Testing...1...2...3.....

In which I give my first written exam.

It was a disaster.  A horrible horrible horrible disaster.  I learned a lot about how Mozambican students take tests.  

First mistake, I didn't know how to get a paper test printed and copied, so I wrote the questions on big pieces of paper and stuck these to the board.  This seemed like a fine idea, other teachers do this.  It was problematic though; some of my classes are so big that the papers were hard to read at the back.  One of my night classes didn't have energia--I figured we would be okay for the test because the class starts at 6pm, but the room got dark fast.  Another problem with this method is that students can stand outside the classroom and peek in thorough the windows to steal the questions, and there was nothing I could do about this, short of chasing the kids away--but then I'd leave the rest to cheat.  And cheat they do.  Roaming eyes, talking, holding cheat sheets..typical stuff.  But they do it SHAMELESSLY.

After years and years of rote-learning and memorization these kids have had little training in actual thinking or applying knowledge.  It's not unusual for a Mozambican teacher to sit in the front of the class room and read to the kids from the text book and call it a day.  So they've learned to memorize what they're told--understanding is not necessary.  The challenge is the memorization for them.

I thought I took this into account when I wrote the test--I tried to keep the difficulty level of questions pretty close to straight up repetition of facts.  One question was "What is a cell?".  I thought this was a softball, it only required a definition.  But there were some who obviously hadn't come to any of the classes.  (They can get away with this because we're still not taking attendance in class--we JUST got the lists of kids who are supposed to be in our classes last week)  "A telephone"  Some were obviously desperately copying words from their cheat sheet "A cell is a study of Zoology and animals an example of a cell is Citology"  I would be mad at them for cheating if I thought it helped them any.

Another problem we ran into was the format of the questions.  I guess there are some question formats that I assume everyone is familiar with.  For example:  I asked them to draw lines between the Ramos da Biologia and their Objectos de Estudo.  Four Ramos on the left, four objectos on the right.  There were directions:  "Draw a line between the Ramo and what it Studies"  They didn't understand what to do.  Some of them Looked at the directions and figured they were supposed to list the ramos da biologia.  Others just sat and stared at the board.  I explained how to do the problem at least 5 times for the whole class.  Numero 3.  There are 4 Ramos, there are 4 objectos.  Draw lines between the ramos and what they study.  The kids then tilt their heads and say "Para ligar?"  YESSSSS PARA LIGAR KIDS!  So frustrating.

Now that I know a little bit about what goes on in their heads I can definitely write tests that are more accessible to them--and also give them more practice in class to get them used to different question formats (label, draw lines between, fill in the bank...etc) a test that doesn't involve copying definitions without understanding.

In other news, I don't teach Monday or Tuesday now, so today I'm filling in for another Bio teacher--I'm giving all her afternoon tests.  It'll be interesting to see how her tests and students differ from mine.