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There is something about the end of the year, when all the homework and quizzing has stopped, and only reviewing and exams remains. While everyone is worried about assessing students, I assess myself. What did I do well this year? What worked? What didn't? What did I do for a while and then totally forget about?
I made some better review material this year and I'm looking forward to learning how to use this new program, Eduphoria, to its fullest to get me organized. When all the other teachers are frustrated by having another hoop to jump through, I'm trying to find something positive. Yeah, as I said yesterday, this is probably just a data collecting tool that may be a real hassle that eventually gets tossed. But what if it's not? What if I can really make it work for me? Wouldn't that be cool?
Right now my AP Latin students are doing an illuminated manuscript project--we read a bit about the transmission of texts in the middle ages, look at some actual surviving illuminated manuscripts, and then I teach them some calligraphy basics. I'm ok; nothing special about what I can do with a calligraphy pen. But these 7 kids in my Vergil class have all embraced their projects--to make a page of Vergil, with a large illustrated first letter and additional artwork as desired. It's a laid back project that they find relaxing and interesting when all of their other teachers are working them to death. I bet they'll remember my project longer.
There are actually 2 Latin 3's in the same class with a peer tutor who did AP last year. These 2 have exemptions on their final exam. So I sat with them and brainstormed about how to redesign my current testing to fit more with what Eduphoria is designed for. I'm going to have to toss testing every other stage and figure out how to plan for something more like 6 weeks tests. I have really liked testing every other stage. BUT what the heck... that's not the only way to go. Plus, since I will supposedly be tying questions on the test to the TEKS, this really has me thinking about what I'm testing and why. This is always a good idea.
In fact, before I finish with ideas about future tests, I want to comment about my current final exams. They may change in structure too. The first half is like a major test, but the 2nd half has portions of passages from each stage read this semester followed by questions covering vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. That is the intention. But this year (that is, back at the midterm), I looked more closely at what I had versus what I had intended. My argument that I would rather test vocabulary in context, for instance, wasn't hitting its mark. As I work on current revisions, I am making sure I'm asking vocabulary questions over vocab that was specifically tested for the stages covered. Same thing with grammar--am I just randomly asking about tense & case (or how it translates into English), or am I truly hitting the target vocabulary? I think it is way too easy sometimes to think our tests are truly assessing what we are teaching without really considering whether they are doing so. I am a bit shocked to see how *off* my exams were (in my opinion).
Anyway, these revisions, of course, have me thinking about the major overhauls for next year. What TEKS, for instance, am I leaving out of tests that could actually be covered relatively easily if I put a little effort into it? It occurred to me that I could include a short listening section, similar to some of the exercises in the workbook, where there are pictures in front of the students and they have to answer questions I ask orally about the pictures in Latin. And the answers can be in multiple choice format. WHY NOT?! What else could I include that I'm not doing now? What else am I missing?!?
Of course, to design new tests REALLY WELL will take time. For instance, when choosing what passages to include on FUTURE midterm and final exams, maybe I shouldn't just pick stories I know we covered thoroughly (we read most of the stories, so this isn't difficult), but those that actually have a higher rate of overlap with vocabulary in Vergil's Aeneid. Now, THAT would be cool to figure out. But talk about some work! Comparing the high frequency list in Vergil with CLC will take time. Of course, I should be reading ahead in Caesar so that whatever I redesign for next year will also be ideal for the following year when Caesar is on the AP syllabus. (Note to self: read some Caesar this summer!)
My concern about 6 week tests/assessments is that perhaps the students wouldn't be as accountable in between. I have vocabulary quizzes every week that tests vocab in context, plus declining/conjugating. I was thinking of adding a translation quiz per stage that would have a small snippet to translate followed by some grammar questions to fill the assessment gap. This might not be so bad... I have translation currently on the major tests: four short snippets (about 25 words each) that students can choose from to translate--two from each of the 2 stages the tests covered. If a student was sick or absent the day we covered one story, then they can pick from the other 3. I could, on said quiz, offer two choices for translation, but have questions covering both. Have the translation count as 5 questions followed by 20 multiple choice.... Not bad. It might work.
MY POINT IS SIMPLY THIS: If we open ourselves up to change, change can be GOOD. Change can spark creativity. I don't care how many people tell me I'm a good teacher; I know I'm not perfect. I am so far from it. I am passionate--that much is true. But there are tons of holes in what I do. There's ROOM for improvement. And who knows? Maybe I'll learn something truly USEFUL from all of this data tracking....
I made some better review material this year and I'm looking forward to learning how to use this new program, Eduphoria, to its fullest to get me organized. When all the other teachers are frustrated by having another hoop to jump through, I'm trying to find something positive. Yeah, as I said yesterday, this is probably just a data collecting tool that may be a real hassle that eventually gets tossed. But what if it's not? What if I can really make it work for me? Wouldn't that be cool?
Right now my AP Latin students are doing an illuminated manuscript project--we read a bit about the transmission of texts in the middle ages, look at some actual surviving illuminated manuscripts, and then I teach them some calligraphy basics. I'm ok; nothing special about what I can do with a calligraphy pen. But these 7 kids in my Vergil class have all embraced their projects--to make a page of Vergil, with a large illustrated first letter and additional artwork as desired. It's a laid back project that they find relaxing and interesting when all of their other teachers are working them to death. I bet they'll remember my project longer.
There are actually 2 Latin 3's in the same class with a peer tutor who did AP last year. These 2 have exemptions on their final exam. So I sat with them and brainstormed about how to redesign my current testing to fit more with what Eduphoria is designed for. I'm going to have to toss testing every other stage and figure out how to plan for something more like 6 weeks tests. I have really liked testing every other stage. BUT what the heck... that's not the only way to go. Plus, since I will supposedly be tying questions on the test to the TEKS, this really has me thinking about what I'm testing and why. This is always a good idea.
In fact, before I finish with ideas about future tests, I want to comment about my current final exams. They may change in structure too. The first half is like a major test, but the 2nd half has portions of passages from each stage read this semester followed by questions covering vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. That is the intention. But this year (that is, back at the midterm), I looked more closely at what I had versus what I had intended. My argument that I would rather test vocabulary in context, for instance, wasn't hitting its mark. As I work on current revisions, I am making sure I'm asking vocabulary questions over vocab that was specifically tested for the stages covered. Same thing with grammar--am I just randomly asking about tense & case (or how it translates into English), or am I truly hitting the target vocabulary? I think it is way too easy sometimes to think our tests are truly assessing what we are teaching without really considering whether they are doing so. I am a bit shocked to see how *off* my exams were (in my opinion).
Anyway, these revisions, of course, have me thinking about the major overhauls for next year. What TEKS, for instance, am I leaving out of tests that could actually be covered relatively easily if I put a little effort into it? It occurred to me that I could include a short listening section, similar to some of the exercises in the workbook, where there are pictures in front of the students and they have to answer questions I ask orally about the pictures in Latin. And the answers can be in multiple choice format. WHY NOT?! What else could I include that I'm not doing now? What else am I missing?!?
Of course, to design new tests REALLY WELL will take time. For instance, when choosing what passages to include on FUTURE midterm and final exams, maybe I shouldn't just pick stories I know we covered thoroughly (we read most of the stories, so this isn't difficult), but those that actually have a higher rate of overlap with vocabulary in Vergil's Aeneid. Now, THAT would be cool to figure out. But talk about some work! Comparing the high frequency list in Vergil with CLC will take time. Of course, I should be reading ahead in Caesar so that whatever I redesign for next year will also be ideal for the following year when Caesar is on the AP syllabus. (Note to self: read some Caesar this summer!)
My concern about 6 week tests/assessments is that perhaps the students wouldn't be as accountable in between. I have vocabulary quizzes every week that tests vocab in context, plus declining/conjugating. I was thinking of adding a translation quiz per stage that would have a small snippet to translate followed by some grammar questions to fill the assessment gap. This might not be so bad... I have translation currently on the major tests: four short snippets (about 25 words each) that students can choose from to translate--two from each of the 2 stages the tests covered. If a student was sick or absent the day we covered one story, then they can pick from the other 3. I could, on said quiz, offer two choices for translation, but have questions covering both. Have the translation count as 5 questions followed by 20 multiple choice.... Not bad. It might work.
MY POINT IS SIMPLY THIS: If we open ourselves up to change, change can be GOOD. Change can spark creativity. I don't care how many people tell me I'm a good teacher; I know I'm not perfect. I am so far from it. I am passionate--that much is true. But there are tons of holes in what I do. There's ROOM for improvement. And who knows? Maybe I'll learn something truly USEFUL from all of this data tracking....
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