{Geo B} Test Moved

The BA test is now scheduled for Friday March 4.  Good luck.

{Geo B} Quiz and Quiz and Tests, Oh My!

Wednesday this week there was a pop-quiz.  Your student may need a hug.  Regardless Quiz redoes are available for students and should be turned in no later than Tuesday next week.

Monday next week (Tuesday for 7th hour) is another quiz.  They know this one is coming.  It's been announced.  It's posted here.  It will cover 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 and 7-5.  The only thing that won't appear on the quiz is the collection of problems related to how Perimeter and Area are related to scale factor.  It will appear on the test.

Wednesday next week is the Chapter 7 BA.  The preview will be posted in Skyward this weekend for those that want to look over the specific objectives that will be on that test.

Have a great weekend!

BA Grades - How they are figured

So you've checked Skyward and you see a total of 8 grades listed in skyward for the chapter 6 test.  One says "Raw Score" and other 7 have various codes and descriptors.  Attached is a file that lists the objectives and shows example problems of each.

But what does it all mean?

Let's take Jenny.  She is a student who just took the test.  Mastery Manger, the software that grades the test tells me that she got 20 out of 25 questions correct.  That gives her a raw score of 80% or a B-.  That goes into the system as her Raw Score, or the first grade.

It also tells me that she "mastered" 5 out of the 7 objectives.  So in Skyward, each of those objectives will recieve a 1 or a 2 to show if she has been tested or if she has mastered it.  So her grades on the objectives might look like this:  A E A A A A A E, 5 A's and 2 E's.

This averages out to 71 % or a C.

Because of how the grades are weighted in Skyward, the Objective Grade and the Raw Grade are averaged together equally.  Jenny's achievement on this test would be, overall, a 75% or a solid C.  Not bad but not as good as she hoped.

For the math minded:

The weights on the test are 4.45 for the Raw score (which is actually out of 22 points) and 7.14 for each specific objective (out of 2 points).

So for the raw score, 22 * 4.45 puts it at 99.88 points.
For each objective, 2 * 7.14 = 14.28 each * 7 objectives = 99.96 points.
That makes the test a total of 200 points, equally split between raw and objectives.

What if we aren't happy?

Students can retest to show mastery of those missed objectives by providing evidence of improvement (generally additional practice) and then retaking the exam.  Missed objectives can be made up this way but the raw score does not change.

Why aren't other teachers doing this?

I am personally piloting this system of reporting this year to see if this specific level of feedback is useful or meaningful to students and parents.

{Geo B} Weekly Update

We're at February finally and things are starting to shape up.  This week's highlights include:

• Quiz on Monday (2nd hr) or Tuesday (7th hr).
• BA Reviews will be passed out on Wed (both classes)
• We need to finish chapter 6 which includes talking about:
• Coordinate Geometry Proofs
• Trapezoids (and their Isoceles cousins)
• Kites (as in Let's Go Fly...)

Remember that next week Monday (2/8 for 2nd) or Tuesday (2/9 for 7th) is our BA test on Chapter 6.  If you look in skyward you 'll see that there are listed the 7 Objectives students need to master to get 100% on that test.  With them is also a collection of example problems for each objective.

Speaking of, kudos to two students who were absent last week, went to Skyward, printed the worksheets and turned them in today.  Good initiative guys!

Back in the game... finally... sorta

My humblest apologies to everyone for the late start to my blog and the school year.  I will save you all the gory details and simply state that Sunday night, at roughly 1:34 am, I was struck down with the flu.  I was well enough to return to my post Wednesday.

As such things are off to a bit of a rocky start.

E2020 -

This is my rockiest start as the class is still sorting out technical issues and accessability.  We hope to have everything sorted out by Friday this week.  Monday I will start recording grades for this group and talk to the students about reasonable pacing, expectations, homework checks and journaling.


Essentials of Geometry -

We have two fun projects coming up in addition to our core class practice.

In "Show Me the Figure" students are making a mini poster featuring the properties and picture of a given shape.  Each group has a different figure so the class will have all 4 parallelograms covered.

Then the groups change for the second project "Geometry House Rock (chapter 6)" where the students are to write lyrics set to a popular song of their choice that describe the relationship between the various quadrilaterals.   For more details on both projects check the attached PDF's in Skyward.

Also due:

Friday:  October Sky Reaction Paper.   Students were tasked to compare contrast their High School experience with that of the characters in the movie.  This is intended to be one part self reflection and one part "get to know you" activity.  I am hoping to use these reactions to help me get to know the students a little more and try to tailor what we do in class to what they percieve as their needs and plans.

Monday:  Our weekly Quiz!!!

And finally Geometery:

First I'd like to remind everyone enrolled in 7th Hour that they have made a commitment to a class that runs from 2:30 until 4:15 three days a week.  Early dismissal for practice, concerts, performances and the like ~must~ be parent intitiated through the attendance office. 

In this class we are continuing our explorations of quadrilaterals and parallelograms.  If you want to engage your student ask them brain teasers like "Are all squares rhombuses?  Are all rhombuses squares?"

We are also starting in on Coordinate Geometry which uses the distance formula, the slope formula and the midpoint formula.  We're also tying back to things like Parallel and Perpendicular from previous chapters.  It's a lot of back review that the students need to stay fresh on.

Our next Quiz will be on Monday (2/1), and the BA is scheudled for the following Monday (2/8).  In 7th Hour they will be on Tues (2/2) and Tues (2/9), respectively.

Overall I'm excited to be back and reminded again what great kids I have this year and what an honor it is to work with them.