How many more to go?
Nov. 16th, 2009 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageI hate marking math tests.
I thought I'd gotten past this particular affliction of the teaching profession when I switched to a problem-solving, constructivist approach to teaching mathematics. Unfortunately, I still have to give kids a grade, often before they've had the time to explore topics as thoroughly as they needed to. So I end up on someone else's timeline, giving math tests that I know kids aren't going to do well on because they haven't had enough practice, and then I have to mark and report on the results.
If report cards weren't due next week, I'd put the quilt unit on hold, go back to measurement, and do a few more questions. I'd get small groups discussing their strategies, have them write some journal entries about their struggles and successes, and coach the struggling kids using guided math. Then in a couple of weeks, I'd test them again and bask in the glow of a class full of B's and A's. But with report cards due next week, I have to take the marks I get on the first test.
Realistically, I know that their marks aren't going to improve on this kind of question until I've taught more multiplication and elementary algebra strategies. They're not sure of how to deal with an equivalency in a problem (If Adrick takes three steps in each meter, how many steps is he going to take in two kilometres? How far will he have to walk to go 10 000 steps?) and for that, they need a lot more practice at multiplication and division. I could probably come back to this type of problem in April and they'd be much more ready for it than they are now.
Even so, I hate giving out C's to kids who could probably get a B if I could give them an extra week to work on it.
On the other hand, I have no trouble giving C's to kids who measure in centimetres and give units in kilometres. Seriously, it was on the board in three different spots, in their notebook in at least two, and I pointed it out before they started the test. Not a whole lot of excuses, there. Careless work doesn't get my sympathy.
I thought I'd gotten past this particular affliction of the teaching profession when I switched to a problem-solving, constructivist approach to teaching mathematics. Unfortunately, I still have to give kids a grade, often before they've had the time to explore topics as thoroughly as they needed to. So I end up on someone else's timeline, giving math tests that I know kids aren't going to do well on because they haven't had enough practice, and then I have to mark and report on the results.
If report cards weren't due next week, I'd put the quilt unit on hold, go back to measurement, and do a few more questions. I'd get small groups discussing their strategies, have them write some journal entries about their struggles and successes, and coach the struggling kids using guided math. Then in a couple of weeks, I'd test them again and bask in the glow of a class full of B's and A's. But with report cards due next week, I have to take the marks I get on the first test.
Realistically, I know that their marks aren't going to improve on this kind of question until I've taught more multiplication and elementary algebra strategies. They're not sure of how to deal with an equivalency in a problem (If Adrick takes three steps in each meter, how many steps is he going to take in two kilometres? How far will he have to walk to go 10 000 steps?) and for that, they need a lot more practice at multiplication and division. I could probably come back to this type of problem in April and they'd be much more ready for it than they are now.
Even so, I hate giving out C's to kids who could probably get a B if I could give them an extra week to work on it.
On the other hand, I have no trouble giving C's to kids who measure in centimetres and give units in kilometres. Seriously, it was on the board in three different spots, in their notebook in at least two, and I pointed it out before they started the test. Not a whole lot of excuses, there. Careless work doesn't get my sympathy.