Notes from SKO: Teacher Chronicles, Part Two

My students in numbers

During the first term of the school year (September to December, 2015):

• 30.8% of the girls got an A and 11.5% of them got a B on their English Language exams.
• Only 13.5% of the boys got an A and 10.8% of them got B grades.

In my last essay I mentioned how I started this term (the second one) by testing their proficiency in the use of written and spoken English.

In the comprehension test, which involved reading a short fiction passage and answering questions on the passage:

• 32.4% of the boys got 60% or higher on the test, while it was 46.2% of the girls who did the same.
• 11.5% of the girls have very good comprehension skills, compared to 10.8% of the boys.

In the reading and pronunciation test, which involved reading the following portion of the same short fiction passage from the comprehension test:

• 29.7% of the boys can confidently read aloud in English.
• Only 15.4% of the girls could do the same. They tend to be more timid when responding to questions but they’re just as noisy as the boys when they’re left to their own devices.

In the writing and composition test, which consisted of a take-home assignment where the students were asked to describe their homes and neighborhoods:

• 24.3% of the boys got a score of 60% or better, while 23.1% of the females did the same.
• Only one boy (2.7%) and one girl (3.8%) can write confidently in English.

I’m having trouble with a subset of students I’m referring to as chronic dodgers because they’ve managed to avoid multiple assignments and in-class exercises by skipping class sessions or simply not submitting their work.

• About 35.1% of the boys and 34.6% of the girls fell into this category as of the 25th of January.
• The worst offenders have submitted little or no work since the start of the term. 7.7% of the girls and 10.8% of the boys fall into this category.

Among the best and worst performers there are a few honorable and dishonorable mentions. These are the all-stars.

There are 15 students who’ve pulled to the head of the pack, but they’ve already begun to shuffle into other positions in the rankings. 6 of them are boys and 9 of them are girls.

The all-star offender is a boy who didn’t attend any session until the end of the second week and announced himself by repeatedly disrupting my class. He told me that he had been absent because he had been busy making money as a bike repairman and when he made enough money he decided to come to school.

I also have one honorable dishonorable — a girl who is part of the 15 top students but has only participated in two of the seven graded exercises so far.

In my next Teacher’s Chronicles essay, I’ll break down how I’m tackling the adverb module, the first formally structured lesson group of the term.

Please feel free to leave a response or comment on my essay.