Observations in Newark 2

Today in class the students took an ecology test. Most of the day I spent grading the tests. Doing this gave me a good idea of the literacy level of the students in the class and the way they think. Most of the students failed the test, some because they didn’t care and left half of it blank and some because they didn’t know the information. When I was done grading the tests, I had to fill out a feedback form that was stapled to the test. I really did not like this way of giving feedback to the students. As I was grading the tests I would see that they defined a word wrong or they mixed up a concept but I was not allowed to write on the test to help the students understand why they got the question wrong. The feedback form was very general and the evaluations were geared more towards a lab than a test. I assume that Mr. N uses the same feedback form for all of the assignments. I can’t stress enough how much I disliked the feedback forms. I could not get specific with my feedback because the additional comments space was very small. In my classroom I would write on the test giving the students specific feedback according to what they got wrong. Now, the test was a department test. It was made by all of the teachers in the biology department and was used by all of the teachers. I can see the benefits for this type of test, just like I can see the benefits of a standardized test but I did not like that each teacher couldn’t customize the test to accommodate their own classroom. Two of the questions’ answers were wrong and the consensus was to just give the students the free points. If each teacher made their own test or they at least revised the test, this wouldn’t have been an issue. While the students were taking the test, a lot of them were cheating and talking and sharing answers. Mr. N seemed preoccupied with other stuff and I was grading the tests while the students were taking the exam. Personally, I would have put off the other stuff until after school and focused on helping the students with the exam and protecting the academic honesty of the students. There seems to be a feeling in the department that the students need to get good grades, instead of understand the material and I think that that’s a twisted perspective.

            I was supposed to teach next week but since the two times I observed they were doing research and taking a test I asked if I could teach the following week so I can get a feel for the classroom procedures and what the students respond well to.