Morality? Whose Morality?

June 24, 2008 in The Way It Were
Tags: affirmative, class, credential, dr. rosy, fire, good, hand, hobo, kremen school of education, method, morality, professor, question, raise, rosy, running, setting, socratic, streets, student, student teacher, teach, teacher, virgin, windshields

One day, our professor began class by asking us whether or not we should teach morality in public schools.

It took about 12 seconds for my credential class to decide that yes, we should. We wouldn’t want our little rapscallions running in the streets, taking baseball bats to our windshields and setting fire to hobos just because they didn’t get taught morality at home. In true Socratic fashion, he almost immediately posed another question.

Whose morality?

We thought it was another gimmie.

Why, Judeo-Christian, we said. That’s pretty common and acceptable, and we don’t need to add in all the theology when we teach it.

In true Socratic fashion, that was another setup.

Who here doesn’t think they subscribe to this Judeo-Christian morality, or something close to it?

Just about everyone grunted in the affirmative.

Who doesn’t?

Silence.

Hah. I bet you guys are a bunch of hypocrites.

We insisted we weren’t.

Alright, then. Let’s prove it. Could I have everyone who is married or was married come and stand up in the front of class for a moment?

We did so.

O.K. This question isn’t for the people standing up. This is for the people sitting down. How many of you are virgins?

One of us raised a hand.

The rest of you are hypocrites. According to Judeo-Christian morality, if you weren’t married, you should be a virgin. Therefore, according to Judeo-Christian morality, there is only one moral person among everyone sitting down in this class.

Now my question to you is: How can you teach morality if you don’t practice it?

Good question. Awkward way of showing his point, but a good question nonetheless.

Multiple-Choice Index Cards

May 29, 2008 in Darndest Things, The Way It Were
Tags: awesome, blog, cards, choice, classroom, create, database, easy, edublog, edublogosphere, education, exam, excellent, free, good, government, history, index, list, master, method, multiple, questions, senior, student, teacher, text, way, write, writing

Memorial Day was my day of work. I didn’t get much work done.

However much I racked my brains, I had tried and failed to brainstorm good multiple-choice questions. However long I stared at Microsoft Word, satisfactory test items just didn’t come. Then, an idea.

Inspired by a faint memory of one of my high school teachers, I decided to let my seniors write their own test questions for this semester’s pass-the-class-in-order-to-graduate cumulative final. Having students write hypothetical questions about course content is an excellent review activity — that’s the main impetus behind a local iteration of Cornell Notes, at least.

I gave them a short primer on effective test questions — make the question a complete sentence, have all the answers about the same length, no silly answers — and a list of a few topics I’d like questions written about. I warned that only the very best questions would make the cut.

At the very least, it was an excellent way to gauge which students needed help understanding the content, and who was doing just fine. I could then intercede on their behalf and give them a little nudge in the right direction.

There was a range of questions, including fact-recall:

22. What are the names of three major Federalists?
a. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson.
b. Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry.
c. John Jay, James Madison, George Washington.
d. James Madison, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton.

There were some questions with a little bit of higher thinking:

5. In which system of government do states have more power than a national government?
a. Unitary.
b. Confederacy.
c. Federal.
d. Communist.

I rewrote most of the rest to make them a little bit more challenging, or edited them for style errors.

Of course, I had a few questions that certainly didn’t make the cut.

xii. What are names of the two houses of Congress?
a. Executive, judicial.
b. Legislative, Supreme Court.
c. Judicial, executive.
d. White House, Pentagon.

In case you don’t know American government, this doesn’t even include the correct answers. Considering who giggled as I read that question, it’s safe to say that this was a joke, but just to be sure, I walked that whole section of the class through the names of each house in our bicameral duplex of a legislature.

Just plain silly made an appearance, also.

vi. Why am I so sexy?
a. My style.
b. My looks.
c. My hair.
d. The way I talk.

Seniors. Sheesh.

The student who wrote this question made sure to ask me the next day what I thought of it. I hesitated a bit, and then told him, jokingly.

I’m not going to put it on the test. It had a false premise.

After two minutes with a dictionary, he laughed out loud.