In Class Versus Take Home Tests.

  Out where I teach, we seem to loose time every month for various things from a death in the village which requires 3 days of mourning then the funeral, to flooding in the school, to visitors who need to meet with the students. 

I feel like I spend all my class time working on trying to cover the material and my tests and quizzes fall to the wayside and I end up with one major final at the end of the semester.  I want to do more assessments and have a way to do the quizzes but I'm wondering if a take home test can be as good as an in class one.

There are advantages to take home tests such as:
1.  The time restraint is lifted especially for students who do not do well under pressure.

2.  Students have time to think through questions and let their minds process material before starting to answer the question.

3.  Questions can be tougher than those given in an in class exam because of the extra time available.

4. It can give them a chance to learn the material.

Unfortunately, there are several huge disadvantages.
1.  The internet where student can look up problems or pay someone to do the work.

2.  The student does not develop additional understanding when they just copy.

A way to check to see if the student did it, is simply explain their work to you.  That gives a chance for them to prove it is their work. 

I stumbled across someone who stated they graded the take home questions are geared more for rigor and completeness of answers along with the quality of their writing.  The author does use an honor code but he does look at the writing.  To me this suggests that part of the process of the take home exam requires students to do more than just work out the problem.  I like that, especially if the material is discussed in class.  He also allows students to resubmit the work if it is wrong.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find much material on this topic for high school.  It was pretty much all for college.  So my thinking on this boils down to I plan to give the practice test as a take home but give the actual test in class.  Since there are two study hall nights a week, students can come in either as a group or as individuals.  I can also set up a site for them to type in their answers and they can get feedback on which are right or wrong so they know where they stand but I will not discuss this in class.

If they are willing to expand the energy to make sure their practice test is correct, they should do well on the final.  If not, they won't.  I plan to give them the practice one week before the scheduled test so they have time to work on it.  During this time period, they will not get any homework. 

The online site will give me instantaneous results so I know who is doing the work and how prepared they are.  Honestly, I need the day or two saved to teach material in my classroom.  Its a never ending challenge.

Started, looking at other testing possibilities.

I had the students choose one word problem and start their comic strip.  Most students finished one frame but this is a new program so some people spent much of the class exploring the program.  Some of my more artistic students really had a great time with it.  I'll report back in about a month to let you know how it goes.
I was hoping to give students a practice test tomorrow where they would take a practice test online but I ran out of time this week so I think I am going to plan ahead to do it next time.  There is a push to have my students become comfortable with online testing due to the state tests going online beginning next year.  The problem I have doing this is simply I do not have a way of always looking at their work unless I have them show work on scratch paper and turn that in.  Otherwise I have to choose to accept the answers as right or wrong with no inbetween. This actually brings back a discussion in my college methods class on full vs partial credit.  I usually prefer partial credit but will the state tests end up with the full credit or none.  This is something I have to continue struggling with.

MIT Blossoms

I was doing a search looking for MIT App Inverntor and discovered they also produce the MIT Blossoms website filled with videos for math, various sciences and engineering.  They cover a variety of topics including using geometry to build simple machines.  That looks like a cool one to use as an introduction to Geometry and its real world uses for my class.  In addition, they have a huge list of online resources for math, the various sciences and engineering.  I think that is sooo cool
On the other hand, they have my classroom set of iPads ready and I will get them during my prep period.  So this weekend I am going to set up my lesson plans to incorporate them.  I already have one plan for the students who have to retake the state graduation test.  I am going to put the practice tests on-line so they can do them and the program will produce data to help me figure out what my students need help with.  It will also help them prepare for when they must take tests on computers.  It will take a lot more work but I think it will be good for them in the long run.

Bandwidth and videos

Due to the cost of internet in some places and the shrinking educational budgets, some school districts are electing to go with minimal bandwidth.  This means that the distance classes using face to face technology may get priority and the rest of the school has to be careful of how much is used.  For myself, I tend to make the video a part of my lesson and show it over my smartboard.  This eliminates the need for earphone for each student, requires less bandwidth and I can stop the video to ask questions on the topic.
I realize there is a move to flip the classroom and have students watch a video, podcast, do an interactive activity or such as homework so they are better prepared for the next day's lesson.  This works well if you are in an area where your students have good internet access.  Not all my students have internet access.  So I've been contemplating having things ready to go in my classroom, after school, so students can come in and do the work.  This way the demand on bandwidth is less, the students get the opportunity to do the preview and if needed I can have a cart of computers in my classroom.  Otherwise, if the assignment is one I can use on iPads, I just have them do it on iPads.
With the high stakes testing, teachers have to do a bit more than they used to.  I have to take into consideration, those students who do not have access to reliable internet at home.  This is one way we might be able to improve student performance.