Retesting - a new idea for me

          This year after reading several blogs, I decided to let students retest if they wanted to. After all what is my goal for my students? I want them to learn the material and since all of math is built on previously learned skills they should retest. I did put some parameters on the retest. The students need to fill out a form, reflect on what they need to learn and do 3 activities to improve their knowledge in that area. The 3 activities need to be stapled to the retest form, along with their test and reflection. One of the activities can include a tutoring session with me after school. The other 2 are on their own. They can not retest until all of these steps have been completed. There is a 2 week window to retest.
      So how has it worked so far? The students who have completed the activities and retested have improved their test grades about 2 letter grades. I was impressed at that improvement. Some students tried to sneak in assignments that were done in class already. (Of course they had to try didn't they?) Guess what? If they did not do the activities the test grades stayed exactly the same. I mean they didn't improve their grades at all. Now I check very carefully to make sure they are new activities. Sarah at Math = Love has a great form that I have used this year, (thanks Sarah), and I shared it with the teachers in my building. Kathryn Smith, one if our reading teachers, revised the form to create this newer retest form. The original looks better as a few of the lines are missing on this picture.

Click here for Request to Retest document.

     The only negative is that I need to make up and grade another test. Luckily I've been teaching a long time and have lots of different forms of tests. I am so happy that I decided to try retesting this year. I don't know why I haven't done this before.

                                                                              Til next time,

                                                                                      Jan