Journal+1+spor

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On this particular day in the classroom, I saw the students engage in a weekly spelling test. As I was talking to my cooperating teacher, I was told that the students receive 10 new spelling words late in the afternoon on Friday before they go home for the weekend. They have the weekend to look over the words if they so choose, but on Monday when they come in the start studying; in class and every night for homework. In class studying consists of spelling work sheets that have them use the words in multiple ways. The students are also required to write out each word ten times along with the definition of each word. Every Friday the students are given their weekly spelling test. They each get a lined piece of paper and they have to write the word and the definition. The teacher reads off each word, and then goes through the list one more time. =====

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This week, every student in the class took the test. After helping my cooperating teacher correct the test, the grades got recorded into his grade book. The test was scored out of 20 points; one point for spelling the word correctly and one point for getting the correct definition. More than half of the students in the class of 23 got 20 out of 20. The other grades were 17’s, 18’s and 19’s, and one student received a 13. The student who received the low grade struggled through a majority of the test, and was one of the last ones to finish. I spoke with my cooperating teacher about it and he was surprised that this student did so poorly because every other week was either a high teen, or a 20 out of 20. I figured that it was probably a lack of studying on the students’ part. =====

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I think that this is a good way to test the students. I was always tested like this when I was in middle school. I had weekly words that I was responsible for knowing, and my grade was left up to me. If I studied, it would show through in the grades I received. This also goes for the 5th grade class that I am in. I also think this is a good way to teach the student some time management skills and responsibility. The students know what is expected from them each week when it comes to spelling. It is their responsibility to study, and know when to manage their studying time. They will figure out that if they try to study it all the night before the test, then they probably won’t do as well as they are capable of doing. I think for assessing spelling, this is an effective way. =====