Any secondary education teachers out there?

Re: Any secondary education teachers out there?

• Bride2Be22512 member

  

  January 2014

  Hello!  I have been teaching for six years now.  I teach middle school (8th grade).  Have you talked to another teacher at your school?  The only reason I am asking is because I know we have certain..."expectations" at our school.  I would talk to another teacher and see if curving is okay at your school/district.  

  
  

  
  

  Good Luck!!!!   

  Report0 Reply
• leighks1 member

  

  January 2014

  Freshman year can be a big transition, so many of the kids may not have the study skills they need in high school. Did you give them a study guide? Review in class? Have at least a few kids do well? I teach juniors and seniors, and I try to have a variety of types of questions on tests and exams..some kids are just not great test takers. I try to use multiple choice, word banks, short answer and long answer questions on tests. Also, if I can incorporate a hands on portion for test I like to do that as well, for the kinsethetic learners. I teach science, so sometimes on tests they have to do tasks or experiments as part of,the test. Remember not all kids learn the same, so I try to give enough variety in the questions to accommodate as many differences in learning styles as I can. Good luck!

  Report0 Reply
• VadersValkyrie member

  

  January 2014

  I'd look to see if there is a pattern to the questions they are getting wrong; sometimes, I think a question makes complete sense and the kiddos are totally lost.  If it seems like it's consistently a few questions, maybe consider not counting those, but making sure to review them with the class to see where the hang up was.

  
  

  
  

  Report0 Reply
• anabelle24 member

  

  January 2014

  I'm a former teacher, I taught for 6 years before taking a hiatus in 2012.
  
  If all of your freshman students are getting Ds and Fs - except maybe the few who usually excel anyways, anyhow - I would seriously consider revising my exam questions and seeing if they all got the same ones wrong, what type of answers they gave, and think of how much time I spent teaching for each question / if homework was given out, quizzes (before the exam) and if they failed or excelled in those. You usually know if your students are ready for an exam when they get their homework right and they get good grades on the quizzes before-hand. I also liked to give "practice exams", which we would grade together in class and they could use to study and prep for the final.
  
  And honestly, if all your students are doing terrible, the school principal / parents will notice and sadly, it will raise some questions. I personally would scratch the exam that everyone did poorly on, re-evaluate and give a re-do. Depending on if you have or don't have enough time left, a prep exam before the redo might be enough to help them pass.
  

  Report0 Reply
• yeah. member

  

  February 2014

  I teach 11th grade.

  
  

  If all of my students were getting Ds and Fs on an exam, I would either think 1) my test was too hard/not fair or 2) I did a shitty job teaching the material. If a few kids do well, I think it's on the kids but no one? My fault.

  
  

  I would spend a class discussing the exam with them (how did they study? what worked? what didn't?) then allow them to correct the test for up to an 80%.

  Report0 Reply