Test Redo's
Currently I have thought to myself about what the purpose of an assessment is to me and how I need to make some changes to accomodate my philosophy on assessments. So for my Algebra 2 class my students recently took a test on one of the most essential learnings for the entire course (factoring and finding zeros). Some of my students didn't do well on the test, which made me think about where to go from there.
A lot of teachers (and I have been guilty of this in the past) just move on to the next topic when there are some students who didn't demonstrate their knowledge of the previous content. So this delves into the question: What do you do when your students don't get it? Therefore, I gave those students who earned a D or an F on this test the opportunity to do test redos. The requirements for this is that they must get ALL questions originally missed, correct and then they will receive a 70% on this test.
'This does two things. One, it shows me that they are understanding the material on their own time. And two, in the student's eyes at least getting some credit for coming in for help (a lot) and then retaking the test over and over again in order to bring up their grade. I believe that it also provides a better beginning feeling of success in my class. If a student fails a test...it is very difficult for them to bring up their grade over the course of the year (possible, but hard). Many students may feel a sense of failure and just completely shut off and that is not my intentions.
I have had some difficulty with this in my department because we are disscussing the issue of grades. Every teacher is different and teaches different and there are some teachers that are angry that I am allowing this because they don't. Therefore, their students have lower overall average grades. To me this isn't the important thing!!! I would rather be able to truely believe that ALL my students mastered what I was teaching rather than how many F's or A's my students earned this year. These are conversations that we are struggling with but it is wonderful that we are beginning to have them.
posted by Missy Jonson @ 2:15 PM
5 Comments:
This is part of the dilema of education and assessment. How to help students learn and judging how well students have learned at any one point in time.
Its not fair to other students in your class to give a test, grade it, and let some students take it over to improve some students' grades - that's like giving more time to some students to complete a test.
It may not be fair to other teachers to give some students a second chance at getting a better grade in a test by going over the material or giving them another time to study and take another crack at the test. More of your students get better grades which reflects badly on other teachers.
Here's a couple of other ways to think about it - spend 1 more class or part of one explaining the ideas many people missed or some students who got low grades did not understand. Make sure they learned it before you go on.
Require or offer that students who got low grades stay after school or come before class to go over the material again for them until they understand it - no extra grade.
Have those who got low grades a chance to do extra credit work - you go over the ideas they did not understand and assign them a paper or project which demonstrates that they know the ideas. Then their grades can be raised if possible.
We want students to understand ideas we teach but we want to judge who demonstrated what level of understanding at a point in time - grades. If all you wanted was learning, then you tutor someone. We don't have the situation to allow that for most students. We have groups of students and we need some way of judging how well they understand the ideas - grades.
How you go over ideas in class is important since you don't want those who do well in this class to be bored or get frustrated that you are going over ideas again. Maybe you can have some of the smarter students explain ideas in different terms when you go over them - so many times they volunteer to explain, they get points towards a higher grade for some time - something like that. Maybe some other reward.
Your fellow teachers have their reputation to uphold - how good they are is somewhat reflected in the grades students they teach get. Balancing the issue of students learning and how you teach to get this to happen is a thorny issue. Different teaching methods, spending more time on some ideas than normal, using different material for certain issues, etc. No one answer. I can see other teacher's concerns and you can't just dismiss that.
There are teachers who have certain talents and know how to reach most students first time around. You want students to learn and you need to grade them - the balance is what's hard. Good Luck.
Probably needless to say, but I disagree with most of the previous comment. As you know, I don't really care about grades, I care about learning. If what you do is helping students learn - the actual, real, physical human beings that are in your classroom right now (not some abstract "student") - then it's the right thing to do.
"More of your students get better grades which reflects badly on other teachers." If a teacher is getting their self worth - and is judging how good a job they are doing educating their students - by what kinds of grades students are getting, and also comparing those grades to another class, we have a much bigger problem.
As to whether it's fair to other students, I just don't see how this applies. How does doing something that helps one student learn negatively impact another student who has already learned it? Especially considering that you aren't using class time to do this - you are requiring the students who want the extra opportunity to come in on their own time.
To me, these arguments are based on a fundamental misconception - that school and learning are about grades. If you take grades out of the equation (which I think you can safely do in this context), there's really very little left to this argument. We can discuss what grades might be good for (that will be our next session), but that doesn't mean that we use grades to justify not helping students learn. We don't need to "judge" how well they understand ideas or "reward" them with points, we need to assess their current level of knowledge for one purpose only - to help them learn and grow.
The reference to "extra credit" pretty much seals the deal - what does extra credit have to do with learning? What does it have to do with what students know and are able to do?
Finally, "teachers who have certain talents and know how to reach most students the first time," appears to be thrown in just to make you feel guilty. You have already demonstrated tremendous talent in the classroom (which, in fairness, "lobo" has no way of knowing) - so please continue doing all that you do for students. And continue seeking out new ways to help your students - all your students - learn and be successful in mathematics and in life.
I think that you are taking a huge step to allow students to learn the material. Keep working to try to find ways to get your students to learn the material not worry about a little letter. I have started doing the same thing and I think that I am seeing more students then I would otherwise.
I agree with you!! I have spent so much more time helping students who struggle really understanding and comprehending. Unfortunately there are a lot of teachers stuck in the past with their feelings and beliefs about what a grade is and what is really important when teaching kids today. I think this topic is very controversial and is a good one to begin to have with other teachers in our building to question what their beliefs and philosophy is of grades and what they mean and/or should represent.
Yes! It will continue to be a controversial topic between teachers, parents and students. That said, I am so-o-o-o happy to hear your solution to the problem of what to do when some students just don't get it. Last week I did a similar thing with my algebra classes and feel much better about moving on; and so do my students! We will be discussing the whole grade issue in 21C and I hope you will share some of your thoughts on this topic.
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