What Happens After the Test?

Examiner column for May 12.

    Starting in March, students in Advanced Placement classes with May exams begin to ask, “What are we doing with the five weeks after the test?” Often it’s phrased more bluntly: “Are we doing anything after the test?”

    My mental reaction to that question always follows the poetic paradoxes presented in a poem by Tom Wayman, capturing the disconnect between student and teacher perception of what’s important. For teachers, the course is about so much more than the test!

    To the question “Did I Miss Anything?” asked by a student who has missed a class, the teacher in the poem offers a series of “nothing/ everything” responses that include:

    Nothing. None of the content of this course
        has value or meaning…

    Everything. Contained in this classroom is a microcosm of human existence
    Assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
       This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered

           but it was one place
           and you weren't here  (Wayman, 1994)

    Like this teacher, I find myself wanting to tell students, “No--we are doing nothing after the test--if you define this course in terms of that three hour goal.”

    But simultaneously, I want to tell them, “Yes—we will continue to look at language as a mirror reflecting man’s humanity, and think of this class as a lens through which to understand others, and appreciate their efforts to communicate.”

    But I do not say any of the above. Instead, I mumble something about doing “fun things” that won’t seem too painful for seniors about to graduate.

    I can see them mentally yawn.

    What does happen after the test? The absentee rate, steadily climbing throughout the year, continues to climb. Students fall asleep during the day because they are staying up later, often chatting online with friends about college or summer plans.

    Occasionally, I can coax students into doing some real thinking: placing their educations in a larger context, and predicting what skills will be useful to them in college and the workplace.

    Often those contemplative meditations on their learning are quite revealing and moving. Sometimes, they are burnt-out and cynical. Either way, students gain a valuable perspective on how school might move beyond the four walls of the classroom.

    But most of the time, teachers give into the cynical end-of-the-year blahs, and think of the last several weeks as redundant to the heart of the course.

    Do students understand the larger message you hope your course conveys? Do they see that what you are doing in reading, social studies, physics, or math class is really about the world and not about textbooks and quizzes? And that doing “fun things” is not the goal of the course?

    Perhaps some do. Meanwhile, I want my students to know that after the test, we will be doing nothing and everything--so don’t tune out yet.

Comments

[evelyn]

So how was your visit to your daughter? Did she celebrate mother's day with you? I hope you had a lot of fun!!!!!!

Well, firstly, I really like the poem. I love the everything/nothing-ness. It sums up just about all that there is to say, so truthful! :P

I just want to assure you that I REALLY learned a lot this year in both of your classes and all throughout my other 5 classes, including time between classes, after school...you get the idea. Not just about how to get good grades, but everything and anything in between. Actually, thinking back to it, I CAN'T believe how much I learned. I think the biggest thing is that I was lucky (or unlucky) to witness so many different human reactions and the way they just do things. I already tend to analyze things psychologically (if you already haven't noticed, I tend to enjoy that part of me that's able to do so), and this year, everything everyone did really opened my eyes more because I didn't know people are so...well I can't explain it. Predictable? Unpredictable? Shallow? Deep? I just really didn't know so many things could have happened. I know it sounds bad, but it's actually not. All I'm saying is that our huge 60 some people class really gave me some perspective and frankly some judgment about how and why people are the way they are. Honestly, I have misjudged a lot of them, but then I've also been correct about many of them. I tend to not, but it's hard not to have some preconceived idea about people, just to be "safe". But the good thing about that is I can control my prejudice pretty well. :P Okay, I'm babbling off AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Just want to wish you a late Happy Mother's Day

XOXO

[evelyn]

Dr. Jacobs!!!!! Remember I told you that I was going to the metro with my friends to ask for donations for the earthquake victims? in a mere 3 hours, we got over $2,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm soooooo extremely happpppppppy and proud!!!!!!!

[Dr. Jacobs]

Wow! That's great, Evelyn. You can add that to all your other learning experiences of the year. The rest of us have learned a lot from you, too.

[Evelyn]

Is that good? That you learned a lot from me too? I hope it's not bad stuff. hehe. Well, some teacher told the same thing to me before. The "I learned more from you than you did from me" line. And then I read in a book that it is just a line teachers say. Do you really mean it?