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Re: Writing Tests, Lectures and Dealing with Students

Here's another possibility -- explained by a Kenyan, the local (BigSur)
Marathon winner. "I was lonely." -- that's why he didn't do as well as
usual, and missed winning the best ever by two min. After the first ten
min., he never saw any of the other runners. In the interview after he
made it quite clear that he couldn't pace w/o other runners to push him.
I found this true for myself when I switched schools (course work not
track).

May be in your better classes there are a few students that set a good
example for the rest -- the argument against streaming.

bc

J Montgomery wrote:

-----Original Message-----
=46rom: Steven T. Ratliff [mailto:STR@NWC.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 8:21 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Writing Tests, Lectures and Dealing with Students

One comment on something Tina said:
The test they just took, had a class average of 57%.
The short answer questions were all just regurgitation and THEY CAN=
"T
GET
THEM RIGHT!!!!

I think this is fairly common. I have low exam averages (60% or less=
)
in
my classes, and I think many others do as well.

Regards,
Steven Ratliff

I'm a second year high school physics teacher, and I've encountered a
similar but slightly different problem. I can present the same mater=
ial

in the same way to three different classes, and while one class might=
=20
average 80% on the test, another might only average 60%... and for th=
e
life of me I can't figure out what to do about it. I've tried mixing
things up and presenting the material in different ways to the classe=
s
that aren't doing as well, but nothing I do seems to get them interes=
ted
or excited. I can plan an exciting lesson with tons of demos that ge=
ts=20
2nd hour jumping, but 7th will just sit there and try to sleep.

My chemistry classes are the same way. I have two sections of regula=
r
chem, and one is full of fairly motivated students who try hard and d=
o
well, while the other has mostly students with low motivation who jus=
t
won't participate or pay attention for anything. We require prelabs=
=20
before students are allowed to do a lab, and fully 2/3 of my low-
motivation class didn't bother to bring theirs to lab on Monday, whil=
e
every single student in the other class did. I just wish I knew what
to do with these kids.

Julie Montgomery