How many blog posts will I start with this line? “Chemistry is hard.” But I say it all the time because it’s true. Chemistry is hard to learn and it’s hard to teach. And for that reason, I like to throw my students a bone whenever I can. The idea is to balance rigor and support in your chemistry classroom. In this post, I’ll be telling you about how I give my student grace with their grades in my class while maintaining rigor.
Grading
Grading in my chemistry class usually is something like this. 50-70% of the overall grade comes from tests and quizzes (yeesh!), 20% to labs, and whatever is leftover goes to homework, classwork, vocabulary assignments and whatever else is leftover. I’ve never been in charge of my grading scale. It’s always been determined by the school and I’m directed to adhere to it. That’s not a huge issue for me.
The big thing is that my students’ grades VERY HEAVILY rely on their test/quiz scores. My course is 16 units, now with the addition of light. So they’ll get 16 unit tests, 16 vocabulary quizzes, and maybe 1 or 2 quizzes throughout the year. (I’m really not a quiz giver. I think they take too much time, and they annoy me.) This boils down to 4 assessments on average per marking period. So each test is over 10% of their report card grade. And that can really make or break a student’s grade.
Don’t Let Students be Crushed by Chemistry
Over the years, I’ve developed a few ways to balance rigor and support in chemistry that give students second chances, keep them motivated, and still hold them accountable.
Unlimited Test Retakes
This is really my way of getting out of test corrections. I hate them. I hate the idea of giving back half credit on a TEST when students take the work home and can get anybody to help them with their test. It really just never sat right with me, especially when at least half of the report card grade was based on tests. I mean, when I was a student, turning a 93 into a 96.5 just didn’t seem like it was worth the time or effort. They’re both As so what’s really the difference? Repeat that over a few kids and now you’ve lost the plot.
Now a test retake allows the student to sit ALONE with a test, in the same environment and give it another go. Maybe they just needed two more days to REALLY understand the content. Maybe they missed a few lessons because they were sick. Or the worst situation, they couldn’t keep up because they just got dumped! There’s tons of reasons why a student bombs a test when they really shouldn’t.
After accumulating a few different versions of my tests, this was easy to do. During lunch or after school, students could stay with me and take a second test. I actually allowed UNLIMITED test retakes. And in my experience, there aren’t many kids who WANT to take chemistry tests, so it rarely happens once let alone twice. It made it SUPER easy for me to talk to parents about their kids’ failing grades. “Johnny didn’t take me up on the opportunity to retake ANY of the tests this quarter…”
My rules are:
- unlimited test retakes within a marking period, once the marking period ends, all tests are closed
- you must submit a “test retake” form for each retake
- tests are done by appointment and at MY convenience
- tests must be done in my classroom under my watch
Pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Especially because every school I’ve worked at required I stay late at least once a week to give my students extra time with me if needed.
Scoring Test Retakes
Since all students have this opportunity, I see no reason to average the scores together. I simply replace the old score with the new one. In the case that the new score is lower than the old one, the student needs to wait some amount of time, usually a week or so, to study some more, or maybe come to some extra help sessions after school before taking the test again. I know a lot of teachers like the idea of averaging.
I see as retaking a “real life” test. SAT, Driver’s License, etc. These tests just replace the score. Plus if students have a rough day, have the flu and missed a bunch of school, or some other temporary wrench in their life, I’d want them to have a fresh slate. It’s no difference to me if they needed any extra 5 days to learn the content and perform well.
Extra Credit
In my classes I give out, “Chemistry Coins.” They’re just little pieces of paper I’ve laminated and give out to students for anything I want to reinforce. That can be great questions asked, helping me with some tasks, arriving to class on time – really anything I’m looking to get my students to do more of. I have them at 1 and 5 point values. You can get them for free right here.
If you don’t plan on laminating them, I suggest you sign them when you give them out to your students. This way you know that YOU gave this chem coin to a particular student.
My students are allowed to use their Chem Coins on their tests, up to 20 points per assessment. They are not allowed to be used on quizzes. This to me, is a great way to get my students to participate in chemistry class. I give everyone a point for Valentine’s Day and Christmas. It’s usually pretty easy to get Chem Coins in my class. And adding 3 or 4 points to a test is really just a question or two. It doesn’t dramatically change their scores in the class, and it helps to keep behavior in line and keep students motivated.
Now one year there was a strong black market of Chem Coins, so that’s something to be aware of. I had one student in particular renting out his headphones for Chem Coins. But I wasn’t going to let him ruin it for all of us!
Lifelines on Tests
I use this strategy especially on the Stoichiometry test since it’s so tough. I will at random decide that my students are allowed to do one of the following things during a test.
- talk to a neighbor
- use their notes
- ask me a question out loud which I will answer for the the whole class
Really this is something that I will let my class work towards. If they have excellent behavior and everyone is turning in assignments, I’ll give them a “lifeline.” I’ll announce, “for the next 5 minutes, you may use your notebook, and only your notebook, to help you.” This helps me to create a good culture in my classroom, and gives my students a little confidence boost through a tough test.
Group Quizzes
I know I said I don’t like quizzes. Usually when a class is consistently on my nerves, I’ll change a classwork assignment to a quiz grade. Sometimes it’ll be a real quiz. Other times, the timing of the calendar would have forced me to give a test coming back from a long break, so I’ll break the unit up and do a quiz before the break and a test a few days after returning. Either way, students don’t love the circumstance.
In these cases, SOMETIMES, I’ll let them work together for the quiz. The rules change depending on a few factors, but here’s the jist.
- Students work silently with a partner
- Students can work aloud with a partner
- Students can work in any way they choose, but it can only be their brainpower. If they want to come together as a whole class and use the board, that ‘s up to them. I stay out of it.
- Sometimes I’ll do the above, but sit there as a “student” and work with them.
Making Chemistry Feel Possible
At the end of the day, my goal isn’t to make chemistry easy. It’s to make it possible. I want my students to feel like they have a fair shot, even when the material is tough. These strategies, retakes, Chem Coins, lifelines, and the occasional group quiz, are just a few ways to balance rigor and support in chemistry. They keep expectations high and give students a little breathing room while being authentically challenged in chemistry. Chemistry may always be hard, but with the right supports, my students learn that hard doesn’t mean impossible.
