Sometimes as a teacher, you decide to try to challenge your students. On a recent assignment on the book "L*ser", I asked my third grade students to answer this fairly difficult question:
On page 20, J*rry Sp*n*lli writes, "He expected recess to be something different, something new. It turns out to be simply free time. Recess turns out to be just another name for life as he has always known it. Only shorter. His first recess lasted six years. This one is only fifeen minutes." What do you think Sp*n*lli means?
I was surprised by the amount of kids that answered the question in the same way. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that all of the kids who answered in this manner happen to sit near each other. Hmmmm.....
Here are the unedited answers in question:
-I think sp*n*lli is a last name. Because it says Je*rry Sp*n*lli in the Book.
-I think Sp*n*lli is a last name.
-I think sp*n*lli is a last name because J*rry Sp*n*lli, sp*n*lli is after J*rry and that is mosly with ever last name.
-The arters last name?
-I think Sp*n*lly is a last name. I thnk Sp*n*lly is a last name becaus is ses in the book.
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5 comments:
I think you might want to be a little lenient. Not about cheating off your neighbors, which is inexcusable. But it seems that part of the problem here is a genuine misunderstanding of the intent of the question, i.e. what is the meaning of the guy's statement vs. what does the guy's name mean. The best course of action (says the non-teacher w/very limited experience vis a vis third graders) might be to make it absolutely clear that if they don't understand a question, to raise their hand and ask you what you expect from them. But then again, if they don't get what you're asking them, they might have a hard time getting the concept of miscommunication in general. Hmm. Tough one.
Jim,
You're right- obviously the question wasn't written very well. If I use this again next year, I will change the wording of the question. But the real problem is that third graders do not like to read directions or the whole question. I think they skipped the first part of the question and went straight to "What do you think Spinelli means?" I'm not going to be tough on them, but I will discuss how it is important to read the whole problem.
jeremy adds:
you should also explain to them that their bad answers are now up on the "World Wide Web" for everyone and their mother to look at and ridicule.
jeremy, that is a good idea but then i would have to explain why "world wide web" has quotation marks around it.
i think you should be thankful that "spinelli" means nothing more (or less) than a last name. imagine the responses to "what do you think fornecker means?"
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