Final Exams
Test time is here again, and has brought with it a few surprises.
First, is the final exam for the High School First Grade NELP students. I only see them once a week, and half of our lessons were taught by visiting university professors. As such, it's a little difficult to test them because we haven't had a significant amount of actual CONTENT. Instead of a content-based test, however, I'm hitting them with a SKILLS-based test: in this case, listening skills.
The test will have sixty questions. There will be four listenings, each followed by fifteen questions. Students will hear each listening and each set of multiple-choice questions twice. The first ten questions will be one point each. The final five questions (which require a deeper understanding of the point of the story) will be worth two points each. The test will be for a total of 80 points.
However, although the test will undoubtedly be very challenging, as I told the students: It's not so different from what we do every day. They hear me talk, they answer my questions and so on.
I'm not so worried.
The second big change is in my junior high school second grade tests. This change is due to complaints from a student that my tests are not challenging enough. I have therefore adopted tests that are, again, more skills-based than content-based, and I have reorganized the test to be more challenging. For example, in the past, the vocabulary section of reading test had vocabulary in groups of five to make it easier to match the word and meaning. Now, I have all fifteen vocabulary words together in one group. Likewise the readings are longer and the questions require more thinking to answer.
In the past, the purpose of the test was to determine: How much of what I am trying to teach did the students actually assimilate? In this case, a perfect score would mean they learned 100% of my intended content. In this test, however, the goal is slightly different. Whereas the previous test was focused specifically on my personal goals for what I wanted them to achieve, this test is more general. This test attempt to determine: To what degree did the students master the target skills we have been developing in class, and how much of the content available for them to study did they assimilate.
The new oral communication exam now has 90 questions. It has no repetitions. It goes very quickly. However, as I explained to my students, neither the reading nor the oral communication test will be impossibly difficult. Both tests have been designed to the level of the students. That is, the reading level of the texts in the reading test are consistent with the reading levels of the students in the class and are in fact easier than the majority of the texts we have read in class. The vocabulary likewise has been covered in class and has been made available to the student. The challenge in the reading test comes from mastering skills we've covered and practiced in class: in this case, the difference between skimming, scanning and reading for details balanced against questions that test general comprehension of the purpose and themes of the text.
The oral communication test likewise tests comprehension through a wide variety of questions, and tests the students' ability to communicate successfully, to comprehend a variety of lengths of spoken discourse, and so on.
In this regard, the test will be extremely challenging, but will not be outside the students' abilities ... so I'm quite proud of it.
Whether or not we will continue to have my so-called MegaTests in the future for this group of NELP students will depend largely on how they do on the test.
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Date: 2008⁄07⁄02 10:56｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
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