Making literacy relevant to students

As I was reading the assigned chapters, I found myself analyzing what I do in the classroom. I thought back to the weekly vocabulary words they had and how even I didn't like some of the words and couldn't wait for the week to be over and those words to be done with! But if I felt that way, I can only imagine how my students felt. Spanish is a lot of rules and memorization, but there is also application. On top of the grammar aspect, students should start to become familiar with the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries.

My students could easily be doing what the students of Best Practice High School do! At this school, they have found a way to grasp students' interest in reading. They are teaching kids to develop their own ideas and to analyze other ideas, not just read and memorize, which is what many of our schools are doing now. It's so easy to fall into that rut because we are pressured to raise test scores and "teach to the test." At our school we are allowed to wear jeans on Friday if we raise student test scores. Even the teachers are extrinsicly motivated to improve student test scores. Yes, we raise students' test scores, but are we really helping to raise their intelligence levels and literacy skills? What, if any, is their depth of knowledge, if they can just simply repeat what they have been told? If we appeal to student interest and are able to get students to read different types of books and write about different topics, then we are intrinsicly motivativing them. If they are WANTING to do this, I have every reason to believe that the Department of Education will get the scores they are desiring. We are going about raising scores in the wrong way. We need to achieve this goal by making the learning and literacy relevant to the student. But the goal itself should be re-evaluated. The goal should be specific to the student, not students as a population.