Why do we take Benchmark Tests?
Two or three months are done so let's
See how much we know, know know! (x2)
It's some new stuff on Benchmark Tests.
If we don't know it, we take a guess.
'Cause there's still time to grow, grow, grow! (x2)
The teacher sees our Benchmark Tests,
Knows what to teach now more or less.
That's the way to go, go, go! (x2)
GHOST OF A CHANCE
1. One night on a Pizza Shack delivery
I walked into this spooky house
And just as I was yelling “Two with anchovies!”
The door slammed and the lights went out
Started shouting, “Someone owes me fourteen ten!”
And then I heard a creepy voice
Boy, you’ll never see the Pizza Shack again
Unless you make the proper choice
Chorus:
Probability
Don’t you mess with me
Help me make the most of a chance
Might be win or lose
Still I’ve got to choose
Long as there’s a ghost of a chance
2. There are four dusty bookcases right over there
One of them’s a secret door
Go ahead and try one of them, if you dare
Your chance is only one in four
Did a little eenie, meenie, miney, moe
Pulled the third with all my might
Probability of one-fourth is low
But lucky thing I got it right (to Chorus)
3. Walked in to a hallway full of rattlesnakes
Only five are real ones; forty-five are fakes
Chance is five in fifty that I’m gonna croak
Chances are you thought this was a lark, a joke! (to Chorus)
4. Found myself inside an old Egyptian tomb
Open up the mummy case
Behold the seven keys he clutches in the gloom
Three will let you blow this place
Three in seven chance to pick a key that fits
I picked one of the four that don’t
But now the probability becomes three-sixths;
Three will work and three still won’t
(laughs)
5. Son, you’ve earned your freedom; here are twelve ways out
Eleven lead you to your truck
But what about the one in twelve? My boy, don’t pout;
Good luck; here’s your fourteen bucks
Probability of one-twelfth is slim
The guy was finally being nice
But that’s the one he chose, and I’m so pleased for him
The pizza’s for my poltergeist (to Chorus)
As this school year began and I was planning my songs for the year, there were two established songs that I was sure I'd sing -- "Benchmark Tests" on the day of the first district test and Square One TV's "Ghost of a Chance" on the last block day before Halloween. What I wasn't expecting was for "day of the first district test" and "last block day before Halloween" to be the exact same day.
So what do I sing in Math I classes today? Well, I perform both songs -- "Benchmark Tests" as the students are getting ready to start the district test and "Ghost of a Chance" at the end of the period.
Last year at the old magnet school, the lone other math teacher at my school (my partner teacher) told me about the Benchmark Tests, even though I knew that only Math I, II, and III needed to administer them, as opposed to my own Calculus and Ethnostats classes. The tests are given thrice a year, using the Illuminate platform. (Last year I used Illuminate for some of my own Ethnostats tests, but this year I'm using Illuminate for Benchmarks only and relying on DeltaMath for classroom tests.)
As I explained in yesterday's post, I give Benchmarks in fourth and sixth periods today, while second period will take theirs tomorrow. So far, the average score (as expected) is in fourth period, yet the top two scores are in sixth period. (This doesn't include the two free response questions that I must grade.)
Oh well -- this isn't an official "Day in the Life" post, but it's already turned into one. Here's what the entire day looks like, in a brief "Day in the Life" format:
8:30 -- First period Math III -- I cover the last lesson of Chapter 3, on graphing x-y inequalities (mostly linear, with a few quadratic). This is the first time that I hand out dry erase packets (another Sarah Carter staple) for the students to practice their graphing.
9:55 -- First period leaves for nutrition, which leads into third period conference.
11:45 -- Fourth period Math I arrives to take the Benchmarks.
1:15 -- Fourth period leaves for lunch.
2:05 -- Sixth period Math I arrives to take the Benchmarks.
3:30 -- Sixth period leaves, thus ending my day.
What remains is for me to score the two free response questions -- oh, and decide whether or not to include them in our grade. According to the syllabus, a part of the grade (25% in Math I, 20% in Math III) consists of a midterm and final. Most teachers in both departments want to let the benchmarks count as the midterm, so that there's one fewer test to take, and so that the students take the test seriously (as opposed to the SBAC, which the students know has no affect on their grades).
But my neighbor teachers prefer not to include the Benchmarks in the grades. Their worry is that there are many tricky topics on the test, including a Chapter 3 question that we haven't reached yet, not to mention how we did rush Chapter 2 a little and so I'm not sure how ready they are for a graded test on this material. (It also doesn't help that both neighbor teachers gave their Benchmarks last week, during the first week of the two-week window, so they had even less time to cover Chapter 2 before the test.)
I most likely will follow the majority, and so I'll count my interim as a midterm. In order to prevent the grades from dropping, I'll curve is so that the top score becomes 100%. So far, the top score appears to be 19 out of 27 (though I haven't graded the free response, which could add an extra point or two to the highest score), but I'll wait to see how second period fares tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Math III will take their Benchmarks next week. Last year, the Benchmark window lasted into the first week of November. The Math III leaders convinced the administration to allow us to give their test next week.
A few more things I want to say about today's songs. While "Ghost of the Chance" comes from a TV show, "Benchmark Tests" is my original song. It goes all the way back to when I was at the old charter school, before I learned about Mocha and EDL's, and so it's not in 10EDL or any other EDL. At first, I wrote the song in the key of C major, with the notes C-D-E-F-G-A. But I quickly dropped the F note, which makes the song sound pentatonic -- C-D-E-G-A.
Recall that 10EDL is almost like a pentatonic scale -- C-D-E-F#-A. So I can write the following Mocha code for a 10EDL approximation of the song:
10 N=8
20 FOR V=1 TO 3
30 FOR X=1 TO 28
40 READ A,T
50 SOUND 261-N*A,T
60 NEXT V
70 RESTORE
80 NEXT X
90 END
100 DATA 10,4,9,4,10,4,9,4,10,4,10,4,10,8
110 DATA 10,4,9,4,8,4,9,4,10,4,9,4,10,8
120 DATA 9,4,6,4,5,4,6,4,7,4,7,4,7,8
130 DATA 9,4,6,4,5,4,6,4,7,4,7,4,7,8
Don't forget to click Sound before you RUN the program.
In this code, Degree 7 appears as the last note in lines 3 and 4. It is an F# in the code, but in the original song it sounds as a G. On the guitar, I play a G7 over this note. The full riff is C for the first two lines, and then D7-G7 for the last two lines. If we were to keep the Mocha version as 10EDL, then we might either extend the D7 chord (dropping G7), or else keep G7 and change the last note to D.
Some of the lines contain extra syllables, and so I usually insert sixteenth notes at those extra syllables in order to fit the lyrics.
This is the last music post of October, and so we just completed the 10EDL part of the year. Perhaps it's because we're getting ready to switch to a new EDL, or maybe it's because we've reached Benchmarks, but in either case this is the point where it no longer seems to be "early in the school year."
Anyway, it's a good time to analyze the 10EDL scale -- in particular, the use of a guitar with 10EDL. I have written ten songs in 10EDL -- well, eleven if you count today's version of "Benchmark Tests." I don't think it should count since it was originally written in another scale -- but ironically, today's 10EDL version serves as a microcosm of our entire 10EDL experience.
The 10EDL scale C-D-E-F#-A-C differs from a true pentatonic scale with the G. This is tricky because the most common riff in C major is C-G7-C, but 10EDL takes that G away. So far, my temptation is to use D7 as a secondary chord in 10EDL, especially as all four of its notes D-F#-A-C are part of the new scale in 10EDL.
I'm also still trying to figure out how to play 10EDL on a hypothetical EDL guitar (as described in many previous posts). The pentatonic scale is usually one of the first scales a lead guitarist (as opposed to a rhythm guitarist who focuses on chords) learns, but it's tricky to imagine how a pure EDL guitar can be tuned to play a 10EDL scale. (What makes it tricky is that there are two different minor thirds in 10EDL -- namely 7/6 and 6/5. Our standard fretting makes all minor thirds sound identical.
Well, I look forward to composing in a new EDL scale in November -- happy Halloween!
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