Quote for the Day 4/8/08
Student: This is almost as bad as having your parents tell you "We don't want you to do this, but we'll let you decide."
Zachary: Or as bad as having to choose your own punishment. I hate that.
Student: So what would you choose? Just ask for ten swats and get it over with?
Zachary: Are you kidding? Not ten of my dad's swats.
Student: What kinds of things might you have to choose your own punishment for?
Zachary: Pretty bad things.
Student: By the way, did you tell your dad about the . . . .? (I didn't get all this, but something about a ditch.)
Zachary: Oh yeah. He knows that.
This whole dialog followed my announcement that I was handing back the quizzes from last week without having scored them as I had intended to do. They were to write on their papers the scores they thought they deserved, based on what they understood, and hand them back in. That weight of responsibility was what was getting to them.
I kept repeating, "You'll have to decide" every time when a student wanted to explain yet again why they were not sure what grade they should assign themselves.
It was a true and false quiz, and we had graded it in class. And then the questions and counter-proposals for answers began. Before it was all over, I wasn't even sure anymore whether my answers made sense. (I'm not usually plagued with this much self-doubt.) Rather than nit-pick every answer to the point of absolute certainty, I decided on a shortcut.
My logic went something like this. If they really understood what the text said, and misunderstood my questions, these answers don't give an accurate picture of what they know. Maybe the best way to find out what they know is just to ask them. So I did. They could count as correct every question on which they knew the truth as stated in the text.
I wrote down every score exactly as the student suggested without further investigation. It's wonderful to teach trustworthy students.
If they're thinking Our teacher is so gullible, I don't want to hear about it.
Back to Trustworthy. Now that's a warm fuzzy word I plan to hold on to.
Zachary: Or as bad as having to choose your own punishment. I hate that.
Student: So what would you choose? Just ask for ten swats and get it over with?
Zachary: Are you kidding? Not ten of my dad's swats.
Student: What kinds of things might you have to choose your own punishment for?
Zachary: Pretty bad things.
Student: By the way, did you tell your dad about the . . . .? (I didn't get all this, but something about a ditch.)
Zachary: Oh yeah. He knows that.
This whole dialog followed my announcement that I was handing back the quizzes from last week without having scored them as I had intended to do. They were to write on their papers the scores they thought they deserved, based on what they understood, and hand them back in. That weight of responsibility was what was getting to them.
I kept repeating, "You'll have to decide" every time when a student wanted to explain yet again why they were not sure what grade they should assign themselves.
It was a true and false quiz, and we had graded it in class. And then the questions and counter-proposals for answers began. Before it was all over, I wasn't even sure anymore whether my answers made sense. (I'm not usually plagued with this much self-doubt.) Rather than nit-pick every answer to the point of absolute certainty, I decided on a shortcut.
My logic went something like this. If they really understood what the text said, and misunderstood my questions, these answers don't give an accurate picture of what they know. Maybe the best way to find out what they know is just to ask them. So I did. They could count as correct every question on which they knew the truth as stated in the text.
I wrote down every score exactly as the student suggested without further investigation. It's wonderful to teach trustworthy students.
If they're thinking Our teacher is so gullible, I don't want to hear about it.
Back to Trustworthy. Now that's a warm fuzzy word I plan to hold on to.
posted by Mrs. I at
8:05 PM
1 Comments:
For the amount of people that read your blog I'm surprised at how many comments you're getting. Our family loves to discuss your latest posts.
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Anonymous, at 4/09/2008
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