I come to class with an understanding of the challenge of the test and its significance in their lives, my students come to class kind of tired and not too interested. In my school-year classroom, I have a little more street cred with my students and can use my connection with them to help motivate and focus. I have a handful of students in ACT Prep who always come ready to learn, but the majority don't seem to grasp the challenge of the test and the need to prepare. The test is incrediably high stakes and many have never taken anything like it before. When I can't engage them, they miss the opportunity to take steps towards college acceptance. At the root of it all, I am coming to realize that to teach or learn in a meaningful way, building a connection between teacher and learner is vital. Because the material is difficult and rather boring and because many of the students don't know me enough to trust me with their time and energy, they end up missing out on a chance to help them over this roadblock between themselves and their college aspirations.
On a positive note, there have been some lovely things that have happened in our class. Yesterday we were working on preparing for the writing portion of the test wherein students have 30 minutes to attempt to write a five-paragraph persuasive essay. In reviewing the strategy with my students, I could tell immediatly we were not speaking the same language regarding essay organization. I stopped the lesson to go over some essay diagrams and basic definitions. As we concluded these clarifications, one student asked where I had learned this informaiton and if I teach it to my students. I didn't remember where I learned it, but I have always been very clear with my students as to what they need to do in their writing. My ACT student was amazed, it was like I had unlocked the puzzle of what an essay and a thesis statement were supposed to look like. This interaction made me realize how important it is to be clear with students; achieving success shouldn't be a mystery challenge. I know that for this student her ACT essay and every other essay she writes will be better because form and organization were made clear for her.
At the end of this week, the students will take their first full length practice ACT test, and I have a feeling, reality will hit them hard. We will have one more week after this to re-group and keep practicing and then they will return home for the remainder of the summer. Next summer I will hopefully have the opportunity to work with a fresh batch of kiddos; I am sure many of the joys and frustrations will be the same, but I feel lucky every year that I have opportunity to help deserving students find their way into college.
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