Revision, that is. My MIL sent me some tests from some high school student she knows, and this girl had failed her chemistry tests the first time around. She went back, fixed all the problems, and wrote one to two paragraphs explaining her mistake and the correct answer. If they were good enough, she got half the credit she would have received if she had done it perfectly on the test.
I like this because the burden of work is on the students, it gives students who had a bad day, week, unit, whatever, a chance to re-try the material and improve their grade, and it seems like they would have to address their misconceptions and re-build their knowledge, at least a little bit.
I don’t like re-takes, and this is not a re-take. Much easier to grade, and I wouldn’t need to make up a new test.
I am still wary, though, about it. In general, it is often the students who don’t really need to do this who will, because they want the last few points. The students who really don’t care don’t do it, because they really don’t care. I wonder what would happen. I could “require” it of some students. I say “require” because all I can do is give them a bad grade, and they already have that, but for some reason being told that it is “required” sometimes works.
In general, I am a fan of revision. I would never have learned to write if I hadn’t spent all my time editing. I like that it puts the emphasis on mastering the material, instead of performing on the test.
Crazy Chem Master…
Good post. My colleague and I do allow retakes, but only after students thoroughly go back and regrade their own tests. They must find the correct answer for each incorrect answer and write an explanation of why they got it wrong. They must present me with those corrections before they get a chance at a retest. Then they only get to retest on the specific topic of the problems they corrected. Overall, I think it improves achievement. But the down side is some students don’t give their full effort on the first test, knowing they can just do test corrections later. I find this annoying. But our school district is big on using tests as formative assessments to improve learning, rather than using tests as just summative assessments.
It’s also more work for me, having to grade more tests for the same unit. But if it increases learning and proficiency, I suppose it’s worthwhile.
Regards,
Todd (from the Beaverton School District)