The Gingerbread Man Breaketh

This past week was a significant week for our emerging scholars. The seventh grade students finished their first exam. They fought through it quite well. While the scores were solid, my guess is that we possess greater awareness of what will be asked on a multiple choice assessment. Revisions for this exam will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday during lunch. If students wish to revise the exam, they would have to explain why their original answer was incorrect, as opposed to why it was marked wrong. For example, a correct revision would be, "I put B, the treaty of France, but that is incorrect because the treaty's real name was the treaty of Paris. Therefore, the answer would be A) Treaty of Paris." Revisions that are done well and follow policy will receive half of the credit lost. For students who wish to revise any grade from an 80%, they will be given an alternate writing assignment on the material which will replenish half of what was lost. In addition to revisions, students should be working feverishly on their chapter 5 writing assessments, in which both work samples will require a defense piece for each as to why the work sample fits that particular learning style. Indeed, seventh graders will be working very hard this week on what needs to be done.
And then, there are the eighth graders.
A day after a two day Constitution Exam, there is little left to say. Over 95% of the team passed it. The average score was an 82% for the two day exam. There were many "A"'s and "B"'s. Some demonstrated austerity on one day and faltered on the other, while more displayed strength on both days. It was really quite an honor to watch all of them enter a testing atmosphere for two days and show strength and honor. The grades for the exam are posted online and will be returned on Monday, along with an updated progress report. Students can revise the writing exam by rewriting the essays with corrections featured and underlining the new elements that have been integrated. These revisions are due back on Monday, 11/2. It seems only fitting that we open the next unit with an equally intricate and time consuming endeavor:
Monopoly!
We begin our unit on Industrialization with Monopoly over the next couple of days. We will also engage in some levels of variations, as we begin the unit on wealth and ownership.
It was wonderful to have met so many of you at Conferences last week. I certainly invite all of you to contact me either at school or at home if you have any questions or concerns that I can answer.
All best and happy hunting. Congrats to many of our emerging scholars for enduring the first two months in strong fashion.
Mr. Kannan