The classes that I am teaching this semester are my 8th and 9th sections of this American history survey course. Therefore, this is NOT my first time at the rodeo. I have drastically overhauled almost every aspect of the class every single break. I look at my student evaluations, grades, and talk with my colleagues about how they are doing things (I’m in a department of teachers who have been teaching at this school for a while).
The one thing I never touch is the format of my exams. They are modeled after the history exams I took in undergrad, and in grad school for that matter. It’s three sections: Identifications, short answers, and essay. They get a number of questions and are to choose a specific number of them to answer. For example, I list 10 ID’s, and they answer 6. This let’s them work to their strengths and pick what they know. Most professors I’ve had allowed this. In addition, my sister (a 1st grade teacher, but she knows what’s up) informed me that this is a more effective testing method. Why? I don’t remember. Perhaps someone can inform me. I change the questions every semester (to avoid cheating and to keep things accurate with what I teach). I have my husband and our department secretary look over it for errors (and to see if it’s fair or fairly ridiculous).
I’ve graded 30 out of the 60 that were taken (I had 6 students not show up…). I had one A. ONE! I had two B’s (maybe just one, but I’m hopefully right with the 2), and the rest are evenly divided between C’s, D’s, and F’s. HOLY CRAP.
I have stopped blaming myself (too much). I’m a good teacher. I provide PowerPoints, I have ample office hours (that far too few students take advantage of), I check my email constantly. I post guide questions and fun things on BlackBoard (as well as the PowerPoints one day before the class). The issue is that my students can (somewhat) memorize facts, but cannot apply them and cannot connect them, no matter how much I work with them. Many of them simply don’t want to have to work at all to succeed. They were allowed to coast through high school, making their grades look good, and now they are at a loss for what to do.
I blame a number of people. First, I blame myself for thinking I wouldn’t have to deal with this at the college level. I definitely went through school in a bubble of honors kids. Second, I blame the students. You have to study and go beyond rote memorization. I’m not going to feed you every thing you need to know. You can start with actually actively reading for my class. Third, and I don’t like doing this, I blame some teachers. My sister had a number of teachers who couldn’t have cared less about actually teaching, and they tended to teach what our school called “academic track.” These were college bound students who weren’t ready, or willing, to take all honors classes. However, 90% of them were going to college. It seems that only honors kids were prepared for college, and the academic or college-prep track weren’t prepped for college at all. Finally, I blame the non-educators who have control over education. Lawmakers are creating legislation that don’t promote life-long learning, but actually work at cross-purposes with it, encouraging rote memorization and learning specifically for the tests.
Sigh. This is a rant, and I realize it, but I have wanted to say it for a while.
If you teach high school, in any subject, I would love for you to ask me what I want my students to be able to do when they get to me.
- Prof. M.
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[aeferg / theghostofher.]
The Oxford comma saga continues.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrmz9vSGy21qb7k1zo1_250.jpg)
