OT: Kids test answers

Simon Isaacs · 2007-11-13T20:21:39+00:00

In line with the current theme running through about eeducation, Ihave been marking some of my year 9 tests. We are a secondary modern,with the best kids filtered out to the selective grammar school in thesame town, so many of the kids have poor literacy and numeracy skills.Answers are exactly as written........(first 2 are lifted stright from a GCSE paper)Year 9Q. Name 2 types of milk found in chilled area of the supermarketA. Red, Green, BlueYear 9Q.Name 2 types of milk found in the non-chilled area of a supermarketA. SourA Gone offYear 8Q.State four hygiene rules that must be followed when working withfood.A. If you cut yourself make sure you cover your womb with a blueplaster.Year 7Q. Describe the process for lighting a gas ovenA. Get the teacher to do it for youYear 7 (very poor literacy group, 1 girl cannot even write hername....)Give 3 rules for using weighing scalesA. 1 Mearce it creckle 2 Flour bowl creckle 3 tecker creckle you rognI think she meant1 Measure correctly2 Put the flour into the bowl correctly3 The teacher will correct it if you are wrongMany of our current year 7 are unable to divide and multiply by 2 or10, which is extremely concerning.the reason - too many initiatives from the government for literacy andnumeracy ( almost one a day last year accoding to the NUT!),and theinsistance that we test our kids at age 7, 11, 14, 16 and 18 againstnational standards. Too much emphasis is being put on meeting thebenchmarks in the league tables that basic skills are being forgottenas they are coached to pass specific tests!--"For those who are missing Blair - aim morecarefully."To reply direct rot13 mebURRt the 101 Camper 200TDi Disco with no floor - its being fixed at last!200 TDi Disco, "the offroader"1976 S3 Lightweight

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Stuart Gray 18 years ago

That's true, but there will always be people who "don't make the grade"

- it's a statistical bell-curve thing. However, when comparing schools, and the attitude of teachers, it is better to look at the "value-added" rather than the raw score. What is wrong is the insistence that no-one with less than a C grade is a worthwhile person.

As for the point about whether a grade should reflect the actual score on a written paper. Yes, gaining the top marks on a CSE gained you a grade 1, but everyone accepted that this was equivalent to a C grade at O-level, so what is the practical difference? Then there were two separate syllabi, each with their own level of exams, and a top grade in one was equivalent to C in the other. Now there are two levels of exams (in many cases, two separate syllabi), but only one set of grades, and it all has the same name. Spin and re-branding, but this time from a Tory government.

Stuart

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Steve Taylor 18 years ago

I don't think anyone is saying whether someone is worthwhile as a function of exam grade.

Did everyone really ? CSEs were marked by the teachers, with some external moderation. GCEs were marked fully independently. Given the scandals of teachers modifying coursework at GCSE.

One of the ways GCSE was sold was that the system was going to provide graduated questions AFAIR, so that a minimal answer was worth an F say, and a detailed answer finishing the whole question might be worth an 'A' -its another form of education apartheid to PREjudge the grade someone can achieve and make them do the lower graded paper.

Steve

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Steve Taylor 18 years ago

(School governor,science link governor, oh and son-in-law of two teachers, occasional private tutor to some of those branded as no-hopers and dad)

Steve

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Steve Taylor 18 years ago

No, it gives you an absolute reference. Can he read or not ? Can she add up, or not - it doesn't matter how hard you try in the real world what counts is the result. Thats not a high standard, its a minimum standard to function fully as a member of society.

That taking a child

If the final result is someone who can't read or add up what kind of standard is it ?

Steve

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Austin Shackles 18 years ago

On or around Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:45:18 +0000, Steve Taylor enlightened us thusly:

not a dad, not a governor, not a teacher (and I thank whoever guides my destiny that I didn't pursue that career option, now). I do impart pearls of wisdom to the ones I drive to school. I also teach them (on a private road, not on the school journey) to drive. That started 'cos the subject of driving came up and one or another of them said something like "No way would you let me drive this bus", and I said "you've never asked". So she did and I said "OK". I've never before or since seen her speechless.

I started (on our then-house's private half-mile track) driving when I was about 11, and it stood me in good stead when it came to learning to drive "properly" on the road.

The one who was then 11 is now 13 and getting quite competent, and her younger sister has just been allowed to drive as well. Although it sounds odd, in fact, the minibus is a pretty good thing to learn on - low geared in

1st, it doesn't take off scarily fast, it's got excellent visibility, and being diesel is harder to stall.

They only get to do it every now and then when I can be bothered, mind. When I were a lad I'd be driving up or down the lane at every opportunity.

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Austin Shackles 18 years ago

On or around Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:14:16 -0000, "Nigel Hewitt" enlightened us thusly:

and do they keep their old dad in land rovers? I bet they don't, ungrateful tykes :-)

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hyweldavies 18 years ago

Quite good point the last one. I've seen a computer related question, I think it was some neighbour's kid's homework which was along the lines of "list the three types of computer network". Now I work in a telecomms company designing computer systems, and I'd be hard pushed to give a sensible answer without having seen the lesson. How about "ring, bus, star", or "strowger, reed, digital", "packet, circuit, broadcast", or "TCP, X25, SS7" or even "LAN, MAN, WAN" which is just a poncy way of saying "small, medium, large" Basically it's like asking kids to name an animal then when they say "Zebra" - "wrong! the answer is Giraffe" A lot of teaching seems to fall into this trap.

Hywel

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OT: Kids test answers

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