When I walk up behind her, she’s already read the question:

Read these two sentences:

  • The odor of the blossoms drifted across the field.
  • The fragrance of the blossoms drifted across the field.

What is the primary difference between these two statements:

  1. connection
  2. connotation
  3. context
  4. conceptualization1

She’s selected “connotation,” but she’s not sure. She clicks “context” and then “connotation” again. She clicks back and forth, several times.

I linger to see what decision she makes. I cross my fingers, hold my breath, hope that she’s going to select the right answer. Glancing away for a brief moment, I’m disappointed to see that she’s made her selection while my attention was diverted. Being forbidden to discuss the test, I’ll never know if she got it right.

There’s a lot pedagogically wrong with that simple fact. 2

  1. Not the actual question, nor realistic choices. ↩
  2. This is not to disparage the MAP test. It’s actually a fairly useful tool. ↩