Saturday, April 10, 2004

Mastery Orientation

This academic year, that starts on Tuesday, brings with it yet another project. Last year I tried writing a newsletter for my students. It turned out that I prefer the blog format, and will continue this year with more entries for my students, that is in Japanese.

This years project is Mastery Orientation. Up to now, a passing grade has been 60%. Tests, quizzes, and writing assignments have all been passing at 60%. A passing grade in the class overall is 60%, and I drop the lowest grade from each of the categories. This year, I am going to go with a system where learners must get a 90% on their work. They can repeat it as many times as necessary.

I worked out a form that I can use to track students' performance over the year in each unit that we will cover. I also worked on posting tests quizzes and study guides for each unit on my web site. It isn't complete yet. I haven't linked all of the quizzes that I have uploaded yet.

I am considering making it possible for students to submit quizzes by email. If the student visits my web site, they can copy a quiz and then paste it into the body of an email. They can do the work there, and then send it to me. That would not be sufficient to complete the whole test or quiz of course. There is a speaking component that they would have to complete in person, but it would be a start.

No comments: