Finals week is Over!
After my computer-less hiatus, I am back! As for what is new, finals week has officially come and gone.
THE TEST
It was strange to be on the other side of the fence for the first time. I was responsible for writing the listening test (40% of the first grader’s Term 1 OC grade) and correcting all 280 of those tests. This was my first set of finals, so I definitely learned a lot and am confident there is yet even more.
When I finished going over the tests, I did some simple statistics on the students’ performance by class and at a total level. The average came to a startling 66%. I panicked at first, fearing I was failing half of the first graders (and of course feeling horrible for doing it – still working on that!), but what I quickly learned was that 66% was actually a GOOD score (?!?). I guess teachers aim for a 60% average when writing tests, and the curve is set so that 2/3 of that average is a failing grade. I suppose this is a logical way to justify that the test was really tailored to the ability of the students, but I still feel that the students should have been able to achieve higher scores if they had taken notes or studied. We didn’t include instructions in Japanese for every section, which was a mistake on our part (or a blessing for the students who got points for translation or some sign of comprehension), but I was surprised by how low some of the scores were. After 4 years of English, only ONE student could correctly dictate ‘Please raise your hand’, something I say at least once each class and that they have in their textbook. Oh, boy.
THE WEEK
The highlight of the week, however, was not the actual final, the grading or even getting through the slowly decreasing mountain of notebooks I had yet to read (now that the students have realized I write back, they are writing more… good for them, but omg it takes forever!). Instead, it was everything I was able to do outside of school with the extra time my half-day schedule (during finals) allowed me to do.
In short...
Because this was such a busy week and I have to much to say (and on top of the fact that I am already o-shaberi!), I have chosen to break my recap down by day, and pretend I actually blogged after each one. (Continued in next entry)....
THE TEST
It was strange to be on the other side of the fence for the first time. I was responsible for writing the listening test (40% of the first grader’s Term 1 OC grade) and correcting all 280 of those tests. This was my first set of finals, so I definitely learned a lot and am confident there is yet even more.
When I finished going over the tests, I did some simple statistics on the students’ performance by class and at a total level. The average came to a startling 66%. I panicked at first, fearing I was failing half of the first graders (and of course feeling horrible for doing it – still working on that!), but what I quickly learned was that 66% was actually a GOOD score (?!?). I guess teachers aim for a 60% average when writing tests, and the curve is set so that 2/3 of that average is a failing grade. I suppose this is a logical way to justify that the test was really tailored to the ability of the students, but I still feel that the students should have been able to achieve higher scores if they had taken notes or studied. We didn’t include instructions in Japanese for every section, which was a mistake on our part (or a blessing for the students who got points for translation or some sign of comprehension), but I was surprised by how low some of the scores were. After 4 years of English, only ONE student could correctly dictate ‘Please raise your hand’, something I say at least once each class and that they have in their textbook. Oh, boy.
THE WEEK
The highlight of the week, however, was not the actual final, the grading or even getting through the slowly decreasing mountain of notebooks I had yet to read (now that the students have realized I write back, they are writing more… good for them, but omg it takes forever!). Instead, it was everything I was able to do outside of school with the extra time my half-day schedule (during finals) allowed me to do.
In short...
Because this was such a busy week and I have to much to say (and on top of the fact that I am already o-shaberi!), I have chosen to break my recap down by day, and pretend I actually blogged after each one. (Continued in next entry)....
posted by Brenda Ann Elizabeth McKinney @ 1:32 AM
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