PEP and Summer Reading

Parents and teachers have expressed concerns about the Performance Task component of PEP (Primary Exit Profile), which will replace the Grade 4 Literacy and Numeracy Tests in Jamaican primary and prep schools next year. The mock test was recently administered in grades 4 and 5. The headline in The Gleaner on Tuesday, June 19, 2018  was “Students sail through first day of PEP mock exam.” However, the report didn’t paint such a rosy picture. The main concern was that slow readers would be challenged, and not have sufficient time. Perhaps that test should be given over two sessions, as 70 minutes is a long time for these students to maintain concentration.

In another Gleaner article:  “New placement exam’s success rests on parents – teachers”. Noel Pennant, Principal of Windward Road Primary and Junior High School, opined that it is going to require a massive amount of help from parents. Denise Buchanan, a grade five teacher at the same school, told The Gleaner "All in all, I think PEP is relevant and I like it based on the analysis and what students are required to do. But I am not certain at this time, that they will be able to manage it because it’s overloaded with information."  I too have expressed this opinion several times in my recent blog posts.

In another Gleaner article: “Ministry understands parents’ PEP anxieties” Chief Education Officer, Dr. Grace McLean, assures us that she will continue to disseminate information about PEP, including a full publication with different kinds of questions showing how they are aligned to the curriculum. However, there doesn’t seem to be any allowance for modification of what they have planned based on feedback from teachers and parents, or suggestions that the curriculum should be cut. 

In the meantime, the best way to prepare children for PEP is to ensure that they read plenty of story books of their own choosing. It has been shown that children who read for pleasure during the summer do better in school the following year than those who don’t. I described the research on this in my blog post “SummerReading – Some Surprising Findings”.

The question then arises: “How can parents get hold of plenty of story books and what titles should they select?” I make suggestions in my blog posts on “Books by Jamaican Authors for Children”; “Summer Reading for 8-12 year-olds”; "My picks for Class Libraries"; "1000 Black Girl Books"; and "Children's Books from or about Africa". 

Parents may only be able to afford one book given the amount of money they have to fork out for books on a booklist, but they could get together, each buying one title which they could swap with other parents. Or the children themselves could form a book club and share their books. They should aim to read at least 6 titles over the summer holidays. Books in Carlong’s Sand Pebble Series sell for about J$500 and are available at Sangster’s Book Store. If family members are visiting from abroad, they could be asked to bring books for children also.

Another consideration when choosing books is that if children are forced to read a book they don’t like, or is too difficult for them, they will get turned off and not want to read at all.  For reluctant readers,
  .... a book should be compelling, so interesting that the reader is "lost in the book".

I have this challenge with a 9-year-old boy I mind after school two days a week. When I took him to the library, I picked out about a dozen books I thought might interest him. (The children’s books are arranged in alphabetical order of authors, easy readers to classics all mixed up. There’s little chance reluctant readers will find books to interest them before they get bored looking.) He chose books with lots of pictures, at a lower level than he’s capable of reading, which he could finish in about five minutes. I also took him to Sangsters to choose a book I would buy for him, but he was only interested in the skateboards! I ended up buying him one of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid books”.

I have tried to encourage him to read “Captain Underpants”; books from the Sand Pebble Series; the Beeny Bud books by Linda Gambrill; and Pinky and Rex Series by James Howe. Two titles in The Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osbourne: “The Hour of the Olympics” and “Night of the Ninjas” were the only ones he found captivating. They were the right length and at a reading level he was comfortable with. There are plenty more books in that series and they are not too culture-bound. If we are to change the reading culture of our children, those of us who are committed to reading will have to persevere with our vision until reading becomes fashionable. You will hear more from me on this topic! 

Grade 4 Science Curriculum in Jamaica

Ministry of Education, Jamaica.

 In 1999, the Jamaican Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) replaced the Common Entrance Exam. Because Science and Social Studies had previously been given little emphasis, exams in these subjects, based on topics covered in grades 4, 5 and 6, were introduced in GSAT. The curriculum was overloaded with content, much of which would be taught again at the high school level. Great pressure was exerted on the students to get them to commit to memory a large amount of information.  Therefore a decision was made, as I understood it, to cut down on the content and have tests at the end of each of the grades 4, 5 and 6, to give a Primary Exit Profile (PEP). More emphasis was to be placed on developing critical thinking skills and less on rote learning.

A new National Standards Curriculum, for the grades one to nine levels, was written and should have come into operation at the beginning of the 2016/17 school year, but was delayed by a year. According to JIS:

“The goal of the new Curriculum is to improve the general academic performance, attitude and behaviour of students, which will redound to the positive shaping of the national social and economic fabric.

Under the new system, emphasis will be placed on project-based and problem-solving learning, with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics/ Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEM/STEAM) integrated at all levels.

The approaches will allow the learners to have hands-on experiences that are similar to real-world situations, making the learning experience less abstract and more concrete.

The new curriculum will allow students to utilize their own talents, and experiences in the learning process, while facilitating the increase use of Information Communication Telecommunication (ICT) technologies.”

I was therefore disappointed and alarmed when I perused the Grade 4 Science book: The New Integrated Approach – Science Workbook 4 by G. Harper, M. Dennis and D. Ellis published by Gem Publishers, which adheres strictly to the curriculum  produced by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information. The content is MORE than that in the GSAT curriculum. Several topics previously taught in Grade 6 are now to be taught in Grade 4, namely the eye and the ear; flowering plants – types of plant, root and shoot systems and the flower. Forces and work – types of forces and friction; sinking and floating, previously taught in Grade 5, are now in Grade 4. The other topics previously taught in Grade 4 remain, except for Simple and Complex Machines; and Rocks, Minerals and Soils.  It is also unfair to the teachers of these grades, who are not specialized science teachers, to change the curriculum at such short notice.

Furthermore, the content of The New Integrated Approach – Science Workbook 4 is sloppily researched and presented. Many experiments are suggested. Did the authors of the book, or the designers of the curriculum, try out the experiments before putting them in the book? Is there scope for the children to design and carry out their own experiments? Have they been taught how to? In First Steps in Science Activity book 6, by Vilma McClenan, Hortense Morgan and R. Dorothy Pottinger published by Carlong, (1999), is the following statement: “The activities that you will do will require you to use the process or inquiry skills which you have been using in science since grade 1. These include : observing, communicating, inferring, predicting, hypothesising, measuring, planning investigations that are “fair tests”, recording and interpreting data, drawing conclusions and looking for patterns and relationships.”

As far as I know, grade 4 students have been using few of these skills. They are more encouraged to learn by rote and regurgitate information they do not understand. Furthermore, primary schools do not have equipped laboratories. Teachers might be able to bring a thermometer, and a scale but, with 50 children in a class, it would be hard to use them as prescribed in The New Integrated Approach – Science Workbook 4.

The illustrations leave much to be desired. Several are clearly not of the Caribbean. Why, when the book is intended for Jamaican children? In the picture on page 36 of people playing musical instruments, most of the performers are white, and the unnecessary, confusing background of trees is the same background as on page 102, showing some people in a park. How were these pictures put together? The one on page 110 is obviously of the English countryside.

For several topics in the book, students are required to research on an electronic device , and in many instances to download and print pictures. For example, on page 41, students are instructed to print pictures of hearing aids and paste them in their books. How many children have access to a printer, and are able to download and print without help? I have to ask, what is the educational value of this activity? The reason “Teacher says you must do it to get a grade.” What critical thinking is involved here? It is a mindless waste of time and resources.

There are seven end-of-unit tests consisting of multiple choice questions many of which are confusing, for example:

Q6. (page 15) Sandy pasted pictures of herself in her scrapbook. She could be showing:

A.    How living things grow and change.

B.    How living things respond to stimuli.

C.    How living things remain the same.

D.    That living things are visible.

This system of testing, while capable of grading large numbers of scripts in a short time, has the effect of encouraging teachers to teach and students to study for that kind of test. It does not encourage critical thinking, analyzing and inquiry skills. If we want our children to become critical thinkers, we need to cut down on the content of the curriculum and devote more time to the development of inquiry skills. Surely it is not beyond the capacity of the MOEYI to do this? 
Additionally, is any public scrutiny of that NSC is being done by Jamaican stakeholders, as had been done with several previous  curricula? It seems to me that far too much emphasis is placed on the content of the curriculum and not enough on the capacity of the teachers and schools to deliver it; and the ability of the students understand it. We end up teaching the curriculum and not the children. Surely, principals, class teachers, parents and the students themselves should be allowed to have some input in the development of curricula.