Week 2

Mr. Fisher will be okay; he just needs to make some very important adjustments for next year.

This year, Fisher designed his year plan, complete with assessments and weightings. He succumbed to the traditional thinking that the unit tests should have a relatively heavy weighting in students' overall grades, but he didn't know anything about the tests! His projects were well-received by students and I gather they were quite educational as well and were in line with curricular expectations. There is nothing wrong with testing at the end of each unit, but in this case the test was unfamiliar material (or familiar material presented in unfamiliar fashion) to the students and teacher. It is difficult to justify a heavy weighting on a test of that quality.

Fisher needs to begin his year plan by familiarizing himself with the actual Program of Studies. He will still be able to do his projects, but he will learn from his experiences this year, such as preparation and presentation taking longer than expected, and adjust it accordingly. He may also be wise to increase the weightings of these projects in light of the fact that the students seem to do some of their best learning while they are in process.

As for the tests, they sound like they are inconsistent with the way that he teaches the material to students. He can either do away with them entirely, drastically change their weighting, re-create the test into a more understandable context, or any combination of these options.