As Mr. Willard, my fearless leader, says, "There are some kids even God couldn't get to pass." These are the only ones I am to permit to earn an F in Spanish I or Spanish II.
And so, I have cobbled together a few maneuvers to see if I can play God.
Maneuver uno: allow those who pretty much never pass a test but in tutoring can often put 2 and 2 (or subject and verb) together at least to
tag-team the test. They put their brains together and collectively eliminate wrong answers with what they know between them. This maneuver has been in effect for certain parties in Spanish II since mid-term, and is now being applied to some of the more resistant cases in Spanish I for finals purposes.
Maneuver dos: it is not enough to tag-team the test for the aforementioned Spanish II parties, but some of them have decided that they do better with written tests than multiple choice/matching tests, and so have opted to take a 20-question, form-your-own-answer-to-totally-random-questions-that-use-a-potpourri-of-vocab-and-grammar-from-the-whole-year. I give them 25 questions ahead of time, they carefully translate them, formulate answers, then translate the answers (still working together.) I call this maneuver
malice aforethought: they know what they're getting into, but they also know it's a lot of work.
Maneuver tres: for those who can pass tests now and then and really need a crutch, I return to the
cheat sheet, wherein they can put whatever they want on one side of an 8 1/2" x 11" page--in their own handwriting. The catch is they have to know how to use it, and they're inadvertently studying as they make it. Oh, and they also sacrifice a letter grade for the chance to use it, which is not so bad, unless you get a D...which one did today.
All in all, end-of-course testing has been fruitful for the state-mandated tests. Only my juniors have taken a test so far, and all but 3 passed the test, and of those did Mr. Willard and I agree God could not get to pass.
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