|
Third, to get rid of test anxiety, my policy was to throw out each student's lowest test score each quarter. For those who struggled, it gave them a freebie... for those who excelled, it gave them a goal: to ace all tests during the quarter in order to skip out on the term final exam. (A zero on the last test is the lowest score, gets dropped, and does not count.) Extra credit was available... not much, but some. It gave the kids added confidence even if only a point (out of 700-800 available each term), and challenged the brighter kids. For example, each student could get a point by bringing in an apple for their teacher each week. (The apples were available on my desk for students to eat... who can concentrate on math when they're hungry?) At one point there were 23 apples on my desk in the fall of 2002. Another way to earn a point was to be the first to point out any mistake I made on a problem while teaching.... I typically did almost all arithmetic in my head and students were impressed with such feats as 21 times 19 equals 399, done in the blink of an eye. When asked, "How do you do that?" my response was always to reinforce an algebra lesson... 21 and 19 are conjugates (20+1 times 20-1) and the product is the difference of two squares (400-1=399). Toss on the rap from the year before, students telling others about the fun and the off-topic lessons going on in my class, and my legend continued to grow. It got to the point where I was told a dozen times from students that were sick that mine was the only class they planned to attend that day. Unbelievable. |