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I have been grading the dictationes. Some good things here, some evidence of progress. Some kids who are determined not to care, some who have a real inability/disability to hear syllables or distinguish sounds. And then there are the students who could do well but decide it's just too much effort. These are the most frustrating. They really are. When 2 of my brightest students decide to just leave it blank just because it got a little challenging? Who totally refused to do the last sentence? WHY? Just because they didn't know ingEns? GETOVERIT!
So, I've been grading this according to syllables (43 syllables in total). It's making for some REALLY LOW grades. I don't want to use a curve. I'm thinking of switching to a rubric, something that would allow for anyone who made more or less a C thus far to have earned a B, and some of the high Fs to become C's. It would be less discouraging, and these kids are really young. But I don't want to just automatically curve everyone's grade up 10 points or something. The people who couldn't be bothered deserve to fail, frankly. No pain, no gain. If they don't learn to stretch themselves now, then when will they learn that?
And I see Kealing had another killer certamen team kick butt and take names. I'm pleased. That's just what Kealing needed. And I think to myself, if I had all magnet students, would I be dealing with students who just can't be bothered to try or challenge themselves? Or would I have instead cut-throat want-to-be-1st-chair types who would be striving toward perfection? How can I truly tell that what I'm doing is as good as I think it is with the kind of results I get sometimes?
Mind you, I do think I have higher vocab quiz and even test grades overall with comparable students from, say, 3 years ago. I really do think that all the tricks I teach, all the warm-ups and other things I do to reinforce the new stuff really do help. But it's hard to quantify on paper. I'd have to do something like get the TAKS scores for students from the last few years and compare it with their Latin test grades (which haven't changed much)--but of course, that would assume that I had access to copies of their grades anyway.
NOT THAT I HAVE THAT KIND OF TIME.
I need to finish grading and work out a rubric.
Constantly tweak, constantly compromise and take into account WHAT the students are like and WHAT they are able to bring to class--but not to the point of reducing academic rigor. I mean, if I were like most teachers, I wouldn't even bother with something like this, would I??? WOULD I? Wouldn't most teachers who teach kids like these just say "oh, they can't do it so don't try to get them too"--that sort of thing? BUT SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE they really need to learn about phonemic awareness or they will never learn how to spell, never expand their vocabulary, and never get much further with Latin, that's for sure. If your spelling is so terribly bad that you leave WHOLE SYLLABLES out of words, then SOMEONE needs to try to address it, even if it is a somewhat painful process.
And it's not like I'm making this count as a major grade. I'm not sure why I'm beating myself up over this. But I am. I am because I want to teach well... and sometimes... sometimes the fight for greatness for your students is a hard one, especially if you know that probably a 1/3 or more won't ever go to college. The apathy is frustrating and contagious... But maybe... maybe they will take something from my class into their lives and their futures....
So, I've been grading this according to syllables (43 syllables in total). It's making for some REALLY LOW grades. I don't want to use a curve. I'm thinking of switching to a rubric, something that would allow for anyone who made more or less a C thus far to have earned a B, and some of the high Fs to become C's. It would be less discouraging, and these kids are really young. But I don't want to just automatically curve everyone's grade up 10 points or something. The people who couldn't be bothered deserve to fail, frankly. No pain, no gain. If they don't learn to stretch themselves now, then when will they learn that?
And I see Kealing had another killer certamen team kick butt and take names. I'm pleased. That's just what Kealing needed. And I think to myself, if I had all magnet students, would I be dealing with students who just can't be bothered to try or challenge themselves? Or would I have instead cut-throat want-to-be-1st-chair types who would be striving toward perfection? How can I truly tell that what I'm doing is as good as I think it is with the kind of results I get sometimes?
Mind you, I do think I have higher vocab quiz and even test grades overall with comparable students from, say, 3 years ago. I really do think that all the tricks I teach, all the warm-ups and other things I do to reinforce the new stuff really do help. But it's hard to quantify on paper. I'd have to do something like get the TAKS scores for students from the last few years and compare it with their Latin test grades (which haven't changed much)--but of course, that would assume that I had access to copies of their grades anyway.
NOT THAT I HAVE THAT KIND OF TIME.
I need to finish grading and work out a rubric.
Constantly tweak, constantly compromise and take into account WHAT the students are like and WHAT they are able to bring to class--but not to the point of reducing academic rigor. I mean, if I were like most teachers, I wouldn't even bother with something like this, would I??? WOULD I? Wouldn't most teachers who teach kids like these just say "oh, they can't do it so don't try to get them too"--that sort of thing? BUT SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE they really need to learn about phonemic awareness or they will never learn how to spell, never expand their vocabulary, and never get much further with Latin, that's for sure. If your spelling is so terribly bad that you leave WHOLE SYLLABLES out of words, then SOMEONE needs to try to address it, even if it is a somewhat painful process.
And it's not like I'm making this count as a major grade. I'm not sure why I'm beating myself up over this. But I am. I am because I want to teach well... and sometimes... sometimes the fight for greatness for your students is a hard one, especially if you know that probably a 1/3 or more won't ever go to college. The apathy is frustrating and contagious... But maybe... maybe they will take something from my class into their lives and their futures....
