Exams, Y6 & Y8, thoughts

I’m going to finish recording their exam questions/answers here and then put my thoughts down. You can read if you would like but it’s here mainly for record keeping purposes. I’ve been reading about Exams at AO, Parents’ Review, also.

Y6

Science:
1. Describe the animals that are found on the surface waters of the sea. (The Sea Around Us)
-Fish can be seen and at night and rarely during the day you may see whales. Depending on where you are the fish will change. Some may be blue, some green or maybe even yellow. Whales only come to the surface occasionaly. They travel so finding a whale could be hard.

2. Sketch and object that has a cam. *he made a small drawing

3. Tell how hides are processed into leather. *he spoke more about this than he wrote
- They are washed then put into dye.  They are given material so they don’t rot or fall apart.

4. Write about Archimedes.
- Archimedes was an inventor in ancient Greece. He was killed by a Roman soldier while working on a diagram. He invented levers.

5. Draw the general winds on a sketch of the earth. *he made a small drawing

Art Study:
Describe your favorite picture from this term. *he drew a small picture; that was not what was instructed

Composer Study:
1. List composers studied this term. *he’s listed composers from the year, not just the term
- Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi

2. What ‘periods’ have been studied this year? Tell the ‘sounds’ of at least two different periods. *he did not ‘tell’ the sounds
- Classical, Medival. Syphany, Oprea (symphony, opera)

3. Name any compositions that you can from this term’s study.
- Fur Elise

Recitation:
Recite Romans 12:1-16 *did not do

Foreign Language:
Latin:
1. Translate- I have loved, he will love, they will walk*, he was praying. *I wrote the wrong phrase here originally but he was able to write what I was thinking *wink*
- amavero, amabat, ambulabunt, orabat

2. Translate “Pray and work” OR write a saying in English, then Latin. *he did both, misspelled ‘igitur’
- Ora et labora; In umbra igitor pugnabimus: Then we will fight in the shade

3. Translate the words: now, blame, seize, table, sky
- nunc, culpo, occupo, mensa, caelum

4. a) Give the tenses, in correct order. *these are incorrect, he was thinking of cases
- nom. gen. abl. dat., acc.
b) Give the first declension case endings. *the first three are correct.
- a, ae, ae, am, as, at, orum, at, um, t

German:
Write three phrases in German, translate into English: *I asked for phrases, not just words
Guten Tag! –Good day!
Herr –Mr.
das Auto –the car

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Y8

Science/Biology:
1. Write what you know about mitochondria.
- The mitochondria produces ATP, which is like energy ‘currency’. ATP is used in almost all of the actions of the cells, and therefore very important. Cells have several mitochondria, so that they won’t run out of energy. Mitochondria look somewhat like this: *she included an illustration
Those with mitochondrial diseases have mitochondria that are unable to produce ATP effectively, and so their bodies don’t have enough energy to function properly.

2. Draw and label an illustration of a muscle cell. *she drew and labeled

3. a) Describe mitosis.
- Mitosis is how many cells reproduce. It begins with the duplication of the organelles (such as the mitochondria and the nucleus) so that each daughter cell (the two new cells that are the result of mitosis) can function properly. The organelles form two equal groups and head towards opposite sides of the cell. This is technically where mitosis ends, but many include the part where the cell splits in half, resulting in two daughter cells.
b) Describe meiosis.
- Meiosis is like mitosis, but a bit more complicated. The DNA and genes from your parents are taken from within a sperm or egg cell, mixed up a lot and then split up twice.
4. How are eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells different? *I would like more clarification on this
- The main difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells is the nucleus.

Art Study:
Describe your favorite picture from this term.
- My favorite Bierstadt picture is the one with the seals. I like how there is action in the picture, as a wave crashes over the rock where the seals sit. There is a seal in the wave, and it has a fish in its mouth. The all-around color is gray, which makes the orange-red fish and the white seagull stand out.

Composer Study:
1. List composers studied this term. *she’s listed from the year, not just the term
- Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn

2. What ‘periods’ have been studied this year? *the second questions of ‘tell the sounds…’ did not get put on her exam, for some reason
- Classical and Romantic

3. Name any compositions that you can from this term’s study.
- Symphony No. 5 (dun dun dun), Moonlight Sonata, Farewell Symphony, The Seasons

Recitation:
Recite Psalm 139:1-14 *did well

Foreign Language:
Latin:
1.  Translate “Then we will fight in the shade.”
- In umbra, igitur, pugnabimus.

2. Translate “Pray and work” OR write a saying English, then Latin.
- Ora et labora.

3. Translate the words: now, blame, seize, table, sky.
-  nunc, culpo, occupo, mensa, caelum

4. a) Give the tenses, in correct order.
- Present, Imperfect, Future, Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect
b) Give the first declension case endings. *she has a few in the incorrect place and plural are incorrect but the nominative
-a        -ae
-ae      -ibus
-ae      -as
-am     -is
-a        -as
c) Give the second declension, n., case endings. *the first three are correct, the rest are incorrect
-um     -a
-i          -
-        -os
-        -is
-        -os

Greek:
Translate as much as possible, Homer’s Odyssey. *she worked in a Word document

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And now…my thoughts.

I *do not* want this to turn into a negative thing. That’s like saying, “No offense…” because you are going to say something that most likely will be offensive. Anyway. Day 1 was the most productive and encouraging. It went less so each day. Lee was consistent with the quality of her answers and the effort put forth. Fox, not so much.

Next time –yes, there will be a next time –answers will be given verbally for some subjects/questions and written for others. When Fox was going over the exams the first and second day he talked more than he wrote. When I look at the answers he gave, I know he said more than he wrote. There were a few that he was unsure of how to answer and so he was telling me how he should answer but when I told him to write it, it definitely lost much in ‘translation’, I suppose. Perhaps I should have recorded him as he spoke…

I was okay for the most part with the work that Lee did. I do feel that she should broaden her vocabulary a bit more. She’s capable of more descriptive writing but seems to save it for ‘creative’ writing. She knows a vast number of words but doesn’t speak them very often. Her dad and I try to incorporate ‘big’ words in our conversations with them {not to make them confused} so that they hear how they sound, how they are said. But it hasn’t quite made a difference. Yet.

I also wonder how to ‘time’ their exams. I wanted to cover about 3 hours each day. Not that they had to work over their papers the entire time but I felt if it were less than that each day they hadn’t put in the necessary thought and effort. My idea of the amount of time it should require to pour out their thoughts is simply a number that I felt was ‘good’. Whether it was or not, I don’t know. I do know that it did not take 3 hours for them to do good work on any given day. I’m okay with that. The time it takes isn’t important. But I do want the effort put forth. Putting a time limit on it, I felt, would help them give a little more, I suppose.

So why did I choose to do the exams in the first place? We don’t use tests otherwise, with the exception of Latin and math. I try to gauge their learning with narrations and how they apply what they learn. I feel the need to have a letter grade to give. Fox’s Young Marine CO requests {demands?} a progress report every so often from the group. That is one reason I give exams- so I can give a letter grade for that sort of thing. I also want to have a end-of-year measure. What have they really retained?

I want them to be able to write their answers as they think them. I know they can and are capable. There will be times in their lives where they will need to take an exam such as this –not just multiple choice. I’m trying to prepare them.

I think my questions were fine so next time I will work on mixing oral and written narrations and the time factor.

Human effort ranks high in the esteem of the individual who exerts it.
-Neil Wynn Williams