The Index Eutxia Swzein Dokei
Volume LXXIII, No. 5
January 2012
Haverford, Pennsylvania
So, How were “mid-terms”?
Jake Pechet ‘15
When Haverford students learned there would be no midterms this year, most were elated. Yet, as more was revealed about the administration’s plan to replace traditional assessments with cumulative tests or innovative projects during the eighty-five minute double periods, elation became frustration, anxiety, and, in some cases, anger. Explains Upper School Head Mr. Matthew Green, “You have a period of time between the day we leave for Thanksgiving and the day the second semester starts. It’s approximately sixty days. When you return from winter break, you have midterm exams a week and a half to two weeks into the month of January. You end up being in school, learning new material, for about fifteen to eighteen of those sixty days. We’d gear up for about a week and a half and then really...as an institution, kind of shut down. So there was Thanksgiving, then winter
break, then students an exam did not see period it that way, that really especially disrupted as they curricular discovered continuity.” more about The idea the new behind the system as new system, the plan in which, was further for one developed. full cycle Some had (A-G day), particular assessments qualms and with the homework removal of a A Fourth Form chemistry class prepares to do a lab experiment as the “mid-term.” could be review week. Photo by Gray Warden assigned only on the night before that class’s Essentially, what they saw were midterms double block, was to allow for more time to being condensed into one double period with learn, rather than to assess students’ cumulative no time to study beforehand. Says Sixth knowledge of the subject. The plan appeared Former Scott Warren, “The debate was always to be a plausible solution. However, many whether to change it so that [midterms were]
the week before you went on winter break, or [if] they should remain in the middle of January. They left it at the same time, and all they did was get rid of the week in which you have a bunch of free time to study for your midterms. They’re forcing you to take a midterm in your double period, which is really tough on students.” Mr. Green recognizes issues with the new system, admitting, “I can’t confidently say that I anticipated every single variable. I certainly have been listening to concerns on the part of the student body that to both take tests and tend to all of [their] other responsibilities has been really hard for [them], and I need to listen to faculty, students, and parents and try to figure out how much of the difficulty is ‘it’s new and it’s change,’ or ‘we really did like having all that time,’ or, three, ‘you put me in a situation that I couldn’t do my best work in.’ ” Continued on Page 4
More than just art: Mr. Fox strives to remodel education Peter Thompson ‘13
Mr. Fox has always been regarded as a teacher who is constantly observing, assisting, and on the cutting edge of next generation ideas. His most recent activities at Haverford
have only reinforced these traits of his. During the first semester, Mr. Fox worked with the English Department to help it progress in the area of creative and personal writing. The main focus: How does one evaluate subject matter in which each student comes up with a different answer? In creative writing, for instance, how would a teacher create boundaries for a student without inhibiting him from doing his best, all while simultaneously maintaining the ability to grade a unique piece of writing from each individual student? To this point, the analytical essay has been the department’s focus. Students are taught how to map out an essay, create a thesis, define terms, organize each individual paragraph, analyze quotations, and conclude formally. Haverford teachers have a universal rubric with which they can critique a student’s work. However, when will students be prompted to perform a task such as this one later in life?
Teachers are beginning to realize this reality more and more; however, when they decide to assign a creative writing piece, they have no rubric to grade from. It is at this point in the English Department’s struggle that Mr. Fox offered his two cents. He brought the English Department down to the art studio where he had them all choose an object and draw it - a basic art process for all beginner art students. After five minutes of drawing the teachers stopped, content with their work for the most part. That is, however, until Mr. Fox inquired as to what their goals were. Together, Mr. Fox and his new art students created a rubric. Everyone agreed that a drawing would only be successful if it included varying lines and patterns, was drawn from an interesting angle, filled up most of the page, and other restrictions, all of which were decided upon by the “students.” Unsurprisingly, immediately after deriving this rubric, the teachers asked to restart their drawings. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate ways in which a teacher can create a rubric with his/her students that leaves room for creativity but still has boundaries, or “checkpoints,” from which he/she can evaluate
a student’s work. “Usually letting go [from Haverford faculty a few summers ago, Pink any sense of restriction] is complete chaos,” argues that right-brained thinkers will “rule the states Mr. Fox, but “art is [simply] letting go a future.” Pink makes the case that the M.F.A. little more.” (Master of Fine Although Arts) will be more there still necessary than the exists a M.B.A. (Master sense of of Business direction Administration) and final for future success destination, in the business there are world. If the multiple M.B.A. stands for routes one learning how things can take to are done and the arrive there. M.F.A. stands for This is the learning how things exact type could be done, Mr. of mentality Fox wholeheartedly that the agrees. Having an English M.B.A. no longer Mr. Fox and his diagram depicting “the creative process.” Department assures a job like Photo by Index Staff is trying to nurture in the classroom. it used to. Instead, creative thinkers, problem Mr. Fox strongly believes that “you own solvers, and people with interdisciplinary skills your own success if you write down your may actually be better prepared to succeed in own rubric. Your own words are a powerful the next generation. motivator.” In Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, which was required reading for Continued on Page 3
Mr. Kolade continues to analyze his neverending library of music. See the latest edition of “Mr. Kolade’s Music Recommendations” on Page 5.
Also Inside the Issue... Letter from the Editors, pg. 2 Dangers of Student Driving, pg. 2 Pattison Medals, pg. 3
Crosman Hall may soon be renovated.
Sabermetrics Club, pg. 4
Photo by Index Staff
Third Former Logan Atkins investigates future Haverford renovations on Page 2 Can Haverford students be trusted in terms of academic integrity? Read about it on Page 4.
Davis’ Book Review, pg. 5 Sixth Former Andrew Helber in a meet against Malvern. Photo by Mr. Mike DiTrolio
Haverford Swimming is having one of its best seasons in recent memory - coverage is on Page 7.
Squash Surges, pg. 6 And much more...