Exit Projects & Midterms

I'm now seriously considering having students turn their genetic disorder reports into an "exit project." They are already doing quite a bit of research and we have spent a lot of class time on the projects. It would only be a small stretch to now focus on finding data that would justify calling their work a "Secondary Research" project that qualifies as an exit project. It's not my idea of a perfect project - the data part will be quite limited - but it's at least as good as some of the examples given in the NYC Exit Project Booklet (Warning - badly scanned by DOE).

I was developing the rubric for their projects this morning and realized how close they were to having a project that satisfies the formal exit project requirement. That would take care of one of the many burdens my regents students face - and they would be finished without even realizing they had finished it! We could then focus more of our energy on the "important" stuff like completing our labs and passing the exam. You can download my rubric here. It's a modified version of our old district 6 project rubrics.

On another note, I've decided to administer an old Regents exam as their midterm - the entire thing. This will give them a sense of the scope of the exam and the language they have to get used to - they always complain that I use such big words when I talk, wait till they start reading the regents exam! I plan to give them two scores.

First, I will let them know what their score would be if this were the real thing and they had to take the exam today - considering we are only half way through the school year, a real score of 65 would be nice (that's a raw score of 41 out of 85 possible points on the January 02 exam). In reality, many of the ecology concepts on the exam were taught in grade 7 plus many of the questions can be answered just by paying close attention to the questions and thinking, so I'm hoping that most students will be close to the 65 score.

I will then take their real scores and distribute them on a curve for a score that will go in my record book and be recorded on their report cards as the midterm exam grade. I expect that real score of between 50 - 65 to be the average for my two classes. Then again maybe I'm in for a serious letdown. Either way, the results will affect my decisions about what to do with the remainder of the school year. I've been worried for some time that we are not making enough progress. I hope this practice exam puts my mind to rest. If not, I may have to change tactics and get much more structured in my approach.