grading tests...

[ginlindzey]

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....

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I hate the term, "gender". It always confuses the kids and makes them think it should be all about real-world male and female (so tables are neuter, right? and when the dictionary says "n" it means "m or f" or "m and f", right?). I wish we had some other term.

Would it work to run a 4th-year class that's a mixed-level AP/non-AP, so the kids who wanted to stick with it but didn't feel up for AP could have that fourth year? Everyone doing Vergil, but with different expectations as necessary? Not, of course, that I don't haaaate teaching split-level classes, but if they're all doing the same *material* it might not be so bad.

Of course, getting everyone psyched about AP is a fine plan too :). I only teach middle school (in a K-9 school)...not an issue I deal with much.

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

Ooh, of course such a mix would be fine--depending upon the school's policies.

I used to teach only middle school as well, and I didn't have to really worry about this either. But even if I never had to worry about it (if I were only teaching middle school), it IS a VITAL part of the profession as a whole in this country and certainly a driving force for part of our enrollment. Therefore, it becomes ALL of our responsibility, if you know what I mean. Kind of that takes a village to raise a child, thing.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I get that it's everyone's responsibility. I just don't have a useful way to act on it -- I never took AP Latin and I've never taught it, so I don't really know what's involved, and we don't have a specific high school we feed into (the kids apply to a variety of private schools) so there's not a particular program I should be integrating with. And until this year I seldom got very far into unadapted Latin with any of my students anyway.

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

So, go to an AP workshop. It really will change how you view what you do with unadapted Latin....

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Huh, I didn't know you could do that if you weren't an AP teacher.

Moot point, though -- this is my last year teaching.

[cette-vie.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to drop by a note, since I recently added you, after having read your letter to the AP Board on the subject of the AP Literature exam, via eGreek eLatin eLearn.

My name is Connie, and I am a former Latin student, as well as an avid JCL'er. I'm currently working on my undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago. I hope to go into teaching someday, though not necessarily the classics, and it is very interesting to read about your daily work. Hope you might also want to add me back, though I write far more about non-Latin and non-teaching related events.

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for your kind comments. I hate to be ignorant but tell me how to add you back and I'll do it, at least for a while.

[cette-vie.livejournal.com]

Just go to my profile, and there will be a row of buttons at the top, the first of which is a picture of a little person and a plus sign. If you put your cursor over it, it will say "Add this person to your friends list." Just click that, and I think that's about all. =)

relative clauses

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Ginny,

Now that you've been through the RC wringer with HS students, what do you think of my opinion that your MS students just needed to have maturer brains? (For the most part) It had been my experience that 10th graders had a much easier time with them than 6-9th graders.

ken

Re: relative clauses

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

I think the more mature mind can deal with it more easily and that actual grade or age has nothing to do with it. I have an 8th grader that doesn't have an issue with them, and a junior who does. Different mentality.

I don't think I test them well; I think it's a case of assessing one thing and teaching another. I need to think about it more, but am up to my eyeballs grading English stuff so can't. Isn't that what summers are for?