Cut Off at the Knees

I gave all of my classes tests today. And sigh, for the most part, James
was right. I feel like I've been cut off at the knees. The marks were
dismal. I suspect that most simply don't know the material, and maybe for a
few they freeze up on tests. Either way, I'm extremely nervous for my grade
10's on their national exams. EXTREMELY nervous. I am glad that I have a
hold of the grade 9's right now so I can work on some of their math
fundamentals. But jeez louise, what to do with my grade 10's? I feel like
the guy from Stand and Deliver, except I have 1 month until their test, not
3 or 4 years. I'm going to start giving extra classes for them. Hopefully
there I can drill some fundamentals into their heads.



What is so disturbing is how they just make up numbers out of the blue. If
the problem is written as 4x + 6 = 24, someone's next step might be 4 + 2 =
22. Then their answer is 6 = 22. Huh? What? What part of "find x" is
unclear? And these are grade 10's!



Anyway, I give back the tests tomorrow, and I'm worried they're going to be
really upset with their grades (because many really do care). But there's
not much arguing a 0/22. And that's me desperately trying to give partial
credit wherever they did ANYTHING right. I got many of those.The class
stats, for grade 10A (which is supposed to be the most advanced):

Out of 22 possible points, the average was 4.3. The high was 11.5, the low
was of course, 0.



Sigh.