Teaching the West: Day 5

Our last lesson was devoted to the summative assessment. We had thought originally about trying to include more information and cover the Oregon trail through some sort of activity before the test, but we decided against it. You could say that reality kicked in and we realized that not only were we tired after a week of intensive teaching, but we also recognized that the students already had enough information on their plates to remember and process that day. So instead, we planned on allowing for 5-10 minutes of review time at the beginning of class before passing out the test. After students finished with the test, they could take out a book to read. Once everyone was done, we'd have students presents the advertisements they'd made the day before.

When we got to the class, though, we found out that the students were visiting Williamsburg the next day, and the teacher wanted some time at the end of the class to go over what the students would be doing on that fieldtrip. As one might imagine, we didn't end up presenting our advertisements. The students took the test, read, and then listened to the teacher as she explained what would happen the next day. During my period (the first block), I also had to deal with 9-10 students being pulled out for various tests and things for other classes. 7 students were pulled out so they could finish a math test (I told the woman, 'but they have a test in this class.' ...Apparently our teacher said it was okay for them to go. Whatcha gonna do?). Then, in the middle of the test (luckily, after most of the students had finished), 2-3 more students were pulled out by a different woman for something completely different. I do realize that my class is not the end-all, be-all of the day, but I'd never had students pulled out during any of my other lessons, and so it was surprising to have it happen the day of the test. Therefore, I unfortunately only have test scores for some of the students (and even more unfortunately, the students that were pulled out were lower-achieving students, so I don't have a good handle on how we did with that achievement group). That was frustrating to me, and I wish I could see their tests (if they ever even took it) to see how they did, but the teacher never responded to my request for those tests. Alas...that's the life of a teacher, I suppose.