Grades, Tests, Video Cams & the US Navy

I feel that GRADES ARE IMPORTANT in 5 ways (I am sure there are many more):

1. They let mom and dad know if their student is meeting their expectations.

2. They give an indication as to whether the student is at the right skill level, able to be in a higher level of study or is at a level that is too hard. Basically, where he is in comparison to other students.

3. In some cases, grades compare knowledge to his ability. (Is the student really trying?) Example, a very bright student receiving low grades or a very slow student achieving above expected levels.

4. Grades reflect the need for praise or otherwise. A grade is a sign that parents and teachers need to give praise for unexpectedly high grades and to come down hard on loafers.

5. Of course it can be a signal that cheating is going on. Yes, I turned in all cheaters, as it was the policy of the schools. I don't give a second chance and I explain this to the students at the beginning of the term.

As an interesting side light: Before I explain my ideas on grading, let me explain what I did in my classroom. Remember that my room was called "the museum" as I had historic artifacts all over the room. (I had twice, maybe three times as many items on my walls as you'll see at a TGI Fridays restaurant!)

First of all you must have something to teach. This sounds silly but plain book work doesn't do it. You must be interesting. If you are, your kids will love you. If you are that kind of teacher where the kids can't wait to get to your room, then this works and nobody complains. (In my class it wouldn't do any good to complain anyway.)

I went to the swap meet and bought 4 video cameras with blinking lights that indicated that they are recording. Not one of my 4 cameras really worked but the students didn't know it. Only once did I talked about my cameras. When asked about them I just said, "Well what do you think they are for?" and left it at that. It looked, of course like the students were being recorded.

One day I called a student out of the class and asked him if he would like to talk to his parents about cheating tonight before 7:30 pm because that was when I planned to call and ask them to come see a video of their son in class. I asked the student if he's rather have it be a little surprise.

He looked at me and said, "How about calling at 8?," and I said "OK."

Now remember, none of the cameras worked. But that student never cheated in my room again, or at least not to my knowledge. I think the word got around to the other students. You didn't cheat in Mr. Cody's class.

Would I ever use a real camera? Sure. I can tell you that in certain areas of the city I certainly would and if I was a bus driver you can bet your bottom dollar I would have one. There is no excuse for what happens on some buses and in some classrooms.

Now about TESTS.

Let's say that you have given a chapter in a history book to study. You say, "we are going to have a test tomorrow," but we have the material to cover. Let's say it is a final exam for the grading period and your students are all college graduates, let's say teachers.

You and I know that we can design a test so hard that not one of the test takers can pass your exam. Read that again as it is very important. Not one of the college graduates could possibly pass the test. Is that a fair test? In my estimation, sure. Is it defeating your goal? Absolutely. How do I get around it? Please study what I am going to say next. Because I can make the exam so hard that it is ridiculous.

But this is how I really design the test.

Everyday you have many things of importance to teach. Knowing the students will retain only about 17 percent of what is covered for any length of time, you must somehow develop a way to help them remember as much as possible, especially the important points. How do you do this? You teach to the test.

Oh, I can hear you all now saying you can't do that. Yes you can and I will show you how and why is is a good idea.

Are you trying to find out what they don't know or are you trying to find out if they know what you really want them to know? Pay close attention.

In the preceding paragraph I explained how you could give an exam to anybody and make it so hard that no-one could pass the test and this was defeating the purpose. I also explained that there must always be at least eight important points that you really, without a doubt, want the student to remember. So, every day you put these eight things on the board for the students to write down, keep and review daily. Have the students write them down as you take attendance. They should review the total amount of information written on the board plus their notes from past classes, as there will be ever expanding volume of information recorded. If they simply re-read and re-study the notes every day they will receive a very high grade. They have all the test questions and answers.

Tell the students that these will be the exact questions that will be on the final exam. If they simply review the eight points each day they will have them learned by exam day. They will also retain these facts for many years to come.

Now lets see, because I give the timeline test (that's my well known history timeline, which appears in my book, Teaching Out of the Box) every Wednesday, a specialty in my class, and it takes a considerable amount of time, most of my time is taken for that period. That means I have 4 days with 8 facts per week. Now 4 X 8 = 32 questions and over the 3 months of the semester or grading period that makes 3 X 32 which equals, if my math is correct, 96 questions. I would then have my last points on the test go to a level of 110. Now with a 100% on the test being 100 and in the fact that 110 being points can be awarded the student could actually receive more than 100 points which would possibly make up for ten questions they couldn't answer correctly. I would let the students write about anything that was not covered on the test. (This was done with the all important essay questions that we must have.)

I always kept a copy of all the questions with the answers for special situations. One being that sometimes students get sick, or must be away with their parents or for another reason, and I could give them a copy to study. Then with my communication at home with the very slow learners, I would always send a copy to the parents to keep so they could help their child. Many time the slow student's parents would remark that they enjoyed learning along with their student.

Because of my unique style and the love the students had for my class, the principals would always give me two types of students: The hard to handle (I got all of them) because they were interested in what was being taught; and the students knew that if they gave me any problems they would be changed to another class. Thus I had very few problems.

Then there were the Special Ed students who were being mainstreamed into regular classes. These kids were special and I always gave the upcoming tests to the RSP teachers (resources specialist program) so the students could learn to answer the questions. If they got good grades they deserved them. I can remember one of my special ed students saying that he loved my class because no one had ever taught him the idea that he had to want to learn before he could learn.

Sometimes for the semester exam, because I always had the RSP students, I would read the questions out loud. I always noticed the regular students taking the exam along with these special students. That's OK.

Then there were times that I would give the test to the RSP teacher and she would give the exam in her own class away from my other students room. And that's OK too.

Here's a method of demonstrating TEST TAKING - and results of a US Navy survey - that got my students' attention.

A lot of you in the teaching profession can't or won't be as loose and free to do what I did and that is OK, but I bring this in for those of you who can use it. It's fun.

The United States Navy did scientific research on an interesting topic. The question was: In which physical position did the body allow the brain to do its best thinking? They were really wanting to find out if the person who was the CON (in command of the bridge) should be sitting or standing and, because the study was being conducted anyway, why not find out how effectively an officer in charge could learn if he or she was lying down? Now, that is a silly question but let's see what they learned.

They wanted to know if there should be two chairs on the bridge - one for the captain and one for the officer who had the CON. An interesting result came from the study. They concluded that only the captain's chair would be on the bridge and no one sat in that chair but the captain. (And you can believe that?)

Now here are the results. In the test:

• The person who is standing up comes up with an answer first;

• The person sitting down comes up with the answer second;

• The person lying down comes up with the answer third.

However, another interesting fact arose. They learned that:

• The best answer to the problem always came from the person lying down;

• The next best answer to the situation came form the person sitting

• The worst answer, although the answer could be OK, was from the person standing.

Now, why did I bring this up? I told my students about the Navy Study and I would always have 5 or 6 students in the prone position on the floor while taking the test. Did it really help? That is impossible to say as the same student didn't take the test in the other positions, but one thing it did was make class a little different. If you have a different style and the students never know what to expect, it stimulates your students' minds, gets them interested and engaged and makes class exciting.

Just as a note of interest: The average grade in my class was a B, a large quantity of As with very few Cs about 4 Ds and of course there are always 2 to 3 students who either didn't care or didn't try who got Fs.