Subject Testing

[Paula in MS]

Now that my dd is in fifth grade, I would really like her to begin taking tests that come with her subjects. We have been more relaxed until this point. My question is this. When you use a variety of curricula, how do you determine how often to test. Our subjects and test schedule are below.

 

CLE Math 2 quizzes and 1 test per book (17 lessons)

SOTW weekly chapter tests

Latin weekly quizzes

Bible weekly quizzes

Abeka grammar test every other week

 

I have been unsuccessful with incorporating these tests because it is just too much, especially since we only have a 4 day school week due to classical conversations.

 

Should I just choose 2 subjects to test? I could pare down the history to 2 tests per year on the most important information. I would really like her to learn how to study and prepare for tests. Any advice for how many tests per subject is reasonable? The above is too much. How do you handle this in your home?

 

Thanks.

[amsunshine]

We have weekly tests/quizzes in spelling and French. Fridays are our quiz days, and we get them out of the way in the morning. However, we regularly test in both math and grammar as well. We have a test after every 5 lessons in grammar, and tests in math come up whenever they are scheduled in Singapore, usually after a chapter or concept is finished. We also test in science, with end of chapter tests. We don't test in history yet -- we'll start next year, but we spend a lot of time "layering" the information as much as possible, with writing, reading outside books, watching documentaries, etc. I don't think there is any magic number of tests that is reasonable -- I think it depends on what you think is necessary to make sure the information is learned and retained. The above works for us (with a 4th and a 5th grader).

[K&Rs Mom]

I have been unsuccessful with incorporating these tests because it is just too much, especially since we only have a 4 day school week due to classical conversations.

 

 

Could you make day 5 quiz day? Or put them on a clipboard to work on the way to CC?

 

My 5th grader has:

SOTW chapter tests, once or twice a week (usually once, depends how many sections in a chapter)

Latin quizzes about every week and a half (chapter takes 5-6 days, we school a 4-day week)

LOF Bridge every couple weeks (this is a long one that often takes an hour)

Spelling is done but had been a test every Thursday (orally, 20 words, took 5-10 minutes)

 

So our tests don't all fall on the same day. If a test is the only thing left in a lesson at the end of the week, I'll often just give it on Friday or Saturday because it doesn't take that long and that way we're neatly wrapped up for the week, instead of giving it the next Monday and pushing everything else back.

 

I test for different reasons in different subjects. SOTW is just to cement things a little, maybe call their attention to what was more important in the chapter. LOF is to see whether she can move on in the book. Latin is for practice beyond the workbook. Last year I got one of those "test prep" workbooks from paperbackswap, because I wanted her to have some experience with that kind of format (we don't do yearly standardized tests), and I'll probably have her do one more in 7th or 8th grade before she'd have to take any highschool tests.

[RootAnn]

CLE Math 2 quizzes and 1 test per book (17 lessons)

SOTW weekly chapter tests

Latin weekly quizzes

Bible weekly quizzes

Abeka grammar test every other week

Should I just choose 2 subjects to test? I could pare down the history to 2 tests per year on the most important information. I would really like her to learn how to study and prepare for tests. Any advice for how many tests per subject is reasonable? The above is too much. How do you handle this in your home?

 

What you are looking at is adding four quizzes/tests one week & five the next. Is the "too much" that you can't get a lesson plus a quiz done (thus taking up one day of content in your four-day-week)?

 

A couple of thoughts:

CLE math quizzes (as opposed to tests) can theoretically be done on the same day as a normal lesson. (I've sometimes crossed off the "review" part from the first lesson & had my oldest do two lessons on one day. A friend of mine frequently had her daughter complete a quiz and a lesson on the same day.)

 

I personally thought the SOTW quizzes were TOO MUCH. They were too picky and they were too often. We went to informally reviewing every 5-10 chapters and then I give a "final." (If you skip anything, I'd skip those.)

 

I know nothing about your Bible curriculum, but those quizzes would be either cut/combined (take 3-4 week's worth of quizzes & just choose 1/4 of the questions from each one that you thought were important) into a monthly test or combined into a mid-term & a final - pulling out only the 'big ideas'. You could do this with Latin as well, although I'm in favor of weekly Latin quizzes. :coolgleamA:

 

Are you on a Jan-Dec schedule or a August-May schedule? If the latter, then you might just want to add in one or two subjects (Math + grammar or Latin) for the rest of the school year. (As in, why start now?) If you just started your school year, I'd go ahead & add in one quiz this week and two next week. Then, you should be able to stagger them (with a couple of the ideas above) into two quizzes a week if you drop the weekly SOTW test.

Math + Grammar

Math + Latin (2 combined)

Math + Grammar

Math + Bible (4 combined)

Math + Grammar

Math + Latin (4 combined)

Etc.

 

If you want to keep SOTW, I'd suggest paring down those tests to just the main ideas (that you remember -- no peeking for the answers!).

 

My 2nd, 4th & 6th graders have weekly: one math quiz/test, at least one spelling quiz + one spelling test, & (oldest only) one Spanish Quiz/test. Oldest also has a history test every six weeks or so and a science quiz/test every four weeks or so. They are used to it, so it doesn't bother them too much.

[regentrude]

Should I just choose 2 subjects to test? I could pare down the history to 2 tests per year on the most important information. I would really like her to learn how to study and prepare for tests. Any advice for how many tests per subject is reasonable? The above is too much. How do you handle this in your home?

 

I think carefully about the goal of testing: WHY do I do this test? Do I need this particular test to assess my student's mastery of the subject, or do I feel I should test because there are tests and quizzes provided and the ps uses lots of them? Can I evaluate my student by other means?

 

We are using few tests, because I can see the mastery of the material in daily work, so mostly I need a test only to be able to determine a grade.

Before high school, we only tested in math and foreign language. Math is one comprehensive final exam per semester. After all, math is about long term retention; if my student can do the concept the week of the test, it is not sufficient, he needs to be able to work the problem a few months later still.

We use end of chapter quizzes in foreign language because my students study foreign languages I am not fluent in; so I have no other way to evaluate their performance.

For subjects like history and literature, I use writing assignments, oral presentations, research projects etc as a measure for mastery.

I dislike testing just for testing's sake; if I can not come up with a very good reason for tests, I don't do any.

My DD who is in her third semester of taking dual enrollment courses at the university had no problems adapting to monthly tests in her college classes.

[Paula in MS]

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it. There are several issues that I am having which include the four day week, additional classes in addition to the ones listed above (Rosetta Stone Spanish, 2 Apologia books, and an IEW theme book), and the fact that we are truly trying to master the CC memory work. It is just a ton to shove into a short week, especially with a non-academic child. I think I will stick with math, grammar, and history (but not weekly.). For spelling, I just have her complete the tests on Spelling City until she gets 100%. That would put me at a math test or quiz weekly, then alternating every other week with grammar or history. Next year I could add science. This seems a lot more doable. :)