Reply to Another perspective on “prepping” from a lower income mom

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "Another perspective on “prepping” from a lower income mom"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone explain why this is cheating? You can’t just accuse someone of cheating without having all the facts in place.

Why is it fine to teach a child these concepts in general but not using a book designed for the test?

Do you actually believe the test is measuring innate knowledge or learned behavior? It’s pretty clear to me it’s learned behavior so it shouldn’t matter how it is learned.[/quote]

The behaviors can be learned, and thus can be taught. Very bright kids engage in those behaviors without being taught. The idea of the test is to find the kids who can answer questions they’ve never seen before without being taught how to answer them. 
[/quote]

Please, you’re telling me without any stimulation from parents kids would just spontaneously develop those skills?

So it’s fine the way you choose to teach your kids, but the way others do it turns into a shameful sin?

The responses on this thread that shame the OP for teaching her kids some concepts are simply embarrassing. They likely come from people that don’t have even the most basic knowledge on learning and child development.[/quote]

You do realize that some people are just naturally more intelligent than other people, right? Some people will always learn more quickly and easily than others. Those are the children these tests are looking for- not children who have been taught to imitate highly intelligent people. Eventually the kids who have been taught how to take the test will not be able to keep faking it. 
[/quote]

I think OP’s point is that some kids may exhibit these behaviors because they’ve been exposed to various enrichment activities. The nature/nurture debate on intelligence is far from settled on this point. [/quote]

Generally, children won’t exhibit specific problem solving behaviors unless they are either born with the ability or they are taught how the proper approach.  Children who naturally grasp how to solve these problems tend to be very intelligent- they don’t need to be taught these behaviors, they just “get it” without being taught.

Enrichment like going to museums and reading lots of picture books doesn’t teach kids how to solve these questions.  
[/quote]

No but playing games at home does. DS has been playing board games with us, and by that I mean Settlers of Catan, Clank, Dominion, Dice Thrones, Ticket to Ride and the like, since he was 4. He started playing on a team with an adult and was playing solo by 6. All of those games introduce the concept of thinking strategically, planning out turns, adapting to changes, and the like. They also teach basic math and reading (adding, subtracting, and reading cards).

We also gave him puzzle books with different types of word puzzles and math puzzles that introduced him to problem solving and logic.

I see enrichment as something that teaches someone a specific skill or helps them improve in a specific skill/academic area. Prep involves preparing for a specific test. So you prep for in school exams or SATs or GMAT/LSAT type things. School work is set to enrich and prep for in school exams.

While I know the NNAT and CogAT are not IQ tests, they are used as proxies for IQ tests, which are expensive, so I do think that prep classes defeat the purpose of the exams. The workbooks could defeat the purpose of the exams but I think you need to work pretty hard for that to happen but are still a form of prep.

I can understand parents of kids at Title 1 and near Title 1 schools really wanting AAP, the level of difference in the classes is huge. I don’t get the high SES schools parents being so hell bent on AAP. The program is not all that and their kids are going to be fine in a Gen Ed classroom. I would guess more of the prep is happening at the high SES schools then the Title 1 type schools, which is why it baffles me. It feels like the parents are more focused on the status and having their kid labeled as smart vs really thinking that the education is that much better. Or it is the parents focused on TJ for their 2nd grader, which is something else I don’t get. But that is me. [/quote]

You are doing a lot of rationalization to fit your own narrative of being a ‘good’ parent, unlike the other parents that circumvent the rules. The purpose of the exam is not defeated if some learning materials identify a skill being tested and help the student master it. It’s funny how you say enrichment is teaching, but prep is prepping. You can’t even articulate clearly the difference between them and why one is acceptable while the other isn’t.

It’s fine to educate your child how you see fit, but you’re going one step further and are make baseless accusations of cheating. This is where you go too far. In real life you would owe that person an apology.[/quote]

You are welcome to your opinion but I disagree. We used a work book for DS, it did not do much, but it was prepping. His scores didn’t change from the NNAT to the CogAT (both were in pool). We didn’t do much with the work book, we had him do a practice test. Is it cheating? Sure. Did it make any real difference? Who knows, maybe his CogAT score would have been lower. In the end, his GBRSs were excellent and those matter more then the test scores.

If someone said we cheated I would agree. We did more to prepare him for a proxy IQ exam then other kids in the class.

I wouldn’t prep him for a WiSC because those are used as a diagnostic test as well as an IQ test. He will prep for the SAT/ACT, by now everyone has access to free prep material and classes in some places.

We put more emphasis on reading to him and finding ways to engage his brain outside of studying for tests like the CogAT.

And we deferred LIV to stay in Language Immersion. We like the idea of having options but were not dead set on his moving to the Center.

To the OPs original point, she could have spent the money on a CogAT work book on workbooks that would help with math or LA or logical thinking. The choice to prep for a test instead of focus on learning academic fundamentals is interesting to me. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics