A Horse to Water

NOTE: This is a post for students in P1 Regents English Prep only. If you’re in RE11 or AP11 and you’re reading this, you’re going to be very confused by the end of it.

I’m moving instructional posts for our Regents English Prep class from Google Classroom to this website, because I need more space to talk to you. For now, the comment section will be locked; if you have questions or concerns, send me an email, or use the comment section of Google Classroom.

Read this post carefully. A photocopy will be made for you, but the purpose of using this website is to give you anytime/anywhere access to instruction. The word for this is interstitial: occupying the space between other structures. Read when you can, as often as you can.

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Practice Exam Adjustments

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Back on September 10, you began the Aug. ’17 Regents Exam:

Aug. ’17 Regents Exam – Google Drive

Practice materials for the Aug. ’17 ELA Regents Exam. Includes scored exemplars, multiple-choice answers, and printable rubrics.

My original intention was to divide and conquer. You would complete each part, receive a score, and then analyze your performance. I hoped to return your scores with each assignment. There has been so much missing work, however, that we need to adjust. Look carefully at the spreadsheet below:

[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F10%2FCopy-of-Aug.-17-Regents-Exam-Responses.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]

 

You can also load this document in a separate window by clicking here. You will need your student number to locate the row with your scores for each part of the exam. Note the use of weighted scores for Part 2 and Part 3, plus the conversion chart that produces the final scale score.

If you see blank boxes, I do not have those pieces from you. You need to go to Google Classroom, find the assignment for each part of the practice exam, and then complete it. I will do what I can to save us time — by going through and counting up your multiple-choice score, for instance — but the quickest way to see your predicted score is to submit your work digitally.

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Skinner Boxes

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Once we have a score for your exam, I will work with you on a regimen that gets you ready for the real thing. We will start with a test called the SRI. It measures a few key aspects of your reading abilities, and we can use it to assign you articles and even books that will improve your close reading skills. Then we will study test-taking strategies, multiple-choice strategies, etc, in small groups and individually.

These first two months have always been about establishing that kind of baseline. As the cliché goes, this is a marathon, not a sprint, and your grade will continue to reflect this. Grade abatement makes this clear, but I can make it clearer still: Do every formal assignment, and when you’re done, ask for something else to do; stay busy during every class; take another crack at a timed essay or multiple choice passage every few weeks or so; and then, barring disaster, you will see a 95 or 100 in Infinite Campus.

Here is the grade abatement handout:

And here is a guide to how critical in-class focus and feedback are to your success:

• GAP Scoring Basics

These are posted around the room, as well. The main requirement for success is productivity during the class period, as you can see. There shouldn’t be much need for homework.

Now, a few notes on how you are currently performing:

First, students who scored an 80 or higher on the Aug. ’17 exam probably do not need the focused test prep of this course. If you are in this group, I have already reached out to your guidance counselor to start the conversation about remaining in here. I will reach out to you and your parents next. The goal is to give you the resources you need in an environment that helps you, and someone with a 94 on a practice exam is likely to be frustrated by the requirements of this class.

That group is relatively small, though. The second group is a little larger, and includes students who are working hard but still struggling to finish the practice exam. This group can take its time, and I’ll help you work on strategies as you finish. If you finished and scored low, you have plenty of time to improve. The goal is the real exam in January and/or June. We’ll focus on self-efficacy, self-awareness, and all sort of non-academic skills and traits that will help you.

The last group has a different concern: You aren’t doing the work, and you aren’t trying to do the work. If you know that is the case, and no penalty or benefit has changed your mind, you need to be honest about that with yourself, your parents, and your guidance counselor. Everyone who cares about your success hopes you make a different decision, but we can’t force you. You’re far too old for us to have a bring-a-horse-to-water debate.

Remember that almost all of you in this third group are taking an English class other than this one, and in that class, you will do a significant amount of Regents Exam prep. All English classes, regardless of the amount of explicit test prep assigned, teach the skills and traits you need for the ELA Regents. And in those other classes, you will be forced to make better choices. You need the credit to graduate.

This course is not required for graduation, and it will only help you if you invest in it. It cannot be a study hall. Treat it that way, and you may be forced to explain yourself repeatedly to administration, counselors, parents, etc.; you definitely will fail; and there won’t be any increase in your ability to do well on the real exam, whenever you take it.

In other words, for those of you in this third group, this is one of the only opportunities in high school you have to stop being a rat in a Skinner box. You can leave the cage, if you absolutely know that you won’t do the work. Again, the people who care about you hope you make a different choice, but we also hope that you see the need for the classroom environment to be conducive to the second group mentioned above — the students who need help.

To recap:

1. If you scored high on the practice exam, you won’t benefit from staying in here. This is Group #1.
2. If you are struggling to perform well, but working hard, this is the course for you. This is Group #2.
3. If you refuse to do the work, you won’t benefit from staying in here. This is Group #3.

Figure out where you are, talk to me about your next steps, and let’s make some important decisions together.