Ontario Literacy Testing and English Teaching – My Opinion

I recently had to do a literacy test (I am in Grade 8). It focused on students’ reading comprehension abilities.

The article that I had to read was about managing stress, called “Taming the Tiger – Managing Stress” (I am not sure exactly what it was called, but I am sure of the “Taming the Tiger” part). I had a few problems with it, and didn’t finish very much of it at all. I think that the root of these problems were the questions used to test students.

I comprehend what I read very well. I do quite a bit of research on certain questions I want answers to. I find books and articles about them, and can retain information that I read in them. I can also put all this information together from many different articles and other sources, and write my own article that summarizes everything. Yet, I found the questions on the test very hard to answer. Someone who comprehends what they read very well may still get a bad score on the test due to the nature of the questions.

There were questions about the main idea. There was a question that was something along these lines: “Look at the pictures in the article. Based on these pictures, what questions might be answered in the article?“. There was a picture of a tiger, and someone who looks stressed out. I couldn’t think of any possible questions.

There was a question asking students what reading strategies they used to answer the questions. That question assumes that I actually know what reading strategies I use when I read. When I read a book or an article, I know what it means. I don’t understand the exact thought processes that occur when I read something.

All this is to say that I don’t like the way that they teach English, or their methods of testing English knowledge. I don’t know how well other students do with these tests. It could just be me, and my ways of thinking are ‘incompatible’ with the test.

To close this post, I will make a simple explanation about why I don’t like the way English is taught, in addition to being tested.

I hear that in High School part of the curriculum is analyzing poetry such as Shakespeare. If I have to do that, I will definitely have lots of trouble with it. I wouldn’t be able to understand the meaning of the poetry. I don’t know exactly why I would have trouble with it. It could be my learning style, my way of thinking or it may be just another thing that students with Asperger’s have trouble with.

Because some students have trouble with this, those students may be losing marks and other opportunities as a result of their inability to understand symbolic material, like poetry. It all depends on the school’s willingness to make accomodations (Alternative work, etc.).