And the results are in....

My students had their first unit test. Did the perfect lessons achieve a perfect passage rate? Ummm.... NO. Not even close. Student scores varied, but then the students themselves are extremely varied in my classes. Is this an excuse for failure? Not really. The students are different and the fact that they did not succeed is an opportunity to explore my lessons on a deeper level to see what can be tweaked to help my students achieve better results.

What worked? Overwhelmingly, the students were able to match the colonies to the colonial region in which they belonged, with the exception of Maryland. What does this tell me? The body map works! It also tells me that I need a different take on Maryland being founded by the Catholics because the students are linking making the sign of the cross on their torso to a Middle colony rather than linking prayer on their knees to a Southern colony. The students were also able to answer a majority of the multiple choice questions about the colonial regions that were written at higher levels of thinking. Again, this means that the map worked.

School House Rocks also worked. I showed two of the 70's based educational videos - No More Kings and Shot Heard Round the World. These 3 minute shorts are packed with information and the songs become embedded in your head. I allowed the students to watch each video once straight through and then, re-ran each stopping several times to chck student understanding of what the video is depicting. The students seem to understand; however, they missed multiple choice questions frequently on this material which indicates they did not grasp the material on the level I had hoped. What would help this? I need to add written material or have the students take notes on the material. Since the videos are cartoons with songs attached, I believe the students may have not attached as great an importance to them as they should have. I can fix this.

The two short answer questions that asked the students to explain primary source depictions of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party hailed mix results. Yes, the students knew what events were depicted which is wonderful! However, the students did not seem to be able to explain the importance of the documents. To be successful on the end-of-course exam, the studets need to know the significance of everything; there are no simple identify items. I need to make sure the students go deeper. How do I do this? I need to remove myself from the picture. When we discussed the images in class, I held center court. I circled portions of the images and asked questions. Did they understand what I was saying? Yes! They knew what it was and were able to detail the individual arts of it. However, the students could not make the jump as to why the pieces were important. If I required the students to break down the components and explain the significance on their own, I believe their levels of understanding would have been much greater.

Overwhelmingly, the students failed the discussion question. No one earned all the points. The discussion question asked the students to summarize the impact of English government on the formation of representative government in the colonies. I know the students knew the information required to answer this question. We had reviewed and reviewed the material. When the students encountered the question, they either forgot the Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, Limited government,2 Houses of parliment, and common law or they forgot to link the English government and colonial governments. Why? Again, I think they truly knew the information but when asked to go deeper with the analysis of the information, the students faltered which is an indication that I need to check more frequently to check all levels of understanding.

Because I am focused on mastery learning, the students will have a 2nd chance to achieve success. All students who attend a mandatory tutoring session will be allowed to re-take the test. Why the tutoring session? I want to ensure that the students have achieved the level of understanding required for success, not just a greater familiarity with the answers. The students will have to retake the entire test, not just correct the questions they missed. This will require that they review all the material to achieve success. It will require the students to show mastery of all the material. After the retest, when the results are in.... I hope they all pass.