End of July Assessments

At the end of each month I undertake assessments of what the children have absorbed. This is something the Head Teacher is keen on. I'm less so, because some of the topics I teach take longer than a month to develop and I'd be happier assessing them at the end of a topic. As it is, occasionally half the month is taken up finishing off a previous topic and half starting a new one. July was a bit like that with the oldest students. Generally I ignore the previous topic and test the new one otherwise the tests take longer than the limited time I have available. Most tests take at least two periods because we don't have sufficient computers for all the kids in an ability group to do tests in one. This month, not only did the highest students study PowerPoint for just three weeks but those three weeks were disrupted by other activities and foreshortened by the tests themselves. Bear in mind that generally each group has only two computer lessons a week. All in all the assessments this time were a bit pointless.

So what have the kids been doing?

• F-Group has been using MSPaint to draw 8-point stars and colour them. The weaker children need help with this.
• E-Group has been using MSPaint to draw clocks displaying suggested times.
• D-Group will draw a clock in MSPaint and insert it into a PowerPoint slide with some suggested text.
• C-Group has been doing a short PowerPoint slideshow with suggested text and animated clip-art images.
• A and B Groups have been doing short PowerPoint slideshows with animated clip-art images and automatic slide transitions (but no story).

From next week A- and B-Groups will work in pairs, writing a short story, drawing pictures to illustrate it and then putting words and pictures into PowerPoint. I don't know how this will work - just dividing them into pairs was challenge enough!