Midterms/Finals!
It's about that time of the year for midterms or finals!
I teach middle school, so only have a midterm for my 8th grade Algebra students. I am wondering how much emphasis you (or your school) place on the these test scores. I am guessing for high school, much more than we do at the middle school level.
For my 8th grade group, the final at the end of the year helps to determine placement of students in high school.
Any tips or suggestions for making an 8th graders first midterm experience pleasant? (as pleasant as it can be!)
Brenda
Views: 0
Comment
-
Comment by Kara Roberts on January 17, 2011 at 5:57pm -
This year we were forced to give an exam at ALL grades in the middle school. That meant my 6th graders have to take an exam. We take it tomorrow. I am sorry I did not log in to see you post earlier because here are my thoughts...
I continued to mention the word exam over this past two months and after awhile students began to get curious and ask questions. We poked here and there talking about how it covers everything that was learned, how they would be given a pre-exam so they could see the types of questions and the format, and how it is a one time test (no retakes or test fixes). On Friday, my students were able to have the computer lab. We just played games, almost a 'calm before the storm' type of activity. I also used it as a day to get my failures (D's and F's) caught up. Today I gave my students the pre-exam. It looks identical to the actual exam in format and question. The only difference is the numbers will change from the pre-exam to the real exam they will take tomorrow. We had no warm-up activity today. They came in and I gave them the pre-exam. They had 25 minutes on the timer to use their textbook, their notes and any tools they could find to help them with every question on this pre-exam. This is going to be their one and only tool to use on the exam itself. No calculators, no times tables, no number lines, nothing but the pre-exam. After the 25 minutes we went over every question with the correct answer and took notes on how to do the problem. A problem like "Write the integer for 3 feet below the surface" did not require any kind of notes or explanation, but a problem like "Subtract 3 - (-12)" required the subtraction rules to be written next to the problem, and the work to be shown "3 + 12 = 15".
I know this is too late, but I hope this will give you some ideas for next year.
-
Comment by Algebra Hottie on January 11, 2011 at 8:16pm -
when you say the pass/fail cut off point, I'm assuming that you mean for the exam itself? That's what our school uses, 60%, although we can curve the exam as we see fit. The 60% is also our school mandated guideline for pass/fail of the class. As far as what an exam is worth on the final grade, each marking period counts for 1.5 times the exam grade. We've discussed changing that...not sure exactly how I really feel.
-
Comment by Brenda Mescher on January 10, 2011 at 10:29am -
Can I ask what your pass/fail cut off point is?
Our school uses 60%, which I feel is really low.
-
Comment by Algebra Hottie on January 10, 2011 at 9:11am
-
Our 8th grade students get high school credit for Algebra I so it is treated just like any other HS class.
© 2013 Created by MVU Administrator.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Algebra for All to add comments!
Join Algebra for All