End of Term Exams :: Charlotte Mason Style

Having just completed our first term of 12 weeks, I decided to give end of term examinations this year vis-a-vis Charlotte Mason's methods. I have always wanted to do this, but just never seemed to manage it in practice. The theoretical is always much easier than the application, but alas we managed it and it was a delightful way to finish up our first term. The kids loved it and did very well, after all, the idea behind end of term examinations is not to find out what a child doesn't know, but exactly what they do know, it's a WIN WIN all around :)

"We will now pass to a week before the end of term. One morning an envelope marked "House of Education, Ambleside," arrives. It contains the examination questions. As soon as the day you have fixed on comes round you open the envelope and the examinations begin. They last for one week, and the subjects are not all done in one lump three hours arithmetic, two, history, or whatever it is, but in the usual time set for that subject on the time-table. Thus you might have forty-five minutes history on Wednesday and forty on Friday. 

You are given one question at a time and when that is finished you are given the next. This method avoids the fatigue caused particularly in the case of younger children when the whole of the time allowed for one subject is taken at once. The examinations are not to be a burden to the children, but a pleasure. If one subject is finished before its allotted time is up then the remainder of the time may be used for another subject which the children have not had time to finish, but any questions for which there has not been time during the week may be omitted. Examinations conducted on this method cause no strain to the children. In the case of little children who cannot write, they dictate their answers, which are written down for them.

 

Songs and repetitions are heard, and exercise books, paintings, handwork and drill are inspected by the father or outside friend, sewing by the mother, and a report of these with marks given by the parent is then sent up to Ambleside with the written examination papers." PNEU

 

Here is a sampling of some of our exam questions ~

 

Highschool 11th grade

 

Art History :: Share your favorite art history work from your Khan Academy lectures. Please explain in detail what you especially enjoyed about this art and why giving the time period and other pertinent information.

                

Literature & Poetry :: Please narrate your favorite Eqyptian novel you read this term giving as much detail as possible. Did the story give you an accurate description of Egyptian life and culture. What was the main thing you took away from this book.   

Discuss your favorite poem from this term and share your analysis.

Great Books :: Finish the Iliad & Discuss General ?'s 1) When was the Iliad written/transcribed 2) What was going on elsewhere in the world at this time? 3) Who were some key people or rulers? 4) What was the geography like? (reference Iliad discussion site for each book based on Fagles translation)

Highschool 9th grade

 

History Exam :: Tell me all you know about the Early colonization of America. Include prominent people and any dates that come to mind. What was the Catholic role in colonization?                                         

Pretend you are a young Catholic priest, just landing on American soil, what would be your first mission and why? Please write a few paragraphs up to one page explaining your mission.

   

Oral & Written Religion Exam :: Do Religion Exam & Discuss.

Write about the life of a Saint that inspires you (a page or less).

Year 5 - 5th grade

 

Latin Exam :: Vocabulary & Latina Christiana Test 1

Recite the Confeitior and the Table Blessing

 

Astronomy Exam :: Share your Astronomy Notebook and give a detailed narration of one of the planets you have studied thus far.

Oral Natural History Exam :: Tell me what you know of Coral Reefs, where are some located, and name as many animals and types of coral you can remember. 

What do you know about Blue Whales, share some facts.

Turn in your Coral Reef art work.

 

Year 2 - 2nd grade

 

Oral Geography & Natural History :: Tell me the names of the Continents & the 2 largest oceans.

Color & label your Continents map

Tell me something about Coral & Tropical Seas, where is one reef that we studied?

What are some birds we see everyday in our yard?

Can you tell of some of their habits?

 

Fine Arts ::

Tell me about your favorite Vermeer Painting and why you like it. Can you paint your own version of this painting?

What was your favorite Haydn piece and why?

Turn in one of your pieces of artwork from this term.

 

Language Arts :: 

Recite The Turtle and turn in your copied poem, illustrate it. 

Read aloud one of your Little Stories for Little Folks Pink books 

Turn in one of your copywork pages, your best work from this term          Spell some of your green list words with the moveable alphabet.

Math exams were conducted about four of the five days and were a representation of the terms work thus far. For the highschoolers it was a Unit exam of completed chapters for Math-U-See Algebra II. The 5th grader did a fractions, decimals and a geometry exam from his cumulative work in Mammoth Math. The 2nd grader did various activities each day showing his ability to count to 100 by 1's, 10's and to 20 by 2's; showed me the decimal system and how to make numbers into the thousands using the "stamp game"; Addition using fact families, Subtraction with an abacus; and how to make tens playing the Snake game. 

We really enjoyed this process together and are now relishing in an extra long week's break for the Thanksgiving holiday. If you have any questions on how I administered the exams or need more information on how I go about creating the questions, please don't hesitate to email me :) We are looking forward to a nice week of relaxation and LOTS of reading and playing.

*Site note: there is some wierd formatting going on here with this post that I can't seem to fix, so sorry if it seems choppy and messy. Typepad may be upgrading or something, or I just seem to have some computer issues going on, anyhoo, hope it's readable for you all!!

Comments

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