Lunch and Learn

They're eating pizza (it's considered a veggie now!)

This week and last week I have been working at the high school level in a program called Lunch and Learn. It is basically tutoring during lunch time for US History. It works out to be about two hours every day. I work with groups of students (anywhere from 1 -10 students at a time), helping them prepare for their EOCT (end of course test), which is a cumulative test which they must pass in order to obtain credit for the class.


I am also only being paid to work for two hours every day, and have missed a few opportunities for full sub days, but am hoping that this is an opportunity to meet administrators in the school and make connections. I am working closely with one administrator who I was not familiar with before, and she has come in to observe me twice during the program.


The students are selected for this program based on a practice test which they take as a predictor of their achievement on the actual test. Because of this, these are not (generally) higher level students and (many) are not very motivated to learn. Most of them do not actually show up - maybe a little under 1/3.


Unfortunately, many students are in the program for a reason. They just do not know their US History, or are not practiced in thinking critically about information. For example (and I am not giving this example in an attempt to make fun of students, but this is a good example of the types of students I am working with). I was showing an example of a time line question:






While explaining the question, I prompted students to provide their own knowledge about the events in the time line. When I asked them to name the war in which the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought in, two (of four) classes couldn't tell me. I prompted them with the next item, the Declaration of Independence, and asked them again. The students could not tell me what war we fought to gain our independence! One student offered WWI as an answer.











Whether they just aren't thinking deeply about the questions or truly do not know the answers, this shows that the students need the assistance which Lunch and Learn provides. I have been trying to focus on testing skills such as analyzing maps, charts, political cartoons, and graphs which contain US history facts and providing historical facts along the way. If I just throw fact after fact at them, they will forget them all. I hope that by attending Lunch and Learn, they gain some skills and knowledge, and are able to pass the EOCT.

Lots of Fun

Yesterday and today were early release. So, we saw two classes each day for a longer amount of time than usual.

We took the students to the computer lab to use an internet site that the school uses, called Study Island. It asks the students questions about what they are studying. In this cases the geography of Africa. After they did a certain amount (decided by Mr. Dorray) they were able to play in game mode. This means that after they get a question right they get to play a short game. So, they are still studying, but get to have some fun.

Then we went back to the classroom and played a review game. We projected a map of Africa onto the white board and quizzed the students. I would give them the name of either a country or physical feature and the first person to raise their hand got to come up and draw it on the board. If they were right they got a piece of candy. I wanted everyone to get a turn, so once a student won they could only go again if no one knew the answer (this didn't keep them from raising their hand and trying to get picked).

They seemed to know the material, so hopefully they will do well on their test tomorrow.

The students enjoy Study Island, and they really seemed to enjoy the review game. (I will definitely use this in the future!) Some of the students even told me at the end of the day yesterday that they really liked the review game and wanted to do it again.

I had a great time because the kids were so enthusiastic. They had fun and made me laugh. Great two days!

Test

The students had another test. This one was on the governments, economics, and a little culture of Southwest Asia. Almost half of the questions were directly from the last test. From grading the first class's tests, I know that most of them missed the repeat questions more than the new ones. I guess they just didn't get the government information.

When most your students don't understand the information you want to go back over it (I would think). Because they have to know it for the CRCT at the end of the year, or they will not go on to the next grade.

However, given time constraints, it's not possible to redo an entire unit. I guess, the best thing to do would be to try to bring that information up again in new units. Governments should be an easier topic to do that with, since the students study different regions all year, so government is an easy topic to recover.

Tests and Quizzes are worth 60% of the students' grades. This is a mandatory percentage. So, the teachers try to give as many tests and quizzes as possible. Many of the students are bad test takers, or just do not study.

Here is another funny test answer I found online:

Funniest Test Answers Ever

To coincide with my previous post I present 

the funniest test answers ever:

"I have a D? Yes!"

     I find it frustrating that so many of the students at Sweetwater are not passing when they all could and should be. They are certainly smart enough to understand the material; they are just not willing to put in the effort to pass. They would much rather socialize or do nothing than do class work and study. I have always been someone who wants to finish my task quickly so that I have time to have fun and not stress about unfinished work. Many of these students want to do nothing now, and then ask for extra credit to bring up their grades when they are failing – but they did not even turn in all of their class work!

This year Mr. Dorray decided to try something he has never done before. He gave the students a retest of their first test, which many of the students had done poorly on. He thought it would be a good opportunity for the students and a good way to see if they would embrace the opportunity. He gave them a one week advance notice of the test as well as a new political map and list of places and features to help them study. When the test day came around many of the students were surprised that the test was that day, even though the day had been posted on the white board for the past week. Most had not studied. Some of the students did better on the retest, even if it was just by a few points. Between five to eight students in each class actually did worse on the retest. Only a few made truly substantial increases in their scores. Most of the students still scored under 70%. I know that Mr. Dorray was frustrated. He gave his classes an opportunity and very few of them really took advantage of it. I am not sure that he will offer retests again, as it took up an extra class and most of the students did not benefit from it.

Now, at the end of the first grading period he has around 6 failing students in each class, and many that are just scraping by with a D or C. It was frustrating to see the students celebrating their D’s last Friday when they were given their grades. Their goal is only to pass, and as long as they are passing they do not care about what their grade actually is.