Final Boost

Because the special ed math class had been through so many subs (the students tell me the total count is four), I figured that a final exam cobbled together in a couple days would not have been a worthwhile endeavor. So, I came up with a different solution. 

Instead of a test, I gave them a "project" where they were to find me completed problems from their various assignments, ones that they thought were "easy" or "hard". (I ran this by a couple other special ed teachers, and they found this approach acceptable.) 

So as not to catch them unprepared on the day of their final, I made up "review" assignments where they were to go back through their assignments from the semester and find problems they could use for this "final". Alas, many of them chose not to do this. 

On the day, I went through an example I had created to demonstrate what I was looking for. Then I had them get to work. 

Many of them did exactly as I asked, and they got full credit. 

Jonah "finished" his final quickly. As I was doing with all the students, I graded it immediately. (If I marked points off for something, they then had time to fix the issue and resubmit. Those who did resubmit generally then got the full points.) 

Jonah gave me three complete problems of the same type. (They did a chapter on statistics, so all three problems were where he found the mean.) But I had asked for a problem that he found easy, a problem he found difficult, and a problem he found interesting. I can see two of those being the same, but not the third. 

Deep sigh. 

I returned the final to him, telling him what I thought. (I know he heard me as he was in the classroom with me, one of two students who were in person for that period.) I told him he could fix it. He went back to watching the video on his computer that he had started as soon as he submitted his final. 

Ah well. If he's good with not the full points... 

As it was, he ended up with a B- in the class, which was very good considering where most of their grades were. So many of them didn't even bother to do the final. This was unsurprising as they hadn't done any of the work in about two months. 

Those who did the final did see a benefit. I noted that pretty much everyone who turned in the final boosted their grade for the semester by one letter.