Reading a film VI

In TPRS the teachers prefer surprise tests, in order to measure what has been acquired and not what the student has memorized the night before.  But I teach in France where students, not to mention my colleagues and the administration, would not take me seriously if I did not give tests in the traditional manner.  When I began using TPRS, I saw my students’ grades improve and realized that my class average was going to be high and would make me look like an “easy” teacher.  (In France every trimester has its conseil de classe where all the teachers of a class meet with representatives of the administration and parents and students in order to discuss the report card of each student in the class.)

At that time we had a deputy head that I had a lot of respect for.  I went to him and explained that I was using a new method and the effect it was having on my grades.  He smiled and shook his head.  He said there were enough teachers giving low marks that he didn’t think it would hurt if mine were a little high.

I do give surprise quizzes.  And I also give what I call an “Oral Interrogation” which effectively cushions any very low marks that a student might get on the formal written test.  An Oral Interrogation is actually a way of reviewing for the test, but students get a grade on it that counts half as much as the written test.  

The class before an Oral Interrogation I ask students to prepare five questions about the scene we have studied.  If I think there’s a danger of everybody coming up with the same five questions, I may tell some students to prepare questions about one character, others about another, or to prepare questions about what happened before, etc.  With good classes I give them their Oral Interrogation paper to fill in at home and bring to class with them.  With weak classes, I give them time to fill in the worksheets at the beginning of the class, so I can go around, helping them with their questions.

Their papers have these instructions:

Tick each of your participations:

I asked a question.

I answered a question.

I corrected a statement.

I expressed my opinion.

I repeated a question or a statement.

Then the students ask their questions.  If there is a grammatical problem, I ask if someone can help reformulate the question, or ask if they mean to say …   and give the correct structure.  Sometimes I don’t understand what they want to say, and we work that out.  The students correct their questions on the worksheet.  I always ask someone to repeat the correct question before asking someone to answer it.  This ensures that everyone has heard the question and gives everyone time to think about the answer.  If the answer is acceptable, I ask someone to repeat it.  The repetitions allow quiet, attentive students to have a decent grade.  If there’s more than one possible answer, we discuss this.  Basically we’re discussing the scene we’ve studied, but in a rather formal way.  

During the process one student is secretary and marks who participates.  If I see that some students are not participating, I ask the secretary who has not yet spoken, and ask that person for a question.  Or I may let the secretary choose, when there are a lot of hands raised.  Or I may ask the person who answered a question to choose who will ask the next question.

When there are about five minutes of class time left, I ask the students to complete the bottom of the worksheet.

Did you listen attentively all of the time?  _________________________________

What did you think about this lesson? __________________________________________________________________________

My Grades:     Participation grade: (0-5)

            Attentiveness grade: (0-5)

I collect the papers and let the students go.  Grading their worksheets is very quick.  One point for each grammatically correct question.  One point for each interesting question.  If they have been honest in their grades for participation and attentiveness, I accept their grades.  If I don’t agree, I give my own.  I generally divide the grade by two to put it over ten, since in France a written test is usually over twenty.  (Twenty by French standards is 100%) 

Oral Interrogations are not TPRS, and I did them long before I heard of TPRS, but I find that they give us an opportunity to talk about the scene one more time, and I’m able to get in many more repetitions of the structures I’ve targeted in the scene.  So I have integrated them into my use of TPRS.