I learned the word apodictic this afternoon.

I'm reading Joseph Campbell. I bump into this word: apodictic. I do not recognize the word; I observe the context, and it doesn't lead me to the specific meaning of the word.  I know that dict means word or say or judge/direct. It's the apo part that i don't know. APO.... what word(s) do I know that have that as a prefix?  can't think of any, so I have to go to the dictionary. I used M-W.com . Here's the screen print.

I started thinking about students memorizing and what was worth memorizing. Memorizing should contribute to something more significant than the things memorized. For example, memorizing prefixes should help me know more words than I knew without knowing those prefixes.

I observe that the root dict had no relation to the actual meaning of apodictic. I confess, I am so enamoured of etymologies and roots and prefixes and languages that I sometimes have hypotheses that collapse upon examination. But I have exhilarating mental exercise, no matter what.

Unsurprisingly I conclude that it is worth students' time and effort to learn prefixes. Then how do I assess this learning?  I have been reading and thinking about mastery.  So now I explore that.

Is 80% mastery? and what traditional letter grade should I assign that 80% to? my gut tells me B, with 90% being an A.

But if the material is essential, and I want my students to achieve mastery, then nothing short of that should be "gradeable." C and D will not have a part of this essential* learning.

... which leads me to think about re-testing, re-assessing (with conditions) until mastery. Until my student achieves mastery, I assign no official letter grade. I break the massive quantity of prefixes and roots into 5 sections, roughly one section per grading period. If a student declines to achieve mastery of any one section, the student fails that section and the official letter grade is an F.  At this point, I am thinking of advanced classes. Regular classes have Rev it up, which I am very happy with.

back to Joseph Campbell and things that relate to necessary truth or absolute certainty.


* It's essential because I say it's essential.