This site is a class blog space for new Career and Technical Specializations and Heathcare Science teachers enrolled in the New Teacher Institute (NTI) at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Who's Fault is it?
I would say that overall I feel pretty confident that the material on my tests is covered in class, and as a whole we review for tests. I do not believe in trick questions, relying on the students to “just figuring it out”, or hanging my kids out to dry. There are a lot of factors that would have to play in to my response to the parent such as: the student’s effort on other assignments in my class, the student’s attendance record (which I never had a problem with before this semester), the student’s overall grade, and their note-taking during lessons. If all of those factors were in favor of the student, then maybe I would have to step back and re-evaluate my tests.
I can also add, that in school I feel that I was always a good student when it came to classwork, homework, and projects, but I really struggled as a test taker. Maybe we could look into a possible pull out group for the student, or we could break the test down into sections so it wouldn’t be so overwhelming.
So after all my rambling, I guess I would say my simple answer is that initially I would not put all the blame on my tests, but after ruling out other factors, I would consider re-writing my tests (which this unit is teaching me I already need to do).
You make a good point Taylor. I didn’t even think about absences in class in regards to testing. I have taken that into consideration with my students class work though. I recently had a student miss nearly three weeks of class because his father has cancer and they had to travel to some cancer treatment center out of the state to get him treatments. When he came back we re-evaluated his progress in my class and I modified his work load. This is a student that had straight A’s before this trip and by the time he got back he had a low C. Since then he has risen his grade back up to an A.
ReplyDeleteI really believe the same way you do Taylor about not having trick questions or hanging my students out to dry. The day before we usually have a review depending on their workload, however, the study guide links I give them to help them succeed, plus reiterating that they may or may not see something on a test is the norm in my classroom setting.
So yes, in the end, if all the other factors are found to be good and the student still has a bad test, I would have to review my test-writing capabilities for sure. This course right now, I believe will help me be more successful in that endeavor.
Mr. H