3/29/07

Next week is ISAT testing. This is a big week for our school. Last year we made only adequate yearly progress in all of our subgroups. This year we've continued on with the programs we put in place, and have improved some of them, as well. However, ISATs put a lot of pressure on our students and teachers.

We spent the first two days of this week rushing through the wrap-ups of Investigation 3 for Moving Straight Ahead. We'll spend the rest of the week with ISAT prep. Yvette and I are wondering whether practicing for the test is worth it — is it more stressful than helpful for students? Does spending three to five days stressing over the skills for the test really help students achieve more? Maybe I should interview one or two students to see how they feel about all this test prep. I worry that we're teaching our students to hate testing by forcing them to prepare in ways that they normally wouldn't.

Today we took a sample ISAT test that had 20 questions on it. My students did really well overall, but they had some trouble with the probability questions. The toughest question for them was this one:

Mike has only 2 red apples and 3 green apples in a bowl. Without looking, he chooses an apple and gives it to his sister. Then he chooses an apple for himself. What is the probability that he and his sister will each get a red apple?

A. 10% B. 30% C. 40% D. 60%

Most of my students solved this problem by multiplying 2/5 by 2/5, because there is a 2/5 probability that he will pull a red apple the first time. Most did not take into account that the second time he gets an apple, the probability changes since he does not replace the apple he first chose. For some reason this was really difficult for some of my students to understand. We reviewed this problem by approaching it in a number of ways, but some students were still confused by it.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, Yvette and I have things planned, but I'm trying to decide what would be the most beneficial for my students. I want to choose goals to work on that will be covered on the test. We just got a list that shows a percentage breakdown of the topics and corresponding goals. I'm going to go through those and pick the topics that will be covered the most on the ISAT. Then I'll either pull worksheets or create problems that focus on these goals.