Something beautiful happened in the last test of the semester. Less kids failed. I mean a lot less. And it wasn’t an easy test. In fact, it was one of the harder tests of the first semester. It was beautiful because it shows that I am getting buy-in. It shows that they are growing their skills at a higher rate. The students aren’t surprised by challenging questions any more. Here are some ways to help your students perform better on their tests.
Post standards
I almost shuddered when I wrote that headline. I am not the standard “post the standards” teacher. I walk into some rooms and it is so obvious that I am outclassed in this area. But the kids do need to know what they are chasing. Make the standards easy to read. Make them easy to understand. Make them available. Knowing what to shoot for helps the kids build confidence in their preparation.
Repeat skills, Add skills
As you progress through the unit, use the lines of questions in your class to repeat skills that are needed. I just finished the Mole unit. I can’t count how many times I pointed to the Mole Kingdom poster and told them to develop a strategy before starting work. (A large format poster is available for download here.) Over and over and over. I repeated the skill of developing a strategy. But don’t be satisfied sitting on the same skill for day after day. It’s boring. They lose the vision. Instead, drip in to the new ideas and let them feel the progress. I do a bellringer most days. It consists of a past, present, and future question. They are required to do all three. That means every day, they are thinking about what might be coming next. They use the skills they currently have to guess at how they could use that in the future. (Here is a blog about using bellringers). If you have prepped the kids to add skills over the course of the class, it becomes easy once you get there.
Show them the test
OK, that headline is a little bit click-baity. I don’t show them the test. But they better not be surprised when they see the test. You should be modeling the expected skills throughout the unit. This is my first year without a textbook or official curriculum. I get the honor of writing all my own stuff. The homework… feels like the test. The quizzes… feel like the test. The practice test… feels like the test. The labs… feel like the test. The practice test… feels like the test. So when they get to it, the test… feels like it should.
Challenge them on the test
I love showing the students how far they have come on application questions on the test. They get to use their accumulated skills to answer a scenario that they have never seen. It makes them feel like they can do real chemistry. This unit was on shooting balloons with a flaming arrow to find the flammable balloon based on density. It has been on designing a new lab. It has been on building an acid-proof dome for colonizing Venus. It has been how the photoelectric effect works. Kids like hearing that they were able to understand a question about the topic that Einstein won the Nobel Prize on.
Celebrate success from buy-in
I had a fun win yesterday. Actually, it wasn’t me, it was a win for my student. But she felt like I was celebrating just as much as she was. She had gotten C’s and D’s on tests thus far. Chemistry has been a big challenge. But she came in day after day for extra help. Before school, after school, at lunch there she was. And shockingly, it paid off. She got a 90% on one of the hardest tests of the year! She was so excited. I was so excited. She asked if she could break school rules to take out her phone and send a picture to her mom. Of course, I let her. She knows I care about her success. She knows what work it takes. She knows that we can celebrate again in the future.
Isn’t that the goal? Celebrating with your students? Push them hard. Don’t make it so easy they can’t celebrate. It’s hard to celebrate when you beat your three-year-old in Candyland. It’s too easy. But think back to that time when you overcame the long odds. Don’t you want to have that feeling again? Make your chemistry classroom that place for your students. It’s long odds. It’s a long trip. But they did it!
Challenge your students in new ways using engaging chemistry games! Check out our award-winning line-up of chemistry curriculum games. Trendy was the recent winner of the "Imagination Gaming Seal of Approval". Find out how games can change the engagement in your room.
Commentaires