Commentary

We are supposed to write commentary on student work and display it. It is difficult to do this with standard math work ("great job" - but how much more can you say?). I asked them to do some writing today, to analyze graphs. But they gave me numbers and no more.

In what I hope is a flash of brilliance, I came up with this: I wrote comments on the graphs which I will give them tomorrow with examples of commentaries I have written on student work. Then I will ask them to critique MY work with commentary.

First test: The students did poorly on this test [note: this was the same as test B on the first page]. While there were passing grades, in each class more than 75% filed the test. Look at the Top 25% in each class. The beginning number is less than 70 in each case and the top number is less than 70% in two cases. I would assume that the students were not prepared for this test and require remediation.

Second test: The students did much better on this test,. Three of the classes have passing grades in the bottom 25%. All of the classes have As in the middle 50%. Class C did the most poorly as over 50% failed the test.

Maybe this will get them thinking on the level I'd like. My writing is not long - it tends to be terse. Maybe this will help them see I am not looking for a novel, just understanding.