Tag Archives: assessment

Help Me Assess My Assessment

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Poem: Quote from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; 
The valiant never taste of death but once. 
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 
It seems to me most strange that men should fear; 
Seeing that death, a necessary end, 
Will come when it will come.” 

Statement of the Whole: Talk to almost anyone in education and probably sooner than later, the discussion will turn to the hardest aspect of education: assessment.  How do we know if we have taught a good lesson?  How do we know if the student has caught our great lesson?  Why are many forms of testing fraught with the language of suffering, hardship, and even death?  The Backporch dives into this deep pool and swims about with broad strokes.  Come on in, the water is warm!

How Do You Teach Several Students at Once?

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Poem:  none 

Statement of the Whole: This question, from a listener, has elements of several issues in it.  What do we do when we have multiple students learning in a given classroom with differing levels of performance and ability?  And what do we do, especially in home education, when we have differing ages and levels of maturity in the same context?  Jason and Steve consider all this and more on this episode from the Backporch. 

Estimating Your Student Rightly

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Poem:  Leaves Compared With Flowers, by Robert Frost 

Statement of the Whole: Expectations come from our estimate of what a student should be able to do.  How do we avoid either over or under estimating our students?  Jason and Steve respond to this question from a listener.  Join in the discussion of how low or high the bar should be set. 

Should Homeschooling Teachers Give Grades?

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Poem: “There was a little girl” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Statement of the Whole: 

There can be no doubt that modern education deals in the currency of grades.  But how far down that road does the homeschool teacher need to go?  Steve and Jason have some fun discussing this issue, suggesting that while the homeschool affords you a great deal of freedom from such things, you need to keep the big picture in view and “play the game.”