Pre-Test and an Outlier

     I learned today that students really need a good understanding of the purpose of a pre-test. I gave them a “show what you know,” as I called it, for morning work today and they didn’t quite seem to get the point. I handed the paper to each one as they came in, and told them, since they have certain duties to take care of when they first get there, “once you get settled in, answer what you can and write any questions about the topic (The American Civil War) you would like to find out about. This is just a little ‘show what you know’ pre-test to help me plan for the Civil War unit.” Some of them went straight into a panic and some of them wouldn’t have even touched it if the teacher and I had not kept reminding them of it. I was hoping it would be something casual enough for them to not worry, and they would be responsible enough to take care of it. I was wrong. Everyone got it done, but it was like pulling teeth for half the class that was either worried too much, or didn’t care enough. I really think this is due to the possibility that nobody has ever really explained to them the real purpose of a pre-test. It also wasn’t multiple choice like the scantron pre-tests they have been taking for the past two weeks. It could also be that a pre-test is not good morning work. I’ll have to explain things to them when a good opportunity arises, and everyone is in the room, and then see how the next pretest goes.

     Our advanced math class took a quiz over the rules of division for 2, 3, 5, 9, and 10. Nobody in the class scored what they could have potentially scored. We explained to them today that the quiz grade was not going to be recorded, and then we showed them their quizzes. Nobody was happy. We explained how they are all smart, but sometimes quick and easy is chosen over thorough. They were allowed to use the rules they had written down for those five numbers, but I do not believe anyone actually used them. Many of them also rushed to “sure” answers without checking for other possibilities. After explaining these things to them, we gave them the same quiz, but with different numbers to test the divisibility rules of the above five numbers, and the class grades increased by an average of 20-30 percent. Unfortunately, there is one student who did not improve any. If someone is talking to him about a procedure, rule, or algorithm, he completely understands and can explain it back to that person. However, when it comes time to do actual pencil to paper work, it’s almost like he is subconsciously, or consciously, refusing to do what he knows how to do, and take the easiest (which ends up being incorrect) rout. My mentor teacher and I have been discussing possible ways of improving this situation.