grading tests...

So I'm finishing up grading the test that the students said was so hard.  There are definitely some A's and B's, and then there are the other grades.

I've noticed it takes me longer to grade tests than it once did, in part because I added a translation section this year, plus I go through the test to see what notes they made--things in the margins, circling, or underlining, etc--that they made to help them do better.  I give extra credit for this, because I'm teaching them a test-taking skill as well as skills to help them focus on the morphology.  But the bonus for me is that depending on how the notes are made, I can see where a student's thinking goes wrong.

For instance, on a section on relative clauses (picking the needed relative pronoun), I could tell from a student's notes that they were getting confused about gender.  Instead of just noticing what gender the word is in Latin, they were thinking about the logical gender for the word in English.  On another paper, gender wasn't the problem, but understanding what case was needed to complete the clause.  

Feedback.  I wish I could give more feedback, find more time to grade homework assignments, etc.  It just doesn't happen, or I can't find time to enter the grades (perhaps because I'm messing around here? but, hey, I need a break too sometimes!).  

Anyway.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that my tests must be improving because I can tell more and more where their weaknesses are.  Or perhaps what MY weaknesses are.

I am determined to find a way to get more people to AP than what has generally done in the past at typical schools: just the A students.  Why can't the B and C students be taught the skills to rise above?  Why can't they be shown that doing this and that thing differently in the way they approach Latin or studying can make them a more secure student?  Isn't there a way to get a larger number to AP, because if we are going to only have AP Latin: Vergil as our pinnacle test with no way to alternate years, don't we really and truly NEED to get larger numbers there in Latin 4?

I don't want to be the kind of teacher that forces level 3 kids into level 4/AP because you need the bodies for the class to make.  I know it's done.  And I'm not trying to be critical of the teachers who have to do it in order to have their program survive.  I understand that necessity.

All I'm saying is that the girl who got a 72 (and that with a few points of extra credit) whose translation was not too bad nor the reading comp answers and whose only real problem was relative clauses,  I'm saying that there's got to be a way to get her over the hump of making C's to making B's or A's.  There's got to be a way to get that person to not think about Latin as something to pass but something to invest in.

I've noticed that since I got back from CAMWS that I've been saying things like, "when you guys are all in AP in a few years"....  Why not?  I mean, why the hell not?

Ok, I'm rambling so back to grading.  I guess what I was trying to say is that grading tests SHOULD be about understanding where students went wrong, and not just the grade.  I could whip through these if I just graded what ws in the answer blanks.  But understanding the thinking processes that went behind the answers is just as important to me.  

I'm sure the kids will say the only thing that counts is the grade, but one day they'll understand what I was doing....