There needs to be a period; preferably the last of the school day; dedicated to tests and quizzes, such that students can write past time if they need to.

I remember when I used to be a student. Tests would always take me longer to finish than they took most classmates, even though I knew my material better than most classmates. By high school; or at least partway through high school; I was even assigned a separate room in which to start my tests in the first place if only because they knew it'd take so long.

I also remember being a teacher. I hated having to enforce time constraints, but I also hated the fact that students who finished early just had to read ahead in whatever the next section was or do work from other courses, and keeping them from talking while others were writing was an uphill battle, especially in the sorts of towns rife enough with bad parenting that students weren't already respectful enough of each others' need to finish the test in quietly to keep it down if only for each others' sake.

I'll not disclose what I've since switched to, but I don't think these time constraints achieve anything useful as far as teaching students to work quickly goes. I get most of my job work done on time. Somehow I find it easier to work quickly at my present job than grading papers or writing them. Evidently school did a poor job imitating the outside world.

When we assign tests in a lecture's time slot, we are making teachers choose between "make the quiz so short that the rest of class is an uphill battle against talkative early finishers" and "make the test so long that students who take longer than their classmates to finish end up missing lunch and/or the subsequent class." We need something better than this.

My proposal? A dedicated room, and dedicated time slot, at the end of the day, for tests and quizzes. This way, students who finish early can leave to go to the gymnasium or the library, and students who finish late can still stay after school if they need to, therefore missing only the most optional of after school activities. This dedicated room can also be designed in ways that deter cheating and/or catch it.

If this time slot is unused most of the time, it can even double as the physical education time slot, as usually there isn't as much continuity with physical education as with other courses so missing the occasional class isn't as big a deal. And if some student is exempt from physical education for medical reasons, again, they can always go to the library in this time in lieu of the gymnasium.

So what say you, Reddit? Is this a solid proposal or am I missing something here?

Submitted September 06, 2024 at 03:41AM by ShortUsername01 https://ift.tt/uVaFILO