First Class Examination
I was glad to see this suggested, as I had considered doing this for the next semester. I did not teach the first half of the course for some of the students I will have, so I do not know what they know coming in. It will not be graded, and it will give me an idea of not only where those students are, but what the students I did have previously remember.
That is a wonderful idea! I always wondered how I would assess students' competancies on the first day of class. This is a good way to assess their perception, grammer, and sentence structure so I can customize their assignments based on their competancy level and challenge them to the next level in their curriculum.
I agree it is the best way to do this. grades should reflect the students ability.
Hi Jared,
Good examples of how to get the students started quickly. Good questions as well. This way they can start the writing process while you get an understanding of where they are at with their abilities.
Gary
I already use something like this for my composition classes. Here are some of the questions I use:
"Describe what you see as you look towards the nearest window." Easy, but a good test of sentence structure and use of descriptive language skills.
"Provide an example of a strong thesis statement." I also list some sample topics here in case the pre-test makes the student too nervous to be properly creative.
"Provide an APA-style reference for your textbook." Of course, pretty much everyone fails this on the first day of a freshman comp class. I make the rest of the test easy enough that they don't get discouraged by one failure, but this reinforces for the students who were good at high school English that they still have more to learn and they need to pay attention.
Hi Rick,
I am sure you are going to like the results you get from using this approach. The information gleaned will give you an idea of where to start with your current group of students.
Gary
