I returned to my classroom today after my highly needed 2-days off. I was frustrated because I came in knowing that I had to rearrange my entire curriculum for the week because the 7th graders were taking their written component of the CST during the morning classes today. Why this couldn't happen last week? I don't know. So I had originally planned to have them test on Japan today since I didn't want them testing with a sub (yesterday, tomorrow, and friday). But no, the CST takes precedence.
Came back to a serendipitous stroke of luck. This year's writing prompt was about Japan . . . we just finished covering Japan last week. Yeah, it didn't really have anything to do with what I covered in my class. It just helps that they got their previous exposure to the curriculum bfore the test.
Today starts "Boot Camp" for the 8th graders. You see, in CA we don't test 6th or 7th grade students on the History curriculum. Nope. We save it for a grueling 75 question multiple choice test during their 8th grade state test. So my students will not be demonstrating any of their knowledge of MEdieval History until next year. But this year, our new principal is very concerned that our 8th graders do well so he's having us offer a sort of boot camp of review for the test. Once a week (on Tuesdays) my former students will split an afternoon with me and their 8th grade US History teacher reviewing for at least the 7th & 8th grade portions of the test.
So I'm starting off today by giving them the 100 Facts Quiz (a weekly exercise I developed last year to prepare them for the CST by covering hte basics of the standards for 7th grade History). Let's see how much they remember. . .
No comments:
Post a Comment