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TEACHERS.NET GAZETTE
Volume 4 Number 8
COVER STORY
New teacher induction . . . what does that have to do with me, a veteran educator?
It Takes a Community
to Induct a Teacher...
ARTICLES
When the Teacher Becomes the Student by Joe A. Martin, Ed.D.
Treating All Students With Dignity by Laura Dombrosky
Working with Emotionally Disabled Students by Susan Rismiller
Considering Writer's Workshop by Judy Mazur
Create Language Arts Success at Every Grade Level By Using TEACH Observe Publish by Jacqueline Rhoades
Teacher Resource Book Reviews from the Teachers.Net Community
Creation vs. Evolution - How Do Teachers Respond? from the Science Teachers' Chatboard
Common Mistakes Made by New Teachers from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Tips for Nervous New Teacher from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Math & Literacy Learning Centers for Upper Grades from the Teachers.Net Learning Centers Chatboard
Weekly Tests by P R Guruprasad
Editor's epicks for August by Kathleen Alape Carpenter
Journal Writing in Pre-K by Vanessa Levin
Beginning of School Letter from the Teachers.Net Early Childhood Mailring
The Kindergarten Center by Kathleen Carpenter
What to Do About Biters from National Association for the Education of Young Children
Batik - Lesson & Rubric for Grades 10-12 by Carolann Tebbetts
Healthy Living Tips from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Create the Sounds of a Thunderstorm in the Classroom submitted by Virginia in Idaho
Good Football Fight Music, Cavalcade of Mascots Site, Football Organizations Online from the High School Chatboard
August Columns
August Regular Features
August Informational Items
Gazette Home Delivery:

About P R Guruprasad...
After doing his BSc and BEd Degrees from the Univ. of Madras, he entered teaching. He has taught K-12 English, Maths, Science, Physics and Chemistry. He has worked as teacher, principal and education officer in school systems in India, S Asia and Africa. He has also worked as education officer in Macmillan India Limited where his career responsibilities included conducting teacher development workshops, offering editorial assistance and developing curricular support materials.

He now runs his own Educational Publishing Firm 'Ragaleela Publications' along with his brother [a marketing professional]. Guruprasad takes care of the Firm's K-12 Education division which is involved with curriculum, teacher development and education administration materials.

You can learn more about Guruprasad and his work by visiting www.raagaleela.com.

Teacher Feature...

Weekly Tests

by Panamalai R Guruprasad

What are weekly tests? These are tests that are given once in a week to assess children's understanding of lesson concepts taught during the week.

Weekly tests are usually administered during the lesson, not after completing it.

Children's performance in weekly tests helps in identifying difficult areas which are not understood by children. This may be a diagram, description, explanation or even 'putting words on paper'.

To assess pupil's understanding we use these 4 methods.

Most classrooms in the world are multi ability ones. Handling a multi ability classroom is not easy. Added to this is the number of kids in classrooms in the developing world particularly in regions such as Asia, Africa, South America, E. Europe and the Pacific Rim. The problem is compounded in countries like India where the teachers are predominantly females and find it difficult to take kids' work home due to household chores [though there may be exceptions].

We see many kids doing their homework by simply copying from their classmates. Sometimes homework is done by the parent [as I have myself seen].

Though projects can be assigned on pedagogically sound principles, they require much planning and implementation with ample scope for prediction and experimentation. Hence they cannot satisfy our short term objective ['Have the kids understood the term 'energy' before I move on to teach 'conservation of energy'?]

Unit or monthly tests are given only at the end of any lesson/unit; these tests measure the achievement level at the end of teaching whole lesson/s. Once the lessons have been taught in full, it is usually not easy to get back to square one to re-teach.

After all of what we have seen, weekly tests are the only means to assess pupil understanding during the course of a lesson. Any bottlenecks revealed in the child's test performance will help the teacher to redesign teaching learning methods 'then' and 'there' before it is too late for remedial action. Weekly tests benefit the child as well as the teacher. One test a week keeps the problems away for ever and ever.

You can download this article in its original PowerPoint format here - WeeklyTests.ppt

If you do not have PowerPoint installed on your computer, you can download a free copy of PowerPoint Viewer here - http://office.microsoft.com/ downloads/2000/Ppview97.aspx

    P R Guruprasad
    Director [K-12 Education]
    Raagaleela Publications
    AB Annex, First Floor, Manju Apts
    54, Lake View Street
    Nesappakkam. K K Nagar West
    Chennai - 600 078
    India.

    Email: k-12education@raagaleela.com
    Website: www.raagaleela.com
    Ph: 044 36989898

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