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College
How to bring sanity to the world of final exams
December 11, 2007 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: Final exams are always a battle at my home. My eighth grade daughter studies every night past midnight, and I worry that she doesn’t get enough rest. My sixth grade son says he can’t study because the teacher has not told him what is on the test. My ninth grade son doesn’t think his finals should disrupt his life and studies only when his social calendar allows time. How can I bring sanity back into my house? |
The Assessment: One of my yearly rituals is to write a column this time of year, answering questions from parents who want to know how to best help their children prepare for final exams. Unlike other holiday traditions, this is one ritual I would like to do away with – or at least move to the beginning of the semester. Parents could avoid these questions by working with their children from first day of school.
Because of procrastination, this last-minute madness continues as each semester winds down. Parenting is a full-time job, and as our children get older, it becomes harder for a parent to help each child. On top of that, we have obligations to our employers, elderly parents or disabled children (I could list a hundred more) that fill our daily routines. Add to all of that the shopping, parties and decorating that come with December, and it’s not surprising that I receive so many letters this time of year. I sympathize with the struggles parents endure, but we must make a decision regarding what is important in our children’s lives.
While your children manifest different symptoms, they actually face a similar issue – final exam preparation – and resolve it in their own unique ways. Your children may demonstrate excessiveness, passiveness or avoidance in their exam preparation, but the real problem begins with their perspective of learning. This is one of the most prevalent issues facing our educational institutions.
There is a major misconception held by teachers, parents and students alike, that the goal of school is simple memorization and regurgitation. An education like this doesn’t teach students to think creatively. A degree from this learning system isn’t worth the paper it is written on in today’s global workplace.
What To Do: Like most students, your children don’t understand the difference between “studying” and “learning.” Can you solve your dilemma this semester? No, but you can make a decision for next semester that will change the rest of their lives. The solution is so simple, but I can’t get parents to take me up on it. There should be one rule in your home that must be obeyed without exception – Studying is not allowed!
Here are the rules:
When your children come home from school each day, they are not to do their homework – they are to learn it. This radical change of perspective allows them to understand and “own” knowledge, as opposed to merely memorizing it.
Homework is not complete until students prove that they would be able to make a good grade on a surprise quiz the next day. They can do this by giving you a lecture (without notes) or writing a mock test to be taken two hours after they finish.
Every test, quiz or homework grade should be on the refrigerator, next to a list of what they missed. They will learn this material later in the week or on the weekend.
This is very simple, yet too many parents will not make their children understand that studying is for those that want to be passively schooled. Learning is the first step toward receiving an education – a requirement for someone who wants to have an independent, significant life and who wants to become a leader.
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Teach child difference between learning, grades
March 29, 2007 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I am frustrated with the amount of emphasis placed on grades in my daughter’s school. I know grades are important for getting into college, but my daughter gets so stressed out by a C that it almost paralyzes her. How can I help her understand that there is more to education than grades? |
The Assessment: Our children’s grades can be motivators or they can be curses. Imagine, for a moment, that you are graded on your job the way your child is graded in school. Your boss gives you a daily grade on job performance – perhaps a 68 on your last memo and a 76 on your project presentation. Most employees dread even an annual evaluation by their supervisors; how would we react to this daily roller coaster, wondering how the boss will grade each move or decision?
As adults, we do not have to react to daily criticism from these pigeon-holing measures. Instead, we can be proactive as we ask ourselves, "where do I go from here?" and attempt to self-evaluate and continue our development.
For our children, fear of being in the wrong pigeonhole many times devastate all possibility of seeing grades for what they are – instruments that pinpoint challenges and direct energy. They might react to a 65 on a test by saying, "I’m stupid," even though more than half of the material is correct.
If we want our children to become proactive, we must help them see grades not as the end of learning but as the beginning. This turns the curse into a motivator.
What To Do: Talk to your daughter and clearly define what a grade is – a measure of what a student is able to give back in a teacher-determined format over which the student has no control. To do well on a test, and student must learn the material and must be able to give back the information in the accepted format, regardless of the strategy the teacher uses (true or false, multiple choice, essay or class participation).
A lower-than-expected grade can be the result of not knowing the material tested, not being test-savvy, or a combination of both. Also, remember that the goal is not just for your child to do well in school, but to do well in life. The process of learning might be more important than what is being learned.
For example, a student who successfully completes a science project has learned the process of planning for a long-term project, creating a hypothesis, testing it, and analyzing the results. This process will help a child succeed in life. Understanding the subject matter of a fourth-grade science project will only ensure success in school.
Used proactively, grades are directives for the future rather than regrets of the past. But in order to help your child chart the future, you must review together all tests, quizzes, homework and other graded papers. A test that goes unanalyzed is a worthless effort.
When your child brings home graded papers, have her assess all the points made on the test. Then for each point that was lost, have your child determine if it was a learning loss or a test-savvy loss, and then develop strategies to avoid similar mistakes in the future. As patterns emerge, set up a teacher conference before your child’s long-term learning begins to suffer. In other words, rather than having a parent conference reactively, have one proactively as soon as you can identify trends that need to be turned around.
Teachers can help parents assume this proactive stance by making sure that all graded materials are returned to students and parents. There is no way to improve unless parents and students know where to aim.
It is time we see grades as a motivator – a measure of our children’s potential for success. If failure is what we continue to measure, is it any wonder that our children fail?
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