Disappointment

I went through the old regents exams and pulled out as many questions as I could about the digestive system for a test. There weren't that many that dealt exclusively with the digestive system - I could only find 8 questions out of 9 previous exams that I could use. There were a few of other questions that included the digestive system, but they were concerned with how the digestive system interacts with other body systems, so I couldn't use them for this particular test. I supplemented with a couple of questions from their textbook.

I was not pleased with the results. About 2/3 of students failed the test. I'm not sure where I went wrong. I think I asked the right kinds of questions for the research part of their projects, I had students perform presentations for the class on the digestive system, and in the end I went over all the details in a lecture/discussion format just to fill in any holes in their research and answer any lingering questions. I think I covered pretty well the content that was on the exam, without "teaching to the exam" so to speak. I did not teach with the actual exam questions in mind (i.e., give them practice questions that are paraphrased versions of the test questions), but I taught what the students would need to know in order to figure out the questions.

I could and probably will assign part of the blame to the students. They are simply not working as hard as they should be: Often they go through the motions, complete the assignment, but are not always fully engaged in the thinking part of the game. I have to say that on some level it bothers me that an "accelerated" class doesn't take more pride in their work or go beyond the minimum requirements of a task.

So now what do I do given these circumstances? If students aren't working hard enough, it is of course my job to bring them around. I may have to do what I've been loathe to do until now - start calling parents, sending home tests to be signed, all that nonsense that just reinforces the forced learning mentality - learn or else! But maybe that's just the nature of middle school students, even "high" achieving ones.