Doug moderated. There were the following announcements:
1. Betsy Bennett's
protege will be writing upper school meets #5 and #6 this year. We need a math
meet organizer in the future so that it doesn't always end up in Betsy's
lap.
2. Judy Knight and Joan Reinthaler will start the search process for
next year's President. Nancy Wright and Paul Penniman volunteered to continue as
treasurer and secretary, respectively.
The main topic of the day was alternative assessment. Doug wondered whether
there was a casual relationship between the status of one's course, e.g. honors,
and the grade students receive. Ayana agreed that parents push honors courses
for less than pedagogical reasons, that they are over-subscribed. Joan said she
assesses struggling students differently: Tests are untimed, and students can
come back later to finish; in geometry there are more constructions than proofs
on tests. Christian gives some take-home tests to honors students, and the
students can get some teacher help. Dorothy gives take-home tests in A.P.
classes, and students can discuss with pre-ordained partners for 5-10 minutes.
Betsy pointed out that Sketchpad labs lead to opne-ended questions. Elisa gives
more word problems to more advanced students. Elisa and Syamala distributed guidelines they use to identify struggling
students. Ayana said there are no surprises on regular kids' tests.
Doug said within the same class younger students usually do better. It is
difficult to assess students in heterogeneous classes. Betsy mentioned ninth
graders still need to learn holistic skills: sitting still, organization, etc.
Nancy has tried to balance traditional assessment, where some students will
always fare poorly, versus assessing non-traditionally, where students always
get good grades. elisa has a class of one, and she assesses for improvement
only. Judy occasionally gives assessments for the purpose of differentiating
among students. She also uses the sketchpad for assessment in geometry. Syamala
often has her students doing a mental math task during the first five minutes of
class.
Joan has a class of seniors where homework counts 40% (it just has to be
done, it is not graded for accuracy), 20% use of class time (totally
subjective), 40% tests, unannounced quizzes, small projects. Doug likes to give
5-10 minute quizzes daily once students grind down in February. Betsy did the
same at Maret for 10th grade geometry.
Doug's geometry class is doing a rap song about the geometric mean and the
Pythagorean theorem. Let's see Orrin Hatch object to this! Doug also distributed
a hand-out entitled "Beyond the Term Paper," about alternative assessment in the
humanities. Your loyal secretary has extra copies if desirable. In a similar
vein Syamala's eighth graders wrote poems about math topics.
Everyone kept expressing envy and wonderment about Joan's 20% subjective use
of class time!
Paul had an unrequited question about why we hold students (in his opinion)
disproportionately responsible for mental math skills once they are in high
school.
Important: Send home page or web site URL's (addresses) to Geri, and if Paul ever gets his DSL up and running he can help her prepare for the next meeting, Thursday, April 19, at the Ste. Stephen's and St. Agnes upper school campus!