Last week I caught two students attempting to cheat on a vocabulary test. On Mondays, I will usually distribute a half or a third sheet of paper with all of the definitions and parts of speech for the vocabulary words to the class. Last semester, when my master teacher went over vocabulary words, she would write down the definitions on the board, and students would spend time copying the definitions down. I originally thought typing the list of vocabulary words out for the students to keep would be a good idea. The one thing it did do was free up more class time to focus on the studying texts and also time to actually do activities based on vocabulary words.
I suspected typing out the definitions for students on a smaller sheet of paper could possibly tempt students to cheat. The first month of my teaching, though, I did not catch any students using their list of definitions to help them during their test. During tests, I typically circulate around the classroom to monitor students' progress on the test and also lean against my desk/table in the front of my room. On this particular day, while standing in the front of the class, I caught two students using the list of definitions. The first student, a special ed student, tried to keep his list directly under his test sheet. I caught him lifting up the test and peaking at the definitions underneath it. From the front of the class, it was easy to see that there was another sheet of paper under his test. I walked towards him and tried to lift his test up. He actually tried to hold the test down to keep my from finding the sheet. Luckily, I caught him trying to cheat fairly early into the test. He had only attempted to answer two questions. I simply took his cheat sheet away and crossed out the two questions he'd answered.
It seemed out of character for this student to cheat. He was visibly shaken up by it all. For about the next ten minutes he simply looked at his test without writing anything down. I had to tell him to at least guess on the other questions.
Another student actually tried to keep his list on his lap during the test. As I approached him, he tucked it under his oversized hooded sweatshirt. He tried to deny cheating at first but eventually caved in when I told him that I saw the sheet. This was also very early into the test, so I also crossed out the questions he had attempted. After class I ended up asking these students if they would prefer me to inform their parents of what happened, or if they would write me an apology letter. Both students chose to write the apology letter. For the second student, it happened to be his best writing of the semester. In his letter he apologized and also thanked me for giving him a second chance.
After the test that day, though, I had a little talk with the class as a whole about their behavior during tests. I told them we would "practice" taking tests "the right way" and made my behavioral expectations and the consequences extremely clear. During the next test just this week, the class was dead silent. Students' eyes did not even wander, and students who finished early sat quietly, rather than cracking jokes the way some have done throughout my student teaching and last semester. I always felt I was explicit about my expectations and consequences from the beginning of my teaching, but I suppose I should repeat these strict and explicit expectations before I give any other test. Looking back, it seems that doing this will actually make my job of dealing with cheating easier. Instead of debating over how to handle future cheating, I won't be as reluctant to simply take a student's test away and give him or her a zero. So I'm disappointed with some of my students' behavior, but hopefully this instance will improve future behavior on tests.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
AHH! It's been a while!
So for the past few weeks in my junior American Literature class I've been struggling with participation in general. Lately, I have to say that I've been having some successful days at raising the energy level of the class and it seems to be paying off in terms of their academic performance. Earlier in the week, to prepare for a vocabulary test, I used Joal's idea of using drama to demonstrate your understanding of a vocabulary word. I broke my class up into groups or two or three and assigned them a different word each. Each group was responsible for coming up with a brief skit that demonstrated the definition of a word without saying the word itself or any words from its definition. A few groups seemed to struggle with certain words that would have required them to be a little more creative, but the groups seemed to nail their skits.
The best part of this activity was that I moved to the back of the classroom to watch their skits. I simply asked who wanted to go first and the first brave group volunteered. I was energized by their eagerness to participate and perform their skit. After a brief round of applause, they performed their skits. (I had actually asked the audience members to let the groups finish the skit before shouting out the answers to the words.) I was pleased to see that students that are sometimes disengaged in other actitivities were now raising their hands to make their guesses. The SECOND MOST BEAUTIFUL THING about this day was seeing the students who performed calling on the students with their hands raised. It reminded me a lot of the way our discussion works in C&I.
The MOST BEAUTIFUL THING about this day was that after the first group went, I did not have to call on any other groups to go. The next willing group simply stepped to the front of the class each and every time. I was so excited from this that I repeatedly thanked them for their courage and told them how impressed I was with their outgoingness.
And when the vocabulary test came . . .
Twenty-one students aced the test! I was kind of scared by this number at first because it made me feel like I gave an easy test (Fill in the blank with a vocabulary word from the list above). But when it came down to it, the students were able to perform extremely well. I'm excited that with the next set of vocabulary words, students will have this confidence of doing well on the last test. I'm excited to give them an even more challenging list of vocabulary words and seeing if they can surpass my expectations once again.
The best part of this activity was that I moved to the back of the classroom to watch their skits. I simply asked who wanted to go first and the first brave group volunteered. I was energized by their eagerness to participate and perform their skit. After a brief round of applause, they performed their skits. (I had actually asked the audience members to let the groups finish the skit before shouting out the answers to the words.) I was pleased to see that students that are sometimes disengaged in other actitivities were now raising their hands to make their guesses. The SECOND MOST BEAUTIFUL THING about this day was seeing the students who performed calling on the students with their hands raised. It reminded me a lot of the way our discussion works in C&I.
The MOST BEAUTIFUL THING about this day was that after the first group went, I did not have to call on any other groups to go. The next willing group simply stepped to the front of the class each and every time. I was so excited from this that I repeatedly thanked them for their courage and told them how impressed I was with their outgoingness.
And when the vocabulary test came . . .
Twenty-one students aced the test! I was kind of scared by this number at first because it made me feel like I gave an easy test (Fill in the blank with a vocabulary word from the list above). But when it came down to it, the students were able to perform extremely well. I'm excited that with the next set of vocabulary words, students will have this confidence of doing well on the last test. I'm excited to give them an even more challenging list of vocabulary words and seeing if they can surpass my expectations once again.
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