Chantal Molina
10/20/01
Rationale Essay on the Test
Most, if not all the questions on the test that I have written out have been
discussed in class in one way or another. I primarily took ideas discussed in the class and
expanded upon them for the test. The questions on the test will all be short answer. I
have also made the test open book because I want the students to be acquainted with the
standards and to know what they are. I don’t necessarily want them to memorize them;
afraid they may get them mixed up.
Questions one and two deal with the English standards. These two questions
would give the students a chance to think about the standards. In question number one, it
asks their opinion on what ideas they would have for standard five. We went over the
standards in class so the students should be acquainted with them and can come up with
ideas that follow standard number five. In the second question, I listed a situation where
the students have to think about the standards in order to answer the question. By reading
question number two, the student should already know at least two standards involved
within the situation. If, by reading the English standards book, the student can figure out
each standard within the question, there will be a successful evaluation of the standards.
Question number three is about discipline. There is a situation listed. The student
must give their opinion on the best way to handle the situation. This situation was
discussed in class. If the student was listening to the ideas brought forth, they should
have a good idea of what they might do in the same situation.
Question number four is about conducting a research project. This also was
discussed in class. Students should have looked over standard number seven and have
ideas about how they may go about conducting a research project and what they may
want to expect from their students.
Literature is the topic of question number five. I wrote this question just to see
the different activities students might use for the topic. The question is also on the test so
that, depending on the students responses, I would know if I needed to go over the subject
in class or not.
Diversity is an important part of the classroom situation. This leads me to
question number six. We discussed the Fiesta Mexicana in class as being a good source
of diversity. There are other ways to incorporate it in the classroom. I want to know how
students would go about that. Would they bring in literature written by authors of other
ethnicities about an ethnic related issue, would they do a research project on a culturally
diverse country, or would they show a movie about an issue along that means? This
question is just to give insight upon what the student would do about the issue.
The last question on the test is about evaluation techniques. There are other ways
of evaluating students than quizzes and tests. I want to hear other ideas that the students
have for evaluating the class. It would be very valuable to the student to evaluate with
other techniques rather than tests and quizzes. This question will give them a chance to
think about it and respond to it.
The test only consists of seven questions. Since they were all short answer, an
hour would be just enough time for them to answer the questions thoughtfully and maybe
even enough time for them to go over their answers and change any that they need to.
This test has many questions on it that we covered in class. It would be a good review for
the students on the class discussions. If they did not do too well on those questions they
will know next time to either be in class or listen and take part in what the class is doing.
This test would be a fine evaluation of the students and their knowledge of what has been
discussed so far in the classroom.