A New Approach
Last year I experimented with an idea that I am hoping to continue this year. The idea was a proficiency based classroom. I am a Spanish teacher. The material I teach is scaffolded in such a way that new material always builds on previously acquired skills. Students have to master the concepts in Chapter One in order to be successful in Chapter Two. The problem with this approach is that students are never in the same the place. Some students find chapter one to be easy while others struggle. In Chapter Two, some students are confounded quickly while another groups breezes through. What traditionally happens is that the students who find both chapters difficult are usually doomed by chapter three to a failure for the year. These students give up. Last year I changed things. I broke the chapters down to a list of skills. Students were assessed on how well they had mastered the skills. If they needed more practice, I provided that and they were allowed to take another version of the assessment. Students did better, I only had a few failures and fewer kids dropped my class through out the year.
There are some draw backs. One is that my method does not fit the schools grading calendar. If some kids are still working on chapter two and its the end of the quarter and the rest of the class is on chapter 4 this creates an issue that must be address on an individual level. (last year there were only a few who fell into this catergory) The other problem is with the mid year exam. The exam covers chapters 1-6 but, if you are still working on chapter 5, then that creates another issue. To remedy this, I only graded to the place they were in the course. So for some I graded through question 89 while other I graded all 110 questions. I explained this by saying that mistakes for the 89 group were more costly. The biggest initial issue was that students would not prepare. I recognized immediately that some had not studies and were simply playing the odds. This required a little explaining on my part and I also developed a study guide that had to be completed. (Not a worksheet but, I list of things they needed to do before they re-took the test.) Although the number of re-takes is unlimited, I am thinking that I will institute a limit this year to keep kids moving along. My fear is that next june, some kid is going to still be on chapter 4. If anyone else is doing the same thing, I would love to hear how you manage this and things that you do in your classroom.