Reflection 5: Time Practice after School

a) Focus on a specific assessment task in your school. Describe the assessment and discuss its effectiveness

Assessment task

In my school, there is a dedicated time slot for each subject (to conduct any extra classes or remedial etc) everyday after school. During this dedicated time slot for literature, students (mainly sec 4s) are made to do “time practice” where they are required to do lit practice papers. Sometimes, they are tasked to do unseen poetry/prose question and sometimes they are required to look at questions based on the text that they study, depending on the consensus of the literature department. Once students have finished or when the time is up, the teacher will collect their essays and mark them. They will be given a certain grade/marks. The questions will then be discussed during their literature lesson.

The good

This “time practice” helps simulate exam condition, allowing students to practice analyzing exam question and writing their answers in a given time (50 minutes). With much practice, students will get used to the amount of time given and will know roughly how much time they should take to plan and write their essay. In essence, it is a good way to prepare students for exams. Personally, I have been to several classes to invigilate this “time practice” and I must say that I thought the students looked very serious in doing the questions. They seem to look like they took this opportunity very seriously. I could see that students were trying their very best to finish their essay despite knowing that it was just a practice paper. Or so it seems…

The bad

Despite students’ apparent effort, I do not know how well they did for their essay. As such, I cannot really say for sure how effective it is. However, I managed to ask some students about their thoughts on this “time practice” exercise. Most students felt that it is not really helpful as they cannot write to their potential due to fatigue. This “time practice” is scheduled after school and so, most students complained that they were tired and, could not think and write their essays well. They mentioned that they were just doing it because they had to and were not taking it seriously. Every other day, they have other subjects, which they have to do this “time practice” exercise. As such, students have lost sight of its true purpose. They just see it as a lesson after school that they need to complete.

My thoughts

While this idea of getting students to practice writing is good, I see no point if students are made to do it constantly after school when they are feeling tired after sitting through 6-7 hours of lesson in the day. Perhaps making it less frequent would be better. Instead of focusing on quantity, why not focus on quality? I feel students should be well prepared before they are tasked to sit for the “time practice”. This ensures that the exercise will be taken seriously and students can give better written answers. As for now, doing the “time practice” constantly would not only be a waste of students’ time (as they do not take the writing task seriously) but also the teachers’, as they have to spend time marking a piece of work that is not good.