Exams

For many of us, exams have a bad feeling attached. Please see exams as an opportunity in this course. We will consistently use exams as a way to show competency, to increase awareness of strengths and weaknesses in specific areas and as check points.

In the recent past, educators expanded the meaning of test or exam to include many formats for proving expertise. In this course, exams are tied to your learning style and preference. In this course, they are also tied to your own creativity.

If you want to take a multiple choice test over the laws, one is available. If you are more of a kinesthetic learner, you may want to do a video stream of a dialogue. The course suggests that you prepare a brief, using the court cases and laws. You may want to become a court advocate for children or take a weekend course on mediation and help with school mediation and IEP's.

The idea here is to match your level of comfort and the State and NAU desire and dedication to provide you with enough rigor and proof to yourself and certification entities, that learning is occurring.

So --- exams are tests of the course, the professor, the textbooks suggested and a test of your ability to learn and evidence that you expended the effort. In once sense it is a hoop contest - can you or can't you? And it is a hoop contest for us, too. Did we teach you well? show you how to learn the material, provide practice, the big "MO" (motivation), make it clear what was expected? And then there is the other layer -- do others in the field - parents, administrators, future students, certification entities - and the Teacher Exam scores -- get a sense that you learned, too?

This is a very important construct. Not only does it apply to you in this course, it is the model for you and your teaching as a special educator. You want to learn to keep a series of things spinning all at once - student ability, challenge, learning style -- and you want the tests you use to show expertise, to point out strengths and weaknesses without embarrassing you or the student

Rigor + compassion + the big "MO" + accuracy in assessment + learning strengths + level of expertise + ?

Remember. In this course, you may suggest ways to show your expertise, or you can take the two exams that are available on line - One exam comes right after module one and covers introductory knowledge of recognizing students with special needs and the expectations of teachers and schools. The second test comes at the conclusion of the course and covers modules 2 - 5. Of course, you can set up a small exhibition any time.

Can you work open book on exams? Absolutely. Can you discuss the material with the teacher if you get stumped? Absolutely. What about talking with other students on-line? Absolutely.

Exam? Why not reformulate what it means to you and how to help students see them positively as you approach your test making days?

You may choose the exam you wish to take. You will want to prove competency in the course objectives.