Dec 01 2009
Replacing “pencil and paper” semester exams in Grade 6
ASFM has decided to pilot a new exam structure for Grade 6 students. Traditional “pencil and paper” final exams are being replaced by cross-curricular activities and a final product for the five core subjects (Spanish, English, Socials, Science, Math). While elements of short answer and multiple choice questions will be a part of the new exam structure, the new structure will attempt to reflect real-world application of what Grade 6 students have learned over the course of the first semester.
We began by asking ourselves if traditional paper and pencil exams were the best way for Grade 6 students to demonstrate their understanding. A Middle School Exam Task Force was assembled to consider the issue. What resulted from the Task Force (including gathering information from educators in US and International schools around the world) was a reccomendation to the Campus La Huasteca administration that for Grade 6 students, paper and pencil exams were not the best method of assessment. A more authentic method for students to demonstrate what they have learned over the semester was recommended. As a result, a “final project” exam, which requires students to demonstrate their understanding through answering the big questions for the semester (assimilating and sifting through all that we have studied and formulating it into a response) provides a more valid assessment of their learning.
What does this mean for students? Grade 6 students will come to school during exam week on the same schedule as Grade 7 and Grade 8 students (Mon. – Fri., Dec. 14-18, 8:15-10:45). Students will continue working on content that aligns to material covered during the new exam format. Students will need to study at home, as normal, following teacher direction and guidance for preparing to present their understanding of the material covered over the first sememster.
For your information, here is a brief overview of what will be covered in each subject area. Again, the format will be in an interdisciplanary, but some information will be asssessed in a “stand alone” format. For exmaple, the written portion of the math exam.
English
The English section of the final exam will have three parts. Reading comprehension, narrative writing and expository writing.
Reading: Students will be reading and analyzing a nonfiction piece of writing, answering comprehensions questions and writing in response to the reading.
Narrative Writing: The students will be creating a narrative of the life and times of a person who lived among the time of the fossils found from their social studies dig activity. The students will be demonstrating the understanding of how skilled they are in the writing process, and how strong they are in the 6+1 traits of writing and how well they can analyze another’s perspective.
Expository Writing: This section of the writing assessment will coincide with the social studies exam. The students will be writing detailed explanations and theories about their work done with the social studies dig, emphasizing the use of evidence as supporting details.
Español
Fundamentación – Como parte del curso de Español 6, se busca resaltar la importancia de los textos narrativos, en este caso de las leyendas como marco atractivo, de fantasía para explicar la realidad. Con esto se pretende que el alumno pueda contextualizar este tipo de relatos en una época y lugar determinado, como medio para fomentar la integración de los conocimientos y costumbres originarios de una cultura.
Este proyecto, como método alternativo de evaluación, fomenta la capacidad creadora del alumno, despierta su imaginación y su búsqueda de respuestas nuevas.
Objetivos – Que el alumno logre:
1. Comprender la estructura del género literario leyenda.
2. Relacionar la leyenda con las características de una cultura.
3. Elaborar creativamente producciones de leyenda.
4. Respetar sus producciones y las de sus compañeros.
Math
The science problem students choose to investigate must be one that involves quantitative data. Their teacher will help guide them to a question that will be appropriate for their project. This use of math in their science lab will be known as the “application portion” of the exam and will count as 30% of their final exam grade, the other 70% being their grade on the “written portion” of the math exam, given the first Monday of review week.
Mathematicians and scientists alike are responsible for organizing their work in a way that others can follow what they have done and build upon their work. Thus this portion of the assessment not only focuses on the student’s ability to make correct arithmetic calculations, but also to organize their data and calculations, and to create a graph(s) that accurately display their results.
Science
The students will be demonstrating the skills learned over the past semester to design and carry out a scientific experiment. The experiment will be a further investigation of one of the topics studied in class; the students will be working on it individually. The students will chose the topic, create the procedure, bring in the materials and carry out the experiment in class. The experiment will take us through the entire scientific method and will test a specific variable. Some work will be expected to be done at home, especially if it can’t be done in the classroom.
Socials:
The students will be participating in an archaeological dig simulation. From this experience, students will infer what it would be like to be an archaeologist. Students will use their findings to hypothesize about the civilization they have “discovered.” Students will write field notes interpreting their findings. They will use their background knowledge from the semester to support their hypothesis. Students will present this information in a medium of choice which may include dramatic arts, fine arts, music, writing, or multi-media.
