Metaphors
From LiteracyTentWiki
What you need to know:
- Please add Assessment Metaphors to the list below. To learn how to add or change text: AleDirections
- If you have drawings, graphics, or other images to illustrate these or your own metaphors, please send them as an attachment to marie.cora@hotspurpartners.com to be posted.
- Back to Assessment Information
Pauline Mcnaughton
pmcnaughton@language.ca
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 28, 2005:
Standardized testing may not always be the "sharpest knife" in the drawer someone told me recently, but it is often the only knife in the drawer.
David Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
Boston, MA, USA
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 28, 2005:
1) We should use the best knives we have.
2) We may need some new, better knives.
3) We should be careful not to use knives when spoons or forks would be better.
4) We should avoid using knives to hammer nails or fasten buttons (ouch).
Nancy Hansen
sfallsliteracy@yahoo.com
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 28, 2005:
5) We should be cautious not to use "the only knife in the drawer" to cut the throat of learners in programs with just literacy level 1 learners whom *I* believe it's unrealistic to expect will increase 2 GL in one reporting period.
David Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
Boston, MA, USA
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 31, 2005:
- This is an edited version of the 3 posts above, plus 3 added metaphors.
1) Standardized testing may not always be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
2) Let's use the best knives we have, but also get some better knives.
3) Let's not use knives when spoons or forks are better.
4) Avoid using knives to hammer nails or fasten buttons (ouch).
5) Let's not use "the only knife in the drawer" to cut the throat of learners in programs with just literacy level one ( whom *I* believe it's unrealistic to expect will increase two grade levels in one reporting period.)
6) Let's train those with knives to use them properly.
7) Using a knife to eat peas or mashed potatoes is inefficient and uncouth. If you don't have forks and spoons, don't settle for using knives.
8) Utensils may help in cooking, but only if there's food to cook. (A kitchen version of my favorite farming metaphor for testing, "You don't fatten a calf by weighing it.)
Regie Stites
Posted to the ALE Assessment Wiki August 5, 2005:
A knife is really not a good metaphor for assessment. You can't measure with a knife, just slice, dice, and poke. You need a container or filter or ruler metaphor.
Here's one of my favorite Chinese sayings: Viewing the heavens through a bamboo tube, measuring the ocean with a spoon. Here we have two metaphoric references to the limits of measurement.
Assessment as a bamboo tube says to me: When you interpret the results of any assessment be aware that you are dealing with a very limited "field of view." Any one test result is an extremely narrow window on ability. Multiple measurements are always better but never the complete picture.
Assessment as a spoon says to me: Human capabilities and qualities are like the ocean. No matter how many times you dip in the spoon you will never appreciate the vastness. Spoons are too small and can only contain the amount of seawater that fits in them. Tests are like that. They measure the small constructs of ability they were designed to measure and that's it. What we call a test of reading is not really a test of everything that reading entails. It's just a test of some small part or parts of reading ability.
Assessment as a ladder is, I believe, more descriptive of the shortfalls inherent in the process. The ladder will not allow you to go easily to the top, but allow a safe entrance to the highest levels of desired measurement. The ladder don't reach all the way to the top, but is better than a chair.
Arthur Rogers Jul 20, 2006
The saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step," is also descriptive of assessment. Just as that one step will not get you to your destination, niether will one assessment test give you a full picture of a student's capabilities. A wise journeyman will use a roadmap on his journey. This will tell him where he started and where he is now. Multiple assessments serve the same purpose as a roadmap.
Rosalie Parker April 12, 2007
Assessments are like a good mystery book. The details, descriptions, twist and turns all bring about a desire to turn the pages. Sometimes; however, you have turn back to reveal a missing clue or two to reach the same results.
Lorraine Jonassen May 9, 2008
