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The Writing Prompt
Dec. 11th, 2010 06:40 pmThis semester the entire school district is giving the same final exams in Spanish 1 and 2. Writing the tests has been a huge undertaking. I was not on the committee that wrote the tests, but I have submitted corrections when preliminary versions were sent out. We have received something like 8 updated versions of the tests! Of course, we will probably still find some Whammies when we actually give the tests next week, but we have received what are supposed to be the final versions of the tests.
Spanish 1 students will also get a speaking test. They will be given a picture of a person and they will describe that person to me. I plan to have the rest of the class working on review packets while I pull the students aside one by one to listen to them. That part will be done before they come to take the final exam.
Spanish 2 students get a writing assessment. They are to write 10-15 sentences in Spanish about a topic that we have covered this semester. They don't get to choose the topic. It is all there on the writing prompt. I gave that yesterday. I did some work with them last week to prepare them for the writing part and most of them looked prepared and even confident while they wrote.
Now I have to grade them. It looks like about 75 papers. Most of the essays won't be perfect, but we have a scoring guide to help us. I have been avoiding the grading all day! I watched a dvd, read some of a book, took a long nap, and even straightened in the kitchen a bit. Now I am writing this. I can probably bust the grading out in a couple of hours. I am a very fast grader. I just don't wanna!!!!
I am worried I will grade too harshly or not harshly enough. I am worried that I won't grade mine the same as the other teachers. That is a given, I know. It is ridiculous to expect ALL Spanish 2 teachers in the district to grade this thing the same way. At least we get to grade our own. I would rather do that than send them in to some committee. Wait a minute, maybe I would rather send them in...
The district curriculum adviser says that these tests will not be used to evaluate us as teachers. We are all VERY suspicious of the way this data will be used. My students mostly represent a good middle to upper middle class demographic. They will make me look good. I just don't like the part I am playing in this. I guess the good news is that I don't have to write my own final exams anymore.
Spanish 1 students will also get a speaking test. They will be given a picture of a person and they will describe that person to me. I plan to have the rest of the class working on review packets while I pull the students aside one by one to listen to them. That part will be done before they come to take the final exam.
Spanish 2 students get a writing assessment. They are to write 10-15 sentences in Spanish about a topic that we have covered this semester. They don't get to choose the topic. It is all there on the writing prompt. I gave that yesterday. I did some work with them last week to prepare them for the writing part and most of them looked prepared and even confident while they wrote.
Now I have to grade them. It looks like about 75 papers. Most of the essays won't be perfect, but we have a scoring guide to help us. I have been avoiding the grading all day! I watched a dvd, read some of a book, took a long nap, and even straightened in the kitchen a bit. Now I am writing this. I can probably bust the grading out in a couple of hours. I am a very fast grader. I just don't wanna!!!!
I am worried I will grade too harshly or not harshly enough. I am worried that I won't grade mine the same as the other teachers. That is a given, I know. It is ridiculous to expect ALL Spanish 2 teachers in the district to grade this thing the same way. At least we get to grade our own. I would rather do that than send them in to some committee. Wait a minute, maybe I would rather send them in...
The district curriculum adviser says that these tests will not be used to evaluate us as teachers. We are all VERY suspicious of the way this data will be used. My students mostly represent a good middle to upper middle class demographic. They will make me look good. I just don't like the part I am playing in this. I guess the good news is that I don't have to write my own final exams anymore.
