Over exam period, I tried out my Socials 9 midterm with the internet research component and I think that it went very well. Overall, I think that I would only need to make small changes for next time.
1. One change I would make is that I would like to go over an example with them before the test of how to analyze a youtube clip and a painting or cartoon. Most kids did do well on this section, but I think they would have done even better if they could have seen an example before the test. I don't think I would change any of the questions or the wording because no one seemed to be confused about what the questions were asking.
2. I would go through both a weak and strong example to help them understand both what to do and what to avoid.
3. I would move my lesson on analyzing art and cartoons to earlier in the course so that they had more prior experience with this important historical skill.
4. Finally, I would leave a space on the youtube question for them to write the title of their youtube clip to make it easier for me to find.
About half the class was finished the exam after an hour and a half and the last student left at 2.5 hours. There was very little time wasted on the internet, which suggest that most students did surf the internet prior to the midterm. They were definitely already aware of what they wanted to use when they arrived at the midterm. The marks were consistent or slightly higher than what they have been achieving in class and on their unit tests. The class average was 77% and no one failed the test. Class averages on other test have been as follows:
Geography: 76% with four failing marks
English Civil War: 82% with no failing marks
French Revolution: 82% with two failing marks
Yesterday, I asked my students to fill out a survey about how they felt about this type of midterm. I asked them the following questions:
1. Did you like knowing the questions ahead of time? Why/why not?
2. Since you knew the questions ahead of time, did you get prepared for the midterm ahead of time? How much time did you spend preparing for the midterm? Was it more or less than you would on a regular midterm or traditional test?
3. What part of the test did you struggle with? Why?
4. If you could redo the test, would you take anything off? Why? What would you replace it with?
5. What part of the test did you find most interesting and relevant? Why?
6. Did you enjoy the internet research component? Why/why not?
7. Would you prefer to write this type of midterm, or a more traditional one with multiple choice etc. Why?
General consensus on the questions:
1 and 2. The overall consensus was that they enjoyed knowing the questions ahead of time because they knew exactly what to prepare for and this took away the anxiety they had surrounding midterms. Since they are in gr. 9 this is their first experience with midterms and the anxiety level was high. Most indicated that they spent the same time or more preparing for this test than they would preparing for a traditional test. Only 3 students of 25 said that they spent less time.
3. The majority of students also didn't seem to really struggle with any part of the test. Most said because we went over the questions in class before hand, they felt they knew exactly what was expected of them. Some said it was a bit hard to find a good youtube clip, but they also knew they could change their research topic if they wanted to so that wasn't a major struggle.
4. Most did not want to remove any part of the test. Comments they made included: "it was a good exam", "there wasn't anything I didn't like", "We learned stuff while doing a test",” “I liked getting a chance to learn more about what I liked".
5 and 6. The overwhelming majority found the internet research the most interesting and relevant part of the test. They said they loved going deeper into a subject that interested them. I heard from many parents after the test that they had conversations with their child about what they learned because the student was so interested in it they brought it up at the dinner table. One student's mother was so intrigued about what her child learned about the guillotine that she ended up writing an editorial on it in the paper "The Bargain Hunter" (she sent me a copy). The students were surprised that they got to learn something new on a midterm when usually they just regurgitate what I taught them. Most didn't even seem notice that it was actually harder to analyze new material than simply re-write what they already knew. It was neat to see that the hard work did not seem to intimidate them because they were so interested in what they were learning.
7. Most preferred this type of test. Out of 25 students, 21 preferred this test, 3 said that they prefer traditional tests and 1 said they like both. Generally the comments indicated that this was a much less stressful test because they knew exactly what was expected of them, so they felt they could easily demonstrate what they knew or learned about their topic. Also, they seem intrigued by the concept of learning new information while writing a test. The ones who said they preferred a traditional test felt it was because that format is familiar to them and they had experience preparing for that type of test; whereas this test was new to them and made them a bit uncomfortable.
Overall Comments:
I am glad that I tried this test. I found it way more interesting and worth my (and my student's) time than a traditional midterm. I think that it was much more indicative of their knowledge and analytical abilities and it showed me that they could apply their knowledge rather than just memorize it. I hope to share my experience with my Social Studies department so that maybe a few other teachers can try it out and then I will have others to collaborate with. Hopefully I get linear Social Studies 9 again so that I have another opportunity to try this type of midterm.
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