I gave my 8th graders their first ACS today. It was easy, but it brought out some incredible cheating strategies. In order to subvert cheating, I give two variants so that students next to each other don't have the same text. I write all of the questions on the board, except for certain key words, then explain the questions, one by one, as I fill them in. Students are not allowed to speak from this point forward, nor are they allowed to look anywhere but at the board and their papers. If they have a question, they must raise their hand and specify the number of the question. They must use only one sheet of paper, and when they're done must place the sheet face down on the desk and leave in silence.
Given these strict guidelines, you'd think they wouldn't even try anything. Two students had their notebooks tucked under their butts, about four had cheat sheets in various places, I kicked two out for cheating with each other by sharing answers very obviously, and two more because they had written information on their test sheet beforehand in pencil, hoping to erase it during the test. All these students received zeroes, just in one turma, which totaled 20% of the class.
One of the girls I took a notebook from asked for it back directly after the test, without remorse.
Little by little, they'll learn how I do tests, and that will trickle down to behaving differently during the lessons, as it has with my current 10th graders.
For instance, a repeat student in a 10th grade class asked me today a question about what was dominant and recessive in an exercise I had given. I asked her to write a combination of letters, to which she responded, "No, I asked..." and I had to tell her three times to follow my instructions. When she finally did, she arrived at the answer to her originaly question more or less on her own. I told her to trust me next time, and she smiled and nodded.
Little by little.
Peace
John
