Testing…Testing…

This summer I attended an AP World History conference—in sunny California, no less. The heavens did not shake (nor Wall Street) at my appearance in the classroom at the University of San Diego as I crossed the threshold for the week-long seminar on how to navigate the mighty waters of this brutal advanced placement course. The heavens might have shaken because five years ago, at another conference in cool and breezy Vermont, I made a vow I would never teach this course! Oh, it wasn’t quite the post-Civil War Scarlett O’Hara moment with the root vegetable in hand shaking my fist intoning “As Gaaw-awwd is my witness…” but it was mighty close. I saw what the course must cover (umm…the entire history of the world) in one year, and I saw the frustration and fear in those teachers’ eyes. Teaching is hard enough—we don’t need to create any more obstacles.

Now here I am—an AP World History teacher, and that is my entire teaching assignment this year! There were so many students who signed up for this course that it is the only course I must tackle this year. So my little dramatic vow from years ago is folded away neatly in that drawer of other-vows-that-don’t-necessarily-last.

I haven’t mentioned much about the class yet this year in the blog—I wanted us to get a bit more into the school year so I could relay how things are going.

Just so we are all properly in awe of the scope of the course and the AP test—let me just refresh your memory: the course covers all of world history, and the test on May 14, 2009, can ask any question about anywhere anytime in all of world history. You know, it’s just so crazy you kinda have to give it a whirl!

So I have 8 sophomores (hostages from last year’s more pedestrian introduction to World History) and 40 juniors. I did lose a couple in the first few weeks—I did my level best to scare out the students, but only four gave up the ghost! So of these mighty 48, 14 are new students to KA, and the rest are the pioneers of the school. This is the first advanced placement course for all of them—so in a way, it is a sort-of “Scratch Redux” environment—training, training, training them to be prepared for the marathon of tests on May 14.

I have been teaching advanced placement courses for 20 years (geez, is it really that long?) and I have a fondness for these arduous courses. Indeed, if you remember the Story of My Life, I became a teacher because of Jean Michaels’ sensational two AP history courses at West High eons ago (I am almost of the age when I think students don’t know it’s a joke to say I graduated with Gandhi!). I have taught AP Modern European History, AP United States History, AP Government, and AP Art History (loved ‘em all—though the Government one is the dullest…) so this year I added the Big-Daddy to my repertoire. In a quirky way, I have loved the tyranny of coverage, and the license to push students to higher levels. In a way, the scores have never mattered much because it was the transformation of the students that really made this an important life’s work. And if I look back, of the hundreds I have guided in AP courses, only a very few have not passed.

But there is a different demand in the AP courses here at KA that adds a new twist to my 20 years experience in the game. In Jordan there is a national exam that matters deeply. The way I understand this national exam, the choices a Jordanian college graduate has available in the white-collar world are based on the score of this national exam in the senior year of high school. I am serious!! It seems that if your score is below a 90, well, you won’t be allowed to grow up to be a doctor. Hmmm… Well KA is not cozying up to the exam, per se, but the government agency in education does want an equivalency for this exam, and they have decided that our students must pass 5 AP exams (or 7 SAT II exams) to receive this equivalency (in a cynic’s mind, it could sound like salvation). So now the scores do matter! And of course my students’ answers and writing abilities will be judged against native English speakers/writers with no exception for being a “foreign” kid. Oh, now this is an interesting challenge! Can we successfully train our students to compete on the same playing field? This raises the bar! I have often compared taking an AP course to being on a ropes course and coming to that 10 foot wall that e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e in the group must scale. We have the wall again, it’s just a few feet taller (I should talk in meters since I have been in the metric world for 14 months, but, yeah, I haven’t made that transition yet!) and we must get everyone over!

I knew for this AP course I must test the students more often. In Art History I would give mini-quizzes once a week or so, especially since the structure of that test includes 5-minute, 7-minute, and 10-minute mini-essays. But this test is different, and so much of the course is about longer essays that require comparison of societies and observations about change over time. So I decided I must assess the students once a week.

In their training I stressed the need to absorb, process, cover, complete one chapter of the textbook a week. Everything was fair game for a test. Don’t bother asking—will it be on the test? Do we have to know this?—for the answer will always come with an affirmative smile. But I needed to earn their trust as to how help them out on these tests. So I decided for the first test—at the end of week two of the course—I would give them the test beforehand. I would actually hand them the test on Sunday, and say, this is the exact test you will sit for on Thursday. It doesn’t get better than this! I had never done that before. But hey, let’s see what this group of 52 has in them (the now-absent four had not retreated from the class yet).

They should all get As, right? Well, there was only one real, true A. One! The A test would have had to score well on the multiple choice and writte an effective essay (I gave them choices). I love the irony of who earned the one A—it is a student named Thaer. Thaer was in my class last year and he is one of the most amazing improvement stories I have ever known. He came from a fairly weak school, as he said, and while he was clearly bright, his English needed much work. He was in our EES program (English Enhancement Seminar—it eases you into sharper English skills) but by mid-year he had willed himself to improve astronomically in his English. This was the boy who had the one A.

Can you believe I had a majority of the grades below a C??? I had given them the test beforehand! No matter—you start work from where you are, and remind them, guide them, coax them, bribe them, inspire them, scare them, encourage them, teach them how to reach the higher standards. That’s the name of the game.

For the next week, we discussed reading and study skills. We had another chapter to conquer. I reminded them that if they earned the same grade on that week’s test it would still be an improvement since they would not have received the test beforehand. So as we explored ancient Egypt and ancient India I divided up the chapter into three distinct sections. I encouraged them to study each section a different way (flashcards for one, outlining for another, and just pure reading for a third) and I would give them three mini-tests on the material—on which section would they score the highest? The experiment was designed to see which method of study yielded the highest grade. On whichever section they scored the highest, I would give them that grade for the whole test. Hmmm…intriguing. A couple students read between the lines of my deal, and decided to put all their eggs in one basket. Officially, one could leave two sections blank, and put all your efforts into one section—in effect, just studying one third of the text. I didn’t argue—it also doesn’t help them much for the Day of Reckoning on May 14!

I designed this course to have virtually no other homework for them—just this reading and studying. Not everybody uses good time management skills however! The night before this weekly test (over a mere 21 pages I hasten to add) a group of distraught students pleaded that I should move the test so they could really study. (!!) I warned them that I am a Rock (thank you Doris Jackson for teaching me to emulate you. She is a true rock—next to Doris, I am just a rock-ette!) and not to whine and whine. One dear scholar said, “So you would let us fail then?” In a voice I likened to a cross between Glinda the Good and the Joker, I said, “No, but you may have failed yourself.”

The grades were better. There was just one F, and most rose up in the ranks. There were 4 As, many Bs, a paunch of Cs, and a couple straggler Ds. Progress in just one week!

For the next test I decided to add a little Vegas-style excitement. Thursday would be test day, same as usual. But in the moment before each section’s test began I would roll a die, and whatever number came up on the die would determine what kind of test they would take. Here is how I did the numbers: roll a 1 and the students would take a 15-question multiple choice test on ancient China, ancient MesoAmerica, and ancient SubSaharan Africa; roll a 2 and the students would work with a friend on the 15-question multiple choice test on ancient China, ancient MesoAmerica, and ancient SubSaharan Africa; roll a 3 and the students would each write an essay based on documents about ancient creation stories; roll a 4 and the students would work with a partner outlining an essay based on documents about ancient creation stories; roll a 5 and the class would vote on which assessment they desired; and if I roll a 6there would be no test at all.

So—there is potential for no assessment at all, and in the other numbers just one kind of testing. Sounds easier than a regular test. Do you study? Do you gamble it all on the potential of a 6??? But they had to be prepared for any of the choices.

They studied feverishly! And in that moment of rolling the die at the top of the class, there was palpable excitement. In the first class I rolled a 4. They worked diligently together, discussing the documents skillfully, working like seasoned historians. In the next class, I rolled a 2. They worked well. In the third class, a 2 came up again.

The real test of course is in the grading. Were they more effective? What do you think? What has the trajectory of this school been? How is the tone of this blog?

What do you think?

How would you have studied? Which number on the die would you have wanted?

In a part II of this topic, coming in a day or two, I will tell you how I have been tested in the first week of having a car in Jordan.

Another big test is coming up: in a few hours my dad gets on a plane in Cincinnati to come see me for two weeks in Jordan. Think of all the tests coming up. I wonder how the metaphorical die will roll…