Low Test Scores

Yesterday I gave a test over a very short unit on maps to my 8th graders. The 8th grade science standard has only one indicator and is for the most part an introduction to topographic and lithograph maps. When working on my long term plans for the 8th grade I was excited that I would be able to teach the map unit, since I am currently taking SC Maps as one of my Science content classes. As I began to grade the tests I began to feel discouraged by the student's scores. They were for the most part not very good. I really thought that the students would do very well on this test and I did not expect anything but A's.
After I finished grading the test I discussed the low scores with other teachers. The math teacher said she had the same results from the 8th graders but that it was typical. I told her that it was not typical for their science tests. As I began to reflect on why the grades were so low, for what I thought was the easiest test I had given this semester, I came up with the following ideas:
1. The 8th graders were so excited about leaving for a five day trip to Washington, D.C. the day after the test, that they did not properly prepare.
2. The test was given on a Monday and students typically don’t test well after a weekend.
3. The test format was different.
4. The students have “spring fever” and are ready for summer vacation.
5. The topic was covered in a week and maybe it warranted more time.
6. I did not use proper formative assessments to gage the students understanding of material.
7. I made out the test after teaching the lesson plans. (Instead of before teaching)
I believe all of the above ideas may have played a part in why some students performed so poorly on the test. The content is part of a new SC standard and this made planning a little difficult and my cooperating teacher and I agreed that a week should be enough time to cover the material. Perhaps with a different type of formative assessment I could have addressed the lack of understanding earlier in the week. My main formative assessment was done by interacting with the student’s lab groups as they worked though various hands on map activities. I believe that I should have incorporated more formal written assessments to gauge the individual student’s understanding.
I believe another factor that played a role, was the need for me to do the testing of the unit before the students left for their DC trip. Since, the students were leaving for a week and I would be done student teaching by the time they returned I needed to test them before they left. In addition, the maps I wanted to utilize as part of the test were borrowed from the University Center and needed to be returned.
In the end this experience has shown me the importance of long term planning and the need to be flexible. I do feel like that if the circumstance had been different that I would have extended the time spent on the topic. One “after the fact” solution I came up with was to count the grade as a quiz grade instead of a test grade, exacting less of a percentage. After discussing this with my cooperating teacher my reasoning for this she said she would plug the scores into the computer to see how they would affect their overall grade and then decided how to count it.

This worked

This past week I utilized a pre-active teaching strategy that I saw varying examples of online. Before beginning a section on nutrition I had my 7th grade classes list everything they ate during their last three meals and all other food intake in between meals. Next we brainstormed the types of nutrients the body requires, listing them on the board. Then I asked them to try to figure out how many servings per meal and snacks they had of the various nutrients. After they finished I handed out a printout that described serving sizes of various foods. At this time I allowed them to go back and make adjustments in regards to their serving sizes (most had to increase what they had put). Next, they were given an empty food pyramid with the various nutrient types labeled and asked to plug in their data they had come up with. This led into the final discussion using the headings in the book to discuss the six nutrients and their role in proper nutrition.
I believe, by allowing the students to formulate associations between the foods they recently ate and the various types of nutrients the body requires, they will have a cognitive structure to build new ideas off of.

Assessments quick ones that work.

As I think about the various types of assessment I have used this semester the first thing that pops into my mind is free-writes. I have used free-writes for pre-assessments and formative assessments. The most useful were the pre-assessment free-writes that allowed for opinion.
Another quick formative and pre-assessment that has been useful has been section heading discussions. To get an idea where the class and students are on a subject I will simply open my book and ask questions from the bold headings. If the students respond quickly with a good show of hands I know they are getting specific subject matter. If they need to refer to the book then I know who is weak in an area. Sometimes I will use popsicle sticks to pick who will answer.
I have followed suit with my cooperating teacher in regards to unit test. We will test over limited amounts of material, so test end up being about every two weeks. I sometimes will give the students a pretest so they know where they need to focus.
Most days we start class with bell work. The bell work is five questions that cover past material. The students keep a bell work notebook and we talk about the answers. Sometimes I will include a bell question to find out if they understand current material. Bell work is a school wide implemented strategy.

Let them learn

A week ago I tested the 8th grade on Earth’s biological diversity and geological history. This past week I decided to continue teaching aspects of this topic, going beyond the state standards. I wanted to give the students an opportunity to work on a team to research and gather data, and then to organize the data and present it to a non partisans committee (myself and cooperating teacher). The unit will end with a round table debate between the two groups.
My approach started with a lesson designed to have the students investigate and discover how to determine the validity of internet sources in regards to research. The rest of the week the students chose to be part of opposing lobby groups representing various natural resources. Chair persons were chosen to lead the lobbies and daily agendas were given to guide the two groups in their preparation for their presentation and end of unit debate.
The lobbies begin presenting their cases tomorrow during class. I originally had some concerns about how well the 8th grade boys would handle this activity. I worried that they would not be able to handle working independently within groups. However at this point I have been very impressed with both the girls and boys classes. They have all taken ownership of this process and have really done an impressive job of working as teams to achieve specific goals set forth.
I did not give the students much information about how to approach this project. I guided them but allowed them to make decisions within their groups. They have been really excited about this activity and have been sharing new information with each other with excitement. I look forward to their group presentation and the final debate.

Badboys

Last week was spent reviewing for an end of unit tests. One of the review games I like to use is a basketball type game that the students ring in and answer a question and then shoot the ball for points. This review has worked great in the past when I’ve used it with the 7th grade girls and boys and the 8th grade girls. Well this week I tried to use it with the 8th grade boys.
A little background: the 8th grade boys have become increasingly unruly with all their teachers in the past few weeks. I had to end the review game after about fifteen minutes because they simply would not behave as a whole. This began a major crack down on the whole class. The rest of the hour I did not allow them to speak. I read the questions for the review and then read the answer. They sat there a little shocked. The last couple days I have begun each class with a lecture about what is expected and the consequences for not doing it. Well see if it works.

Dealing with a not so bad student

This past week has been one of my busiest. I am on my second week of teaching 7th and 8th grade girl’s and boy’s classes for a total of four classes. I have had a few students between all the grades who at one time or another have struggled with doing work in and out of the class. Most of these issues were easily dealt with by communicating with parents using “pink slips” which I will describe in a moment. However, I have an 8th grade boy that is beginning to slack off. He has been an average student but for some reason lately he is showing little interest during class. He also has started missing homework assignments. I quietly tried to encourage him in his work during class and after school I tried to casually talk to him, but it was obvious he didn’t really care to talk to me. I asked other teachers how he was doing and they said he was doing okay in their classes. So for now I am going to keep my eye on him and if he continues to miss assignments I will go beyond the present method of dealing with missing assignments, which is “pink slips”. When a student does not have an assignment they fill out and sign a pink slip that goes in their file, they also receive a sticker that must be signed by a parent that explains the missing assignment. Everyday the student fails to bring in a parent signature they have lunch detention. My next step in dealing with this student will be a student conference followed by a phone call to the parents.

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Classroom mangagement

Within every classroom there is going to probably be issues with behavior. Recently we have been having trouble with excessive talking and interrupting. So in order to address this issue in our science classroom we initiated a “Classroom Interuption Log”. The first time a student is called down they receive a warning. The next is outside lunch privileges are revoked, and so on. For the most part the kids figured out that they could talk until the first warning and then they would behave. After a couple of weeks of implementing this plan the results differed in some classes and grade levels. The classes that got the message the log only has to be pulled out every once in a while to get results. The classes that wanted to push the limit on talking got a speech from me. I basically talked straight to them, telling them that I really didn’t enjoy having to use the log and that I knew they were tired of it. I explained to them that there was really no reason for us to have to keep dealing with this issue and that I knew that were old enough to know better. It has not been an issue for a couple of weeks.