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05/02/2008: "When Learning is Really Tested"

The Overhead Projector College Readiness Test

I’ve discovered a quick and easy way to test my students for college readiness. It costs very little and requires no pen, no pencil, no computer, and no calculator. All it takes is an overhead projector.

For those who haven’t been around a school room for some years, an overhead projector is a metal box with an arm above it like a periscope. You set it on a desk to project images on a screen from a sheet of transparent plastic.

This is how my test works: In my reading classes, we start every session with two students using the overhead projector to present a brief analysis of a news article. You would think that the hardest part of this exercise would be to read the article, understand it, and report on it. Not true. It was a surprise to me that the toughest part of the assignment is to operate the overhead projector itself.

The first day of class I announce that every student will have to give a presentation. I stand at the overhead projector, folded up like a great blue heron’s neck, and tell them, “Watch this. You need to do this. When it’s your turn, you need to prepare the projector and the screen. It will be your day.”

Here’s the lesson:

1. “Release the arm with your thumb right here and rotate the arm up until it clicks into place.” Click!

2. “Unwind the extension cord from the front here and plug it in the wall at the front of the room.

3. “Push the orange button on top the projector, HARD, so that the light comes on and stays on.

4. “Now put your plastic sheet down on the glass--just like any piece of paper that you’re going to read. Look at the screen.

5. “Adjust the image by moving this mirror with your hands. See the mirror and how it moves everything on the screen?”

You the reader of this newspaper are reading these directions, but my students can see what I’m doing. You’d think that would make it rather clear. I do it slowly, pointing and repeating. I continue,

6. “See this round knob on the arm? Turn it to raise the head of the projector to focus the letters.” They come into focus.

Then I walk a few steps away from the projector and come back with the plastic and introduce myself as if I were a student and do a sample presentation. I then ask for volunteers.

At the next class session, the volunteers–confident people–work the machine. They may fumble with a little, so I help them. At the same time, I give all the students another lesson. “Here’s the mirror to move the image; here’s the knob to focus it.” And off we go.

I remind the students that when it’s their turn they need to come a little early to pull down the screen and ready the machine. From then on the students see others use the overheard projector at the beginning of every class.

In a class of 30, how many college-age students can accomplish the whole show–coming early, pulling down the screen, setting up the projector, and giving the presentation? In a typical class—5 or 6.

Those are grade A choice college students. They might not be particularly academically prepared or even score very high on an intelligence test. Doesn’t matter. Those students I am delighted to have in my class because they can accept the responsibility of doing such a simple task.

What about the rest? Probably another 16-18 can use the machine all right, but they don’t dare touch it by themselves. They’ll sit in their desks until I’ve arrived and called them to the front of the room. Why? Because they are afraid they might do something wrong.

The last 6-8 students form a varied pack. Some just show up on their day with an empty sheet of plastic. A few arrive late, which naturally ruins the timing of the assignment. Or they don’t show up at all. The real prizes are those who walk to the front 12 weeks into the semester like they’ve never seen the overhead projector before.

I’m a teacher by choice, and I’m ready to teach all comers. That’s what a community college is about. Operating an overhead projector is not complicated. If a student can’t muster enough interest as he sits in the classroom to learn how to use it, he’s not ready for college, or a job, or any activity with the minimum of responsibility. He needs to master something even simpler, like a shovel or a broom, before he’s ready to enjoy taxpayers’ donations toward his education in a college classroom.