Post by elementary on Sept 5, 2012 23:35:20 GMT -5
Dear Diary,
I let a few days go by as it got busy this past weekend, but I'm back.
As you know, I've been bemoaning the lack of effort some students have been showing with the multiplication homework I assign. Well, lo and behold, on Friday I had one one solitary student who came to school without this done. That's a load better than the start of the week when I had 15 who were trying to see how good my oversight was going to be. Seems they have been converted, and that has carried over to the new week as today, again, I only had a single student fail to do this assignment - and he is a chronic starer and proof positive entropy exists. I swear, I equate this young man to a lawnmower that has to be restarted every few minutes. I see from my desk that he's on the wrong page, or not reading with his partner, or not doing work during the short windows I allow students to start homework while I work with those who need help, and I go over to him, talk to him, rev him up, and he slowly kicks into gear. Then I leave to work with others and sure as the earth circles the sun, his head slowly lowers, his pen drops to the table, and he stares outwardly in a silent refusal to do work. There's more, and I'll work with him, but something is going on inside him that is killing his desire to expend energy. It's hurt his first set of grades from last Friday as well.
Speaking of last Friday, I gave my first spelling, vocabulary, and grammar tests of the year. The vocabulary is a very straightforward assessment that matches definitions to words. Later tests get harder and force the student to fill in a paragraph with blanks with the vocab words instead. Scores go down, but students will find new words primarily buried in context in their future, and need to be able to work with words in other ways at school to practice this.
The spelling test my grade has developed over the past few years is not a typical 'read the word - write the word' system. We provide a series of sentences and the student needs to identify which word is misspelled in the sentence (or not) and write it correctly in a space provided. Another section tests their ability to identify the spelling pattern or concept we've worked on during the week. For example, last week we worked over short vowel sounds. This week we are doing long vowel sounds. To check to see if they can recognize the difference, part of the test is a series of words and they need to identify the ones that don't fit the spelling pattern.
My grammar test is less straightforward as well, but it is a test that if the students have worked hard and followed along, they should at least score a Basic, which is one level beneath proficiency.
Which leads me to the topic of grades, which I realize I haven't even touched and I'm over a week into the school year. So let me clear this up.
Out district does not use the standard A, B, C, D, F system that the middle school and high school still utilize. Instead we worry about the students' ability to master specific standards (such as knowing how to use the correct order of operations to solve a math problem.) The levels of ability have been broken down into 4 levels which have been adapted from the levels the California State Test (CST) gives out. In our district, the breakdown is as follows:
(95% correct)- Advanced
(80 - 94% correct) Proficient
(60 - 79% correct) Basic
(59% and below) Below Basic
I didn't give the reading comprehension test until today (wednesday) for our Hatchet excerpt as we still were going over the story elements on Friday - and I was very happy with the results.
I should mention that we use Houghton Mifflin for our books but we have stopped using their tests in the sixth grade. The tests we found were too simplistic for our tastes. Essentially they consisted of two open ended questions based on topics already discussed in class if the lessons were followed, two multi-choice vocabulary questions, and two multi-choice comprehension questions. Our test eliminated this - for one reason we pulled out a separate vocabulary quiz, but more importantly, we didn't think it forced the students to use their logic and reading ability fully - especially since the HM tests focused on items that should already been talked about. I believed they tested what the students remembered from classroom discussions rather than tested their reading skills using parts of the story untouched in discussion. Basically I want to know what the students were able to DO rather than REMEMBER.
I also gave the latest multiplication test to the class. This past week, I mentioned that students who don't do the times homework can't take the test, and the only way to eliminate the homework is pass the test - so they are compelled to do the homework.
Because the test still provides valuable data, I had everyone but those three who passed last week take it, even though I wasn't going to accept it from those who failed to do the homework. Well, when the test was done I collected all those that had been finished, even from the non-homework doers, and graded them real quick. I had four who passed. Funny (or not so funny depending on your point of view) three of those were students who hadn't done their homework. I was about ready to accept them when I decided to let my president (Rabbit, if you recall her moniker) decide if they should be input or tossed. I truly expected her to tell me to keep the grades and allow the three to get out of the homework, but she didn't. Even knowing that it might not make her popular, she said those students had not followed the system and therefore should not gain the benefit of a perfect test.
Wow, tough decision made by a 12-year-old. I'm proud of her. She's taking her responsibility seriously.
And I would have accepted them.
It's why I like having a president.
On Tuesday I had a few students absent, but it was really an average day, though I had my first student written up and sent to the office. This girl had a reputation last year, and posed some problems for her former teacher, and I knew this, so I have been giving her small yet important jobs that required her to be on task and focused. (They also took away time from writing notes or talking....) She has been great with only the occasional short comment that I need to stifle. Everything else she does I give positive feedback for and am very polite with please and thank you. I figure modeling proper manners wouldn't be a bad thing. I believe in building pride in my students, but that is a topic for another day.
Well, yesterday she was seen by another teacher showing classmates at lunch a mark on her arm. It turns out that she took ice and salt and rubbed it hard on her arm to turn it purplish red. She had done this at home, but she was showing other students this and laughing about it. The other teacher sent her to the office and had the school nurse and others talk to her about her actions. She wasn't punished, but in my head, I've got her flagged as someone to watch for additional, maybe progressive behavior in terms of self-abuse.
I have more, but I think I taxed your patience long enough and what I have to talk about is Prop 30 and raising taxes. I'll say this before I go, according to what I heard at my teacher meeting after school yesterday, if Prop 30 doesn't go through, I'm looking at 12 furlough days and a paycheck cut by $400 a month, maybe more, after January. This already on top of the raised $100 a month to my medical I mentioned early on in this diary.
L
I let a few days go by as it got busy this past weekend, but I'm back.
As you know, I've been bemoaning the lack of effort some students have been showing with the multiplication homework I assign. Well, lo and behold, on Friday I had one one solitary student who came to school without this done. That's a load better than the start of the week when I had 15 who were trying to see how good my oversight was going to be. Seems they have been converted, and that has carried over to the new week as today, again, I only had a single student fail to do this assignment - and he is a chronic starer and proof positive entropy exists. I swear, I equate this young man to a lawnmower that has to be restarted every few minutes. I see from my desk that he's on the wrong page, or not reading with his partner, or not doing work during the short windows I allow students to start homework while I work with those who need help, and I go over to him, talk to him, rev him up, and he slowly kicks into gear. Then I leave to work with others and sure as the earth circles the sun, his head slowly lowers, his pen drops to the table, and he stares outwardly in a silent refusal to do work. There's more, and I'll work with him, but something is going on inside him that is killing his desire to expend energy. It's hurt his first set of grades from last Friday as well.
Speaking of last Friday, I gave my first spelling, vocabulary, and grammar tests of the year. The vocabulary is a very straightforward assessment that matches definitions to words. Later tests get harder and force the student to fill in a paragraph with blanks with the vocab words instead. Scores go down, but students will find new words primarily buried in context in their future, and need to be able to work with words in other ways at school to practice this.
The spelling test my grade has developed over the past few years is not a typical 'read the word - write the word' system. We provide a series of sentences and the student needs to identify which word is misspelled in the sentence (or not) and write it correctly in a space provided. Another section tests their ability to identify the spelling pattern or concept we've worked on during the week. For example, last week we worked over short vowel sounds. This week we are doing long vowel sounds. To check to see if they can recognize the difference, part of the test is a series of words and they need to identify the ones that don't fit the spelling pattern.
My grammar test is less straightforward as well, but it is a test that if the students have worked hard and followed along, they should at least score a Basic, which is one level beneath proficiency.
Which leads me to the topic of grades, which I realize I haven't even touched and I'm over a week into the school year. So let me clear this up.
Out district does not use the standard A, B, C, D, F system that the middle school and high school still utilize. Instead we worry about the students' ability to master specific standards (such as knowing how to use the correct order of operations to solve a math problem.) The levels of ability have been broken down into 4 levels which have been adapted from the levels the California State Test (CST) gives out. In our district, the breakdown is as follows:
(95% correct)- Advanced
(80 - 94% correct) Proficient
(60 - 79% correct) Basic
(59% and below) Below Basic
I didn't give the reading comprehension test until today (wednesday) for our Hatchet excerpt as we still were going over the story elements on Friday - and I was very happy with the results.
I should mention that we use Houghton Mifflin for our books but we have stopped using their tests in the sixth grade. The tests we found were too simplistic for our tastes. Essentially they consisted of two open ended questions based on topics already discussed in class if the lessons were followed, two multi-choice vocabulary questions, and two multi-choice comprehension questions. Our test eliminated this - for one reason we pulled out a separate vocabulary quiz, but more importantly, we didn't think it forced the students to use their logic and reading ability fully - especially since the HM tests focused on items that should already been talked about. I believed they tested what the students remembered from classroom discussions rather than tested their reading skills using parts of the story untouched in discussion. Basically I want to know what the students were able to DO rather than REMEMBER.
I also gave the latest multiplication test to the class. This past week, I mentioned that students who don't do the times homework can't take the test, and the only way to eliminate the homework is pass the test - so they are compelled to do the homework.
Because the test still provides valuable data, I had everyone but those three who passed last week take it, even though I wasn't going to accept it from those who failed to do the homework. Well, when the test was done I collected all those that had been finished, even from the non-homework doers, and graded them real quick. I had four who passed. Funny (or not so funny depending on your point of view) three of those were students who hadn't done their homework. I was about ready to accept them when I decided to let my president (Rabbit, if you recall her moniker) decide if they should be input or tossed. I truly expected her to tell me to keep the grades and allow the three to get out of the homework, but she didn't. Even knowing that it might not make her popular, she said those students had not followed the system and therefore should not gain the benefit of a perfect test.
Wow, tough decision made by a 12-year-old. I'm proud of her. She's taking her responsibility seriously.
And I would have accepted them.
It's why I like having a president.
On Tuesday I had a few students absent, but it was really an average day, though I had my first student written up and sent to the office. This girl had a reputation last year, and posed some problems for her former teacher, and I knew this, so I have been giving her small yet important jobs that required her to be on task and focused. (They also took away time from writing notes or talking....) She has been great with only the occasional short comment that I need to stifle. Everything else she does I give positive feedback for and am very polite with please and thank you. I figure modeling proper manners wouldn't be a bad thing. I believe in building pride in my students, but that is a topic for another day.
Well, yesterday she was seen by another teacher showing classmates at lunch a mark on her arm. It turns out that she took ice and salt and rubbed it hard on her arm to turn it purplish red. She had done this at home, but she was showing other students this and laughing about it. The other teacher sent her to the office and had the school nurse and others talk to her about her actions. She wasn't punished, but in my head, I've got her flagged as someone to watch for additional, maybe progressive behavior in terms of self-abuse.
I have more, but I think I taxed your patience long enough and what I have to talk about is Prop 30 and raising taxes. I'll say this before I go, according to what I heard at my teacher meeting after school yesterday, if Prop 30 doesn't go through, I'm looking at 12 furlough days and a paycheck cut by $400 a month, maybe more, after January. This already on top of the raised $100 a month to my medical I mentioned early on in this diary.
L