Do you allow your child to have "open book" Saxon Math test?

[creekmom]

My 5th grader will be doing Saxon 7/6 this year, and in the past, I've always allowed him to look at his notes for the tests. Now I'm wondering if that is a bad idea. I'm thinking maybe it's time he started studying for his tests..:001_huh: If your students use Saxon, you know the tests have a lot of information on them (not a mastery situation with only one concept to study). What do you think?

[JudoMom]

My 5th grader will be doing Saxon 7/6 this year, and in the past, I've always allowed him to look at his notes for the tests. Now I'm wondering if that is a bad idea. I'm thinking maybe it's time he started studying for his tests..:001_huh: If your students use Saxon, you know the tests have a lot of information on them (not a mastery situation with only one concept to study). What do you think?

 

My oldest is a 5th grader and he just started 7/6 as well. I've never let mine use notes or books, nor have I ever had them study. I give them the test, grade it, give it back and have them redo any missed problems (they tend to make the careless mistakes :glare:). If they still miss any, we go back over the lesson and they correct the problem.

[Orthodox6]

We never did "open book" anything related to assessment. I remember that the high school Apologia books stipulate (or my editions did) for the student to take "open book" exams. I thought that really odd.

[swimmermom3]

My oldest is a 5th grader and he just started 7/6 as well. I've never let mine use notes or books, nor have I ever had them study. I give them the test, grade it, give it back and have them redo any missed problems (they tend to make the careless mistakes :glare:). If they still miss any, we go back over the lesson and they correct the problem.

 

:iagree:My ds just finished 7/6 for 5th grade. We handle testing and regular work the same way as JudoMom.

[katilac]

No open book here. They need to be able to do the work without referring to their book or asking mom; that's how I know if she truly understands or not.

[Moni]

Sure, go ahead and let him do open book test.

 

Then the next day, give him the same test, see how many he can do from No Notes. When he's done what he can, let him finish the rest Open Book

 

Then the next day, same thing.......See how many he can get correct with No Notes, and then let him finish the rest Open Book.

 

One day he will be able to do them No Notes.

 

Or just omit the tests altogether.

We used no Saxon tests. ;)

 

:seeya:

 

G

Edited July 23, 2009 by Moni

[nukeswife]

I guess I'll be an oddball. I am not currently using Saxon but we'll be going back to it in about 2 months. When my son was using 5/4 I let him do "open book" tests. We chose to go this route because we think a it's a good thing to practice finding the information if you don't know the answer. If you're not sure how to do something it's important to know where to go to get those answers. He is not allowed to ask me for more than simple clarification, for example if his word problem has a word in it that he's never heard he can ask me what the word means, but the math has to be done on his own. My son tends to take copious amounts of notes when doing his math lessons in a notebook that we gave him so he's allowed to use that too. Most times he doesn't even look at the book or notes because all the note taking seems to help things stick.

 

I guess whether it's a good idea all depends on your style.

[dangermom]

We did 5/4 last year and I did not let her do open book tests. We just went over the problems afterwards and looked at any mistakes--her weaknesses tend to be carelessness and quick recall of basic math facts.

[Chris in VA]

I don't allow open book tests, but she corrects any she got wrong by looking up the problems, so I get to see if my teaching is sticking, and she gets practice finding information (as a PP said, a useful skill).