Chapter 2: Mastery

Mastery is not exactly what most people may think it is. For example, a student may think that they have “mastered” the Spanish language because they got an A in the highest level Spanish class in their high school. Although the real test to see whether or not you have mastered the language would be using it in a Spanish speaking country when you needed something, like having to ask where the bathroom is. Mastery is being able to use what you have learned in the future in a completely different setting. Another example, similar to Wormeli’s, would be if you memorized a list of vocabulary words and their definitions and aced the test that week, and thought that you mastered it. Mastering these vocabulary words would be being able to use these words in a future essay or just in dialogue with a friend. I think that it is important to focus on testing your students to make sure that they are not just temporarily memorizing information. It is important to make sure that your students are retaining information that they can use in a different setting.