Chapter 6 Quiz (Days 45-46)

Today in Stats, the students take the Chapter 6 Quiz on Normal distributions. This is the second 75-point quiz of the semester.

Once again, I return to the online test bank and choose some questions to post on Illuminate. This time, I select eight questions -- a combination of questions from different quizzes there. Of these eight, three of them are multiple choice -- I make each of these five points each. Then the five constructed response questions can be worth 12 points each (a multiple of four to go along with the Illuminate four-point rubric) to give a total of 75 points possible.

I won't grade these until over the weekend, so I don't know how yet well the students fare on them. All I know is what the one-on-one aide of the special ed guy tells me -- while she must provide him with plenty of help, he does seem to understand it better than he did with the Chapter 5 Test.

As for the other girl who's struggling slightly in recent weeks, I'm not sure. While the guys are doing their review assignment with marker and whiteboard, she attends an on-campus college visit for Mount St. Mary's, a small all women's university located not that far from my own alma mater (UCLA). While she does return in time for the quiz, she requests that I review a little with marker and whiteboard for her as well -- fortunately she does have enough time to finish the quiz.

Meanwhile, Calculus takes its second quiz of the year today as well -- Sections 3.1-3.3. Once again, I rely on DeltaMath, but this time my quiz is much shorter. There are only eight questions -- seven worth ten points each and one (a simple one-term power rule question) worth five points.

Of course, DeltaMath shows me the results right away -- so even though I still have to double-check the quizzes in order to award partial credit, I already have a feeling of how well the students fare today. It goes without saying that all my students get the easy five-pointer correct, so the scores are 75, 65, 55, etc.

And there's a direct relationship between performance on today's quiz and attendance. Two girls earn a perfect score -- both of them were present everyday since we started Chapter 3. The guy who usually earns the top score in the class gets a 65 (a B) -- and he was absent last Thursday. Another guy who has struggled in the past earns a 55 (a C) -- he was also absent once since the start of Chapter 3.

And one girl -- yes, the one who was absent for previous assessments -- earns a score of 45 (a D). While she is present for today's quiz, she did miss two recent classes, including the day of Section 3.1. It seemed as if she was always playing catch-up, trying to learn the material she missed. It makes sense that the current material is highly sensitive to absences -- the derivative rules are a cornerstone of Calculus. Most of the remaining material, including integrals (that is, antiderivatives) is dependent on this material.

Another student -- one who is usually present -- is absent today. She'll make up the quiz next week -- and I won't be surprised if several more students ask for retakes on the day she makes up the assessment.

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