...and many of them can even spell
Nuku'alofa correctly.
I just finished grading the Oceania map quiz. That's the hardest map quiz we've had yet, and the most totally unfamiliar. (Do
you know what the
capital of Vanuatu is? Could you even find
Vanuatu on a map?) And they complained about it a lot (as far as I can remember this was the first time some kids even complained in writing in their weekly journals about a map quiz). But I corrected the quizzes today, and I'm really proud of my students. It's quite obvious that all of them studied (some of them harder than others); normally there are a few kids who obviously didn't and totally bomb the quiz. There was only one failing grade out of thirty-four kids, and he would have passed if he'd gotten a few more points; there were a few in the C+ and B- range, and a very gratifying number in the A-range. There are always a few extra credit points, so there are always a few kids with better-than-perfect scores, but this time it seemed like more than usual. Plus, my lowest-level ESL student, who was given a mandatory zero on his last map quiz because he had answers written on his hand (he would have failed it anyway), got a 63.5 out of 63. It made me so happy.
Hey, Daniel, -- I really am happy that you're happy.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder, though, at what you are happy about.
Does your school require that your students know the name of the capital of Vanuatu?
If not, why do you require it?
Although I confess myself addicted to facts, in principle I'm with Sherlock Holmes. "A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.”
Just a thought. I certainly hope you'll continue to be happy, both of you!
Hi Walter! Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteThere was a statement in the standards I was given that said that students should "know the capital cities in all of Asia and the Pacific," which, if given a maximalist interpretation, would require that they know the name of the capital of Vanuatu.
I like knowing where things are, and what their capitals are; the Pacific islands have long been a pretty gaping hole in my knowledge, so I'm happy to have my kids fill that gap in their own knowledge, at least those of them with better memories. It also has the advantage of consistency. I obviously care more about whether my kids know the capital of China than whether they know the capital of Vanuatu. But where does one draw the line? Obviously I'm making judgment calls on what should be on my tests, but I prefer to err on the side of asking them to know more stuff.