MPM1D1 - Day 64 Test Day

We had our test today. Students worked away diligently and asked for clarification as needed. I'm hoping for some good results. There are a few topics that we'll revisit in the coming weeks to solidify understanding.

MPM1D1 - Day 44 Test Day

We had our second test today. Students seemed well prepared in general. I had a few say to me as they came in that they were going to fail, but this seems to be a normal approach for these students (which is kind of sad). It turns out they did alright.

I was very pleased with how well most did on the question about finding the equation of a line between two points. I often talk about this being the most difficult part of the course, but many of them said that they found it easy.

There are a few things that we need to work on, mostly number sense (exponents and solving equations) but we have lots of time to come back to these ideas. I'm also questioning how I assess. The test is a great place to assess the thinking, problem solving and communication skills but I'm wondering if smaller, more frequent (formative?) quizzes  might be a better option for assessing knowledge. What I mean by this is that most students seem to be able to solve an equation when given a context and as part of a bigger problem. They seem to be able to reason their way to the answer and they can check to see that it make sense. But, if I strip away the context and ask them to just solve a two step equation, a good number of them will struggle. We'll keep plugging away at it.

MPM1D1 - Day 23 Test Day

We wrote our first test on Friday. Many students seemed quite nervous as they started. I get excited on test days. I'm excited for students to show me what they have learned. If you're looking for a sports analogy, test day is like game day. We've spent all this time practicing and improving and I'm looking forward to seeing how much my students have improved.

As the test progressed I had questions such as "What does this mean?" and "How do I do this?". I told students to try their best. We had talked before the test about how it was important to write something down for every question. I was happy that for the most part they did. Some students need to work a little on presenting our solutions in a manner that's easy to follow.

I think that by the end of the test students had a good idea of what they needed work on before the next test. I'm hopeful that this will provide them with some focus for our upcoming work.

Group Test

Last semester I taught the Grade 12 Advanced Functions course. It seemed that every time a test approached a student would ask if they could write the test as a class. We all had a good laugh then inevitably someone would ask if they could write in groups instead. Needless to say the entire class thought this would be a good idea. I dismissed the idea on a number of occasions explaining how it would be difficult to have a good sense of who knew what in a group. My students, however, were very persistent and would ask every time a test was nearing. 

On the second last test of the year (just before the Christmas holidays) a student asked if they could write their test as a group. I jokingly said "Sure" and a student immediately replied "Really?". When I told my students I was just kidding they provided a lot of reasons why such a test would be a good idea, in the hopes of getting me to change my mind. I let them know that I would think about it for a bit and get back to them; possibly a strategy for delivering a delayed "No".

As I thought about it I had a lot of questions about logistics for this possible test. They included:

1. What would such a test look like? Surely it couldn't be a regular test that students worked on in a group.

2. How will the groups be determined? Self-assigned? Teacher assigned?

3. How many students should be in a group?

4. What happens if some group members aren't pulling their weight?

5. Do students hand in one test each or one test as a group? Do they get the same mark or different marks?

6. Is this a bad way to prepare students for University?

Some of these questions and their possible solutions occupied my thoughts for several days before I had the courage to go ahead with it. I figured that if things didn't work out I could always call it a test review and give a traditional test afterwards.

Here are the answers that I came up with to the above questions.

1. The test should be less knowledge based (although there were still some knowledge questions) and should be more heavily focused on thinking and problem solving. The knowledge would show up as part of the problem solving.

2. I decided to let students choose their own groups and as it turns out students tended to group themselves by ability level, which is probably how I would have grouped them.

3. I went with three students in a group. I felt that this would allow for some good discussions while not allowing anyone to sit back and do nothing.

4. This is not that different from any other type of group work (assignment, presentation, etc.). The difference is that here I was able to watch to see who contributed what. It would have been possible for me to assign different marks based on the participation, which I didn't do.

5. Students handed in one test and received the same mark.

6. Perhaps, but it was only one test. Besides, is my goal to prepare students for university or for life beyond university? I would guess that once out of school most of these students will do far more collaborative work than they will test writing. Shouldn't I be preparing them for that as well?

Here are some things that I observed:

• There was no anxiety as students entered the class.
• There were some great discussions happening the entire time
• There was some learning going on during the test. Students who didn't understand didn't just let their group do the work, they were trying to understand it.
• There were no questions that were left blank.
• Students seemed to be enjoying the test.
• Students reported that the time just flew by.
• We had a modified schedule the day of the test. Our class was shorter than normal but I told the class that they were welcome to stay into lunch if they wanted to. Most stayed for the period and most of lunch. I was amazed that nobody just wanted to leave.

Here are a few comments that I heard during the test:

• After some discussion with the group..."I think I understand this now"
• S1:"That works!" S2: "Yeah it does." S3: "We've got it!"
• "YES! That's it."
• "I love this test. It's great to communicate."
• A student to me: "Can you tell me...?" Me: S:"Maybe I'll ask my group."

The test was a big hit among students. They said afterwards that they felt less stressed, they really enjoyed bouncing ideas off one another and wished that all tests could be done in the same way. From my point of view it was a great experience as well. Students were totally immersed in the work, there were lots of great discussions and the atmosphere in the class was very pleasant. It almost felt like a coffee shop, a productive coffee shop.

How did the students do? I would say that they performed at about the same level they normally would despite the test being more challenging than a typical test I would give. My hope is that by the end of the test they came away knowing more than had they written a regular test. I didn't measure this but I suppose a regular test after the fact might have provided some insight.

This is certainly something that I will try again.