They keep failing! What do I do?

Question

My 3rd period Spanish I class does as well as I would expect on their Spanish quizzes, but only 5 out of 30 passed in my 4th period. This is not the first time 4th has fallen behind 3rd, and I can think of at least 3 possible, somewhat legitimate explanations:
1. 3rd period is 10 minutes longer than 4th every day--100 minutes instead of 90
2. More natural ability in 3rd than 4th
3. Several athletes have to leave early from 4th regularly for matches, and other interruptions like fire drills

I let 4th do a mini-make-up quiz to gain back points on the first quiz to compensate for the time imbalance, but I don't think I can keep doing that, since those conditions will always exist.

Their grades are horrible. Even the top scorers didn't break the 90's--and they could get up to 10 points extra credit. Do I give them another quiz? "Extra" credit? Or let it be a lesson to them?

I do offer tutoring Monday through Thursday, but of course only those who don't need it bother to come. And I play games every day (after checking homework and cognate chart starters). Many of the struggling parties don't bother participating, though, to improve their Spanish.

Answer 1

I think that the fact that these conditions will always exist would be the reason for these kids to always get an extra quiz or assignment. Overall when the final grades are calculated it isn't that big a deal since it is all averaged out anyway.
I also think that it could work both ways anyhow, with the consistent low scorers getting even lower averages.
Getting them to have the chance to make up tests is the small problem, getting them to learn Spanish is the real problem. I used to have a math teacher who always had the room open after school and at lunch so people could get extra help. It was a really big help. Even after he had it only open Mon and Wed at lunch and Tuesday and Thursday afterschool. If you couldn't make these times he would make an appointment with him as long as he knew you would show up, if he thought you were serious and not just trying to fake out because your homework wasn't done.

Answer 2

I agree you can't always do extra make-up tests for them. It wouldn't be fair and they'd begin to expect special treatment.

I'd say keep the scores as is for this first test.
Perhaps offer the 4th period an extra study class once a week after school, strongly encouraging the athletes who leave early to attend (after all, they are the ones who are missing out on instruction).
Perhaps give some extra consolidation homework for them to do help them remember and understand the material better.

I find it odd that there is such a time difference between period 3 and 4 (I assume period 4 is at the end of the day). Ask what the other teachers do to even out their period 3 and 4 classes.

Answer 3

Hola, I feel your pain! Isn't there always one class that doesn't do as well as others? It is very frustating. There are some students who don't care and won't try even a little bit (sadly). And as they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. But, the majority of those kids (I'm guessing) want to do well. In my Spanish classes I give my students lots of unannounced quizzes and there are times that they don't do as well as I thought. If there a certain item or concept that most of them got uncorrect, I may throw that question out, but i go back and reteach it whatever it is, because they may not have acquired it yet. Then I test them again. Extra Credit? That's up to you. I only give it once or twice a year, and you have to do something "extra"; make a piñata, make a poster, etc. Do you have another spanish teacher that you could talk to? Are you part of any listserves for foriegn language? I am the only FL teacher at my school, so i use the listserves for advice too. There is a really good one called FLTEACH, and if you use TPRS, there is an excellent listserve called moretprs. ¡Buena Suerte!

Answer 4

I'm not that far out of high school and can remember my spanish 1 class very well. My first question is what kinda of teacher are you? Do you read from the book and answer the questions at the end or ar you a fun teacher that gets the kids involved in other ways such as bring this in or group projects? I know that my biggest complaint in school was that the teachers were boring. They didn't do anything fun and that made learning hard for me. At first my spanish teacher was reading from the book we took notes then answered some questions when she relized that we were not learning she started having us get involved. She had a show and tell day (this was in high school too) Every Friday we had to bring something in and talk about what it is and what it was called in Spanish. We had no more then 2 minutes to talk about it no less then 1 minute. We had to talk as much in spanish as we could and what ever object we bought in had to be reffered to in its spanish word by EVERYONE from then on. By the end of the semester we knew words that we needed to know. She also had us do a neat project we had to pick 2 rooms in a house. After we picked our 2 rooms we went through magiznes to find objects that went in those rooms. Then had to label them in spanish. She liked oral reports so when we were done we had to get in front of the class and tell everyone what the spanish word was for say a bed or night table. It was a lot of goofy fun stuff but she knew thats how our class learned. I hope that you take what I have said into concideration. Good luck to you and your class!

Answer 5

I don't think you should let them do the mini-make up quiz. Maybe you will need to change the way that you teach that class. I have the same problem with one of my classes., and i have had to make some modifications for them. What methods are you using? Maybe you need to use a different test or form of assessment. I am a Spanish teacher, if you tell me what you are doing, maybe I can offer some more specific instructions.

Answer 6

50 minutes extra a week. I think that's alot of extra time. Maybe you should adjust something for that lack of the extra ten min. It doesn't seem like much, but when speaking another language it is.

Maybe not "extra credit" but more homework for the class lacking the ten minutes. If that's possible.

I'm not a teacher, but as a parent who cares and is involved in her child's homework on a daily basis, I would care. I wouldn't just let it be a lesson to them.

I wish I could help more. You seem like a teacher who really cares about your students! God bless! I wish more teachers were like that!!!

Answer 7

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Answer 8

STOP BABY SITTING THEM, you have a lot of jocks who it sounds like don't care, is this a required class? IE foreign language. don't give them extra tests to make up for bad test, treat them the same as every other class.
If this is a slower learning class then slow down your pace so that they can keep up. Don't be afraid to fail them, If they are trying their best it will show and you will know who deserves a passing grade and the ones who aren't can fail regardless of their athletic ability.

Answer 9

do what my Spanish 1 teacher does and make them do post work which is making them write it 5 times if they make less than a 95 grrrrrrrr i hate my Spanish 1 teacher

Answer 10

Well that is a problem. Maybe you should start inforcing it like tell them that if they dont study then they will fail the class and stuff like that. Maybe that will scare them into studying.