When a teacher says the word "Test", students clench up and get anxious. Even the best students fall prey to this. Educators have tried to get around 'test anxiety' in a few different ways, such as calling them exams, assessments, or analytical tools, but these semantic workarounds do not 'work'. Today in class though, something truly extraordinary happened.
One thing I do as a teacher to allay student fears about approaching tests (shhh, don't say the T word!) is to warn the students several days in advance. I warn them a test is approaching, like a Hurricane spotted on the horizon. Look, yonder to the west, It's Hurricane Assessment! And then I make sure they know what will be tested and I remind them as the day approaches. I usually work through sample test problems too, going over the material multiple times in multiple ways.
So, back to today. Today is Friday, a day when tests are given in class. I hate to give tests on Monday. It literally takes an appearance by the Almighty Teaching Gods for me to schedule a Monday test. They must descend from on high and force my hand. But today was a Friday and thus fair game for testing.
I warned my students on Wednesday. "Hey, you're going to have an exam on Friday. This is what it will cover." I went over the material on the test on Wednesday, Thursday, and even discussed it with the parents that came on Back to School Night that Thursday night. This was to be a writing assessment, covering ancient cultures. Wait, that sounds too rough. Assignment. Yes, that's much better. Writing assignment sounds so much better than test, doesn't it?
So today was the day. I got them started, even put a big timer on the board. Every single student got straight to work. It was magical. Here's the funny part. Halfway through the assessment, um, sorry, assignment, one of my students, out of the blue and in the middle of furiously working away on the assignment, says, "Hey, aren't we supposed to be taking a test today?"
Her neighbor looked over at her like she had just grown a third eyeball in the middle of her forehead.
The first student realized her misunderstanding a moment later and blushed a deep red as I stared at her in confusion. My expression translated as, "What do you think you've been doing for the last twenty minutes?!"
She started laughing so hard she actually started crying.
I tried not to laugh, my body shaking in mirth while I hid my face behind a piece of paper. The power of words indeed. I had taken the mighty anxiety-producing 'test' and turned it into an assignment that the students ate up as a chance to prove themselves, not a barrier standing in their way but a challenge to be triumphed over with hard work and determination. If I had called it a test I would have had students moaning and groaning like extras for The Walking Dead. By calling it a writing assignment, I had students cheerfully typing away for a straight 50 minutes without one complaint. My students had spent the period working away on a 'test' without so much as a frown. Nice!
The power of words...something to think about when writing...
Picture for today:
No comments:
Post a Comment