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Final Exam – Level 1
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9 thoughts on “Final Exam – Level 1”
Thank you for sharing this Robert. Very helpful!
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What an idea.
Gets them reading again. And it tests exactly what you want it to–comprehension.
What a great idea!!! I have a few question about it, though: Are they doing this in class or is it a take-home exam? How much time do they have for this? They are (re)reading the two chapters you have already read/discussed in class, right?
It’s an in-class final. They have about 1 hour 20 minutes. If I gave this as a take-h0me exam, many of them would use Google Translator, which pretty much defeats the whole purpose of showing what the students understand. They are re-reading chapters we have already read and discussed in class.
Robert, thanks for the info. I hear you about the online translators – no matter how many times we do the exercise where you send a paragraph through the translator a couple of times and then back into English, they still think I won’t notice if they use them. Our periods are only 40 minutes long, so I wouldn’t be able to do this as an exam and our final is pretty much pre-determined (much like the old NYS Proficiency exam). I like the idea very much, though, and will find a way to incorporate it somehow somewhere. DANKE!!!
Brigitte, one idea that comes to mind would be to have them copy the sentences in class, collect the papers and grade their comprehension of the story as a whole. Then they could illustrate the sentences at home – and if they use a translator, who cares? You would be judging them on how well the drawing illustrates the sentence. For example in Arme Anna/Probre Ana/Pauvre Anne, a student might choose “Anna has problems with her parents and her friends.” (Not sure if that’s an exact quote.) If there is a general illustration of problems, that’s a 3. If there is a drawing that shows what each problem is, that’s at least a 4. If there is an indication as well that the problem lies with Anna and not the other people, that is definitely a 5. (Standards-based Grading: 5 = Advanced; 4 = Proficient; 3 = Basic) If they don’t even illustrate the sentence at a basic level, it is below basic (2) or far below basic (1). If a student has to use a translator for that sentence, he or she isn’t going to be showing you anything above a basic understanding, and possibly not even that.
Or, you could do the two different parts on two different days.
BINGO! Don’t know why I can’t see the forest for the trees sometimes.
I love doing this! I have not used it as a final exam, but have done something very similar in the past. I love this as a final, though. Thank you Robert!
A couple of variations on the theme: I’ve had kids do a “5 sentence summary” of a chapter in a novel as we read. Not every single chapter. I ususally choose the longer or more difficult chapters. Not all of them. Sometimes in groups (yeah I know blech…”groupwork” but it’s good for variety every once in a while). One year as a “wrap-up / creative writing” project, I had them do an “x-sentence” essential core condensation of the entire novel. I don’t remember how many sentences: maybe 12-15? They shared these by reading them aloud. Each one showed a unique perspective. It was neat to listen to a bunch of them in a row. After that I had them go back into their piece and craft it into a song, poem, spoken word, etc. I wish I had saved some of them. They were really cool, and it was interesting to see not only which sentences the kids chose, but then how they crafted them into a poem/song. The only rule about that was they could eliminate but not add, and they could repeat words or word chunks, for emphasis or rhythm or maybe for a refrain. Again, amazing variety from the “same material!” This was in my pre-CI days. I thought it was a good way to make them reread, and also it was a good writing activity because the focus could really be on the creativity rather than all the nuts and bolts.