Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Tonight's Homework: Study for quiz

I gave a vocabulary quiz last week. The students had ten words to study, there were a couple that were similar in meaning, but I decided as long as I was going to use the same definitions that we went over in class it should be pretty easy. I added a wordbank so the students wouldn't have to worry about how to spell the words. There were ten words and ten questions; all words were to be used one time.

As I handed out the papers I told the kids not to worry, the quiz should be easy. And for those who have always done well in school, it was easy. Somewhere along the line it seems they've acquired the needed student-ship skills that make their educational life run pretty easily. Of course there are also those kids who are still learning how to be a "good student." Their study skills and homework completion are pretty good, although they occasionally get overwhelmed with their 6th grade workload or forget to pay attention to the details of the task at hand.

And then there were the ones who, for the most part, don't do homework. They didn't study for the quiz, and they don't engage much in class discussions. Yea, they failed the quiz. I wonder, was it their failure or mine?

4 comments:

  1. Um, yours. Why in the world should they care about those words? 'Cause you said so? Okie doke...

    Mar, post this to the Tuesday SOLSC on TWT.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's hard to feel good when questions like that loom. I've been there before.

    Do you do any kind of review in-class for vocabulary quizzes (i.e., is their built-in time to review the words in class so kids familiarize themselves with the context of the word so they own it prior to the quiz)?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whether it was your "fault" or theirs, the most important thing is that you are being a reflective teacher. I am sure that it could come down to they could have done a little more and you could have done a little more.

    ReplyDelete