Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

If the test material can be summarized in one page, two days is plenty of time to study if your child has a basic understanding of the material. If your child isn't understanding the materials as they're learning it, they need to be more proactive about reaching out to the teacher for extra help.

The test material isn't summarized in a page - the one page lists the different things that will be tested on. My beef is that there are no materials for the kids to review what they've learned about each of these topics.

These responses are really surprising me. Didn't you all study for tests? Typically you aren't expected to have perfect recall of what the teacher went over in class in order to "study" it - in fact, if you did, you wouldn't need to study it! And, at least in MoCo, 4th or 5th graders are not taking notes as the teacher teaches.

If they have no materials for them to study, why does it matter how many days notice they have? Does five days' notice somehow make a bigger difference when there's nothing you can do to prepare anyway?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this is a problem, your child needs to be keeping up with the material more as it is taught. Maybe study some every night instead of cramming. [/b]You are well on the path to being a helicopter mom whose child will never grow up if you always blame the teacher and not realize that one of the most important skills to learn as a child is how to adapt to varying expectations. [b]Do not shelter her, help her learn to deal with the system. Now she knows. There will not be much warning, so she must keep up-to-date on the information.

Oh please. Why are people so quick to through out the "helicopter mom" label? I have not said one word to the teacher. I haven't even said anything to my child. It just seems a little sudden to me and I'm wondering what others think. Isn't that what forums are for?

OP, please don't sweat the posts with typical DCUM snarkiness. Posters here love to accuse any parent who cares about their kid's day to day school life of being a helicopter parent. Do anything more than tell Johnny to "Go do your homework"--take any interest, know your kid's schedule, know what topics your kid is actually learning, question the way a teacher does anything--and you're an overbearing helicopter parent! God forbid you should teach Johnny that there are actual study skills that might help him learn to learn.

I am with you, OP. While two days was pretty typical in some of my child's elementary classes, in others she got more notice and she preferred that, so she felt she knew what was coming well in advance. Someone posted how anxious kids are stressed if they get too much notice, but what about kids who are stressed by what they feel is too little notice?

Planned, scheduled and incremental studying is not equivalent to panicked "cramming," as some posters here think, and all the talk about "your child should have kept on top of the material all along!" is easily said, but some teachers actually do expect students to do additional studying for a unit test--studying that just keeping up day by day won't necessarily fulfill. A unit test or exam should stretch kids a little (and a lot by the time they're older). If kids don't start learning to plan ahead and study a little bit, all along, before tests in elementary, they will be swamped in middle school and lost in high school.

OP, watch out for the time when your kid is given two nights' notice for a test and that's fine, but then finds out there's another test that same day and another assignment due in a third class....

Anonymous wrote:Why is this even a question? The kid is in 4th grade, meaning s/he is around 10 years old.

It's school. It's preparation for what's called Life.

+1 I can't believe some of the questions on here. WTF. 4th grade? It won't make or break him. Ease up with the helicoptering. If your kid asks for help, then by all means, help him. But, otherwise, don't hover unless he has some SN.

And no, a teacher doesn't have to give any notice. Ever heard of a pop quiz? Or are you worried because this test is something like half the class grade?

Why is this even a question? The kid is in 4th grade, meaning s/he is around 10 years old.

It's school. It's preparation for what's called Life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

Why doesn't he review his worksheets?

I'm guessing you do not have an elem school student in mcps. These worksheets as stand alone are not useful as "study materials" for the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. For example, the most recent one was how the patriots vs the loyalists felt about the intolerable acts - another was what was the turning point event leading to the rev war and why. As I said above, these are thoughtful worksheets and I love these more in depth assignments than memorizing history facts, but they don't cover all of the things they were learning about the Revolutionary War event. The unit test will encapsulate both kinds of knowledge, the straight facts and the reasoning - my son has nothing from which to study the straight facts.

So buy a used copy of a basic elementary U.S. History textbook like "The History of Us" on Amazon.com and read it at home. Or encourage the county to raise taxes so MCPS can afford enough textbooks to send one home with every kid. Anything but whine on DCUM.

I think for a test like that notice should be several days specifically so a child learns to pace him or herself in terms of studying. Get into the habit of re-reading material and figuring out what they still don't understand, asking the teacher or parent for extra help if needed, and then studying well a day before the test. We don't want kids cramming before tests, so we need to give them adequate time to prepare beforehand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

If the test material can be summarized in one page, two days is plenty of time to study if your child has a basic understanding of the material. If your child isn't understanding the materials as they're learning it, they need to be more proactive about reaching out to the teacher for extra help.

The test material isn't summarized in a page - the one page lists the different things that will be tested on. My beef is that there are no materials for the kids to review what they've learned about each of these topics.

These responses are really surprising me. Didn't you all study for tests? Typically you aren't expected to have perfect recall of what the teacher went over in class in order to "study" it - in fact, if you did, you wouldn't need to study it! And, at least in MoCo, 4th or 5th graders are not taking notes as the teacher teaches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

Why doesn't he review his worksheets?

I'm guessing you do not have an elem school student in mcps. These worksheets as stand alone are not useful as "study materials" for the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. For example, the most recent one was how the patriots vs the loyalists felt about the intolerable acts - another was what was the turning point event leading to the rev war and why. As I said above, these are thoughtful worksheets and I love these more in depth assignments than memorizing history facts, but they don't cover all of the things they were learning about the Revolutionary War event. The unit test will encapsulate both kinds of knowledge, the straight facts and the reasoning - my son has nothing from which to study the straight facts.

Anonymous wrote:This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

If the test material can be summarized in one page, two days is plenty of time to study if your child has a basic understanding of the material. If your child isn't understanding the materials as they're learning it, they need to be more proactive about reaching out to the teacher for extra help.

Are you sure she only got 2 days notice or
Do you think she missed the first announcement and didn't catch the second til 2 days out?

It's also possible your teacher realized the first grading period ends Friday and she didn't have enough graded work yet to justify a progress report so she needed one more. Then again, it's hard to imagine a teacher didn't purposely plan a test for this time so I go back to thinking your daughter might have missed an earlier announcement.

In any case I think 2 days of study time should suffice. It's not the bar. And if they know it, a light brush up is all they need. If they don't know it, a 2 week heads up wouldn't make a difference.

Can he take notes in class?

Anonymous wrote:This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

Why doesn't he review his worksheets?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are called Pop quizzes. That happened a lot when we were growing up in the 80s-90s. Many of these will lead up to a final big test at the end of the school year or midterm. It helps the kids keep up with the material on a weekly basis. If you consistently fail the pop quizzes, you better study up cause you know you will not pass the final exam.

+1

Today's students and parents treat pop quizzes like child abuse because they just might interfere with the Almighty 4.0.

OP said these are end of unit tests, not pop quizzes. Very different.

This same thing just happened to my dc with his 5th grade history test. I don't think it is enough notice, especially since there was no weekend time given. For those of you suggesting that op's child needs to work on her study skills and review the materials more frequently, my child doesn't have "materials" to be reviewing at home - no textbook, not even photocopies of pages of a textbook, no handwritten notes. The teacher orally teaches the material, including using the promethian board, online materials, etc. and the kids listen, discuss and complete worksheets (not bashing the worksheets, they are often thoughtful ones). But he doesn't have anything that he could review each night. The teacher sent home a one page worksheet for the kids to review for the test. This is MoCo btw.

Anonymous wrote:They are called Pop quizzes. That happened a lot when we were growing up in the 80s-90s. Many of these will lead up to a final big test at the end of the school year or midterm. It helps the kids keep up with the material on a weekly basis. If you consistently fail the pop quizzes, you better study up cause you know you will not pass the final exam.

+1

Today's students and parents treat pop quizzes like child abuse because they just might interfere with the Almighty 4.0.