Published Test

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Evaluations:

Opening Page

Using Evaluations as PLANNING tools

SUGGESTIONS:

Grammar Level Evaluation Strategies

Dialectic Level Evaluation Strategies

Rhetoric Level Evaluation Strategies

STOCK TOOLS FOR EVALUATION:

Portfolios

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Oral Presentations

Learning Logs

Journals

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Published Tests: preparing for them and taking them.

Games!

Preparing for Published Weekly Quizzes or Tests

What is the purpose of a published weekly quiz or test?

Grammar: through review and preparation, and then taking the test, to:

To give the student a chance to review the week's subject matter, and then to show what he's remembered.
To show you, the teacher, how much factual information he's retained.
To help him highlight, and revisit, the main points
To learn to prepare for, and take published, formal tests, successfully navigating standard types of questions: multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, etc.

Dialectic: through review and preparation, and then taking the test, to:

To give the student a chance to review the week's subject matter, and then to show what he's remembered.
To bring closure to the week.
To provide the home schooled student with a sense of accountability outside of "Mom's evaluation."
To show you, the teacher, both how much factual information and how many connective ideas he's retained.
To help him highlight, and revisit, the main points/themes of the week's study.
To learn to prepare for, and take published, formal tests, successfully navigating standard types of questions: multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, essay questions, etc.

Rhetoric: through review and preparation, and then taking the test, to:

To give the student a chance to review the week's subject matter, and then to show what he's remembered.
To bring closure to the week.
To provide the home schooled student with a sense of accountability outside of "Mom's evaluation."
To show you, the teacher, both how much factual information and how many connective ideas he's retained.
To help him highlight, and revisit, the main points/themes of the week's study.
To learn to prepare for, and take published, formal tests, successfully navigating standard types of questions: multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, timed essay questions, etc.
To afford him the opportunity to analyze and synthesize the information he's learned this week, and to solidify his own ideas as he pulls together information in taking timed essays.

Any quiz gives you, the teacher, valuable information on how the student is doing RELATIVE to a national norm. Of course, if you've not taught the student, during the week, with this test or quiz in mind, the test is worthless in this regard. You simply must teach to these tests if they are to be useful, and since many home schoolers follow individualized paths, published tests or quizzes may simply NOT be able to serve you for evaluation purposes.

What is the purpose of a pre-published Unit Test?

Grammar: the review is as important as the test! Tests should contain NO surprise material for students. During the week before you give a Unit Test, you should:

Take time to remember together key points of “grammar” –facts—that we’ve studied this year.
Summarize FOR our students (they are not old enough to summarize for themselves!) the major themes or categories of facts in the unit.
Go over, with them, their quizzes and help them remember what they learned and where they were weak on factual information in past weeks.
Teach them to take this kind of test.

Dialectic: the review is as important as the test! Tests should contain NO surprise material for students. During the week before you give a Unit Test, you should:

Take time to remember (both with them, orally, and through review of previous quizzes or reading notes) key points of “grammar” –facts—that we’ve studied this year.
Help students summarize (in their case, connect the dots once again) what they’ve learned in the unit AS A WHOLE.
The test preparations should bring closure and a sense of accomplishment to the unit's end.
Teach them to prepare for, and take, this kind of test.
Evaluate whether they need remedial work in studying for this kind of test next time.

Rhetoric: the review is as important as the test! Tests should contain NO surprise material for students. During the week before you give a Unit Test, you should:

Direct your student to take time to remember key points of “grammar” –key facts—that he's studied this year. Teach, if you've not done so before, effective methods for reviewing key factual information from reading/discussion notes, creating new charts or mind maps, or oral quizzing among siblings or with you.
Give students a chance to summarize for themselves what they’ve learned in the unit AS A WHOLE. Students should generate charts, or mind maps, or outlines that go back through the Unit and look at it from a “bird’s eye view,” picking out for themselves the dominant themes of the unit and relating them to one another. If they’re new to this kind of study, of course you’ll have to help them.
Structure your review to bring closure and a sense of accomplishment to the student's studies.
Teach them to take this kind of test.
Evaluate whether they need remedial work in studying for this kind of test next time.

What are NOT purposes of pre-published Unit Tests?

To cause Mom to feel like a failure, and run screaming from the house, never to return.
To test (especially Grammar level) students on material they’ve never seen, or only lightly treated weeks ago.
To be the only kind of evaluation you use: please see other sub pages on this subject of evaluation.

For each Unit Test: you will want to review the entire year to date—briefly at the Grammar levels, and more extensively at the Dialectic and Rhetoric levels. For the Lower Grammar level, I suggest you use one of the following methods:

Look through the portfolio you created with your child, slowly. Review maps, activities, and pictures if you have them.
Review the pictures only (no text) in your spine book. On each page, ask the child if he remembers what the pictures and maps are about.
Ask your child to tell you his favorite memories from each lesson you’ve covered so far (reminding him of the subject of the week first).
Go through themes i with him, and quiz him orally to see what he remembers. Tie threads from earlier units into the lessons of this past unit.
You might want to go over any previous quizzes. Maybe he can quiz YOU and see what YOU remembered from your lessons together? (Don't worry: it'll really teach HIM what HE remembers!)

Be sure to structure your review USING THE UNIT TESTS so students will be prepared to do well. These are not meant to trick the student. They are meant to give him an opportunity to show what he’s retained. Remind him and yourself that a Unit Test is a good chance to see how much he's learned, and where he still needs to grow!