The results are in. This week, Wezi and I sat down to grade the tests, and this, too, was a lot harder than it seemed. Our students didn't do well on the oral test, and that is ironic since we gave it to help out students that we were sure wouldn't do well on a written exam. I think it brought everyone's grades down though. And overall, the class did not perform well. So what should I make of it? Was the test hard? I dont think so- it was everything we taught and reviewed. Did we not teach effectively? Maybe, but everyone seemed to grasp it during the review. I think that simple machines, and knowledge of how they work, is practical knowledge, and maybe it is hard to express in test responses. So maybe it was the test. I dont know, but I emailed F and gave her a spread sheet with the results, so I dont know whether or not she will use them. But while grading, two questions came up:
First, how much should each portion of the test be worth? Wezi and I had to sit and deliberate, since we didnt do it beforehand. But the reason why is connected to the next question, which is...
Should student's performance on the test determine how much its worth? In my experience, it has. If the whole class does poorly, my teachers have sometimes altered the value of the test or scrapped it altogether. But we didn't see any inherent error in the test. So is it ok to just weigh the section that yielded the worst grades less than the other? Is that accurate? And how do you get grades in if students dont perform well on tests? I know its not all about grades, but they have to be reported at some point. There has to be a tangible reflection of performance.

Sigh. We are done with our simple machines unit! On one hand, hallelujah. On the other, Im going to miss that class, even though they were a little out of control. On another hand, I've got a lot of work to do before becoming a graduating and teaching my own class.

I can definitely say that as our unit progressed, Wezi and I started to notice more and more deficiencies in our own teaching skills. Or at least I did, I can't really speak for anyone else. Thursday was supposed to be a review day, but we were going over their note sheets- an activity that we thought would take about 10 minutes- and ended up spending almost our whole hour on it because there were some kids that just didnt get it. So we saved the concept mapping review idea for the next day and set about making a test.

At this point, I had the most significant revelation of our entire unit. We were getting ready to put together our unit test when we realized how broad a range of abilities our students had, and how difficult it was going to be to ensure that we tested them all fairly. We had a group of students that caught on fast, knew everything after we told them the first time, and took teir own notes on it. Then we had some who just didnt seem to grasp anything the whole week. Then there were some who understood and could explain it to us, but when we told them to write down what they had said, they couldnt make the brain-to-paper connection and they froze. So how do you go about making sure the test is validly testing their knowledge of simple machines, and that the child isnt just being hindered by their reading level or ability to write? I left feeling really overwhelmed and kind of afraid, because the achievement gap is a real thing and differentiation is necessary. I just havent been trained how to do that yet, and it scares me a lot.

Friday, we gave a written and an oral test. We had everything worked out timewise, until the school had a fire drill, so we had to rush to finish up the oral exams. Wezi and I havent sat down to grade the tests yet, but I know we will have to discuss the rubric for the oral exam based on how the kids did overall. Test making is hard work. Teaching is hard work. I would be scared, but I know this is what I am supposed to be doing, so I know I can. Im just...feeling unprepared to spend a semester student teaching. Does all this go away with student teaching?