"$TEXAS" Revisited...
Through the years, I have learned that my mood can effect how I view and assess a student's work. Better to be in a good mood and do it right the first time rather than trudge through a second read of a less than stellar performance.
However, when it comes to the map section of an exam, one could only wish such harsh assessments were a result of a bad night's sleep or lack of caffeine rather than a student's creative genius.
At the beginning of the semester, I informed my students that there would be several items that they could count on finding on all three exams: the 5 themes of geography, the 7 continents, 4 oceans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As I explained to these young minds, the five themes were important since this is, after all, a geography course. The continents and oceans were necessary as they laid the groundwork for exploring the world. Finally, Iraq and Afghanistan were important since our country is presently involved in serious conflicts in those corners of the world.
Simple enough, I thought. Apparently not.
I have already shared a favorite response from the first exam (see "Austrilica"). For the second exam, two of my students labeled Africa as Europe. In addition, one student identified both Iraq and Afghanistan as being located somewhere in the middle of the Maritimes of Canada. A former co-worker of mine has a husband currently serving in Iraq. Upon learning the 'true' location of Iraq, she remarked (with a heavy dosage of sarcasm), "That's great! I think I'll take a road trip and visit him next week!"
I had had enough. I used examples from the alternate sections to explain to each of my sections how inexcusable this lack of geographic knowledge was. Several students laughed in disbelief, but most took the point to heart: two-thirds of my students were unable to identify those 4 items correctly on a world map for the second exam.
I explained, in strong wording, that this was unacceptable. For the Final, there would be changes. No longer would these items be included as part of the exam; they would instead be counted as extra credit. However, mistakes to any of the said items would be penalized severely and make passing the exam difficult, if not impossible.
I had scared my students into studying. Or so I thought.
For the Final Exam, not only did I still have several students mislabel these items (albeit significanly fewer than before), I had one student label Africa as both North America and South America.
"Simply stunning."
However, when it comes to the map section of an exam, one could only wish such harsh assessments were a result of a bad night's sleep or lack of caffeine rather than a student's creative genius.
At the beginning of the semester, I informed my students that there would be several items that they could count on finding on all three exams: the 5 themes of geography, the 7 continents, 4 oceans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As I explained to these young minds, the five themes were important since this is, after all, a geography course. The continents and oceans were necessary as they laid the groundwork for exploring the world. Finally, Iraq and Afghanistan were important since our country is presently involved in serious conflicts in those corners of the world.
Simple enough, I thought. Apparently not.
I have already shared a favorite response from the first exam (see "Austrilica"). For the second exam, two of my students labeled Africa as Europe. In addition, one student identified both Iraq and Afghanistan as being located somewhere in the middle of the Maritimes of Canada. A former co-worker of mine has a husband currently serving in Iraq. Upon learning the 'true' location of Iraq, she remarked (with a heavy dosage of sarcasm), "That's great! I think I'll take a road trip and visit him next week!"
I had had enough. I used examples from the alternate sections to explain to each of my sections how inexcusable this lack of geographic knowledge was. Several students laughed in disbelief, but most took the point to heart: two-thirds of my students were unable to identify those 4 items correctly on a world map for the second exam.
I explained, in strong wording, that this was unacceptable. For the Final, there would be changes. No longer would these items be included as part of the exam; they would instead be counted as extra credit. However, mistakes to any of the said items would be penalized severely and make passing the exam difficult, if not impossible.
I had scared my students into studying. Or so I thought.
For the Final Exam, not only did I still have several students mislabel these items (albeit significanly fewer than before), I had one student label Africa as both North America and South America.
"Simply stunning."
posted by The Bearded | 9:47 AM
2 Comments:
For Final Jeopardy...you know what? Just write a number. Any number will do. It could be "one," or "two," or "three," or even "four."
You've written "threeve," a combination of three and five. Incredible.
You'll be proud to know that Madeline was captain of the team that took 3rd (out of about 20) in our city's 5th grade geography bee championship.
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