Response to Pop Quiz

As my religion students do not have textbooks, their homework is to study their notes that they take in class. This assignment is obviously problematic for those who do not pay attention in class, take notes, or at least copy their friend's notes.

Knowing that some students would rather not study, I decided that I would give them a pop quiz. I warned numerously days before the quiz, hoping that perhaps they would catch the hint that I would be quizzing them soon. (Perhaps I hinted too many times).

One of my students tends to behave poorly in class, bothering other classmates, eating random foods, walking around the room to give classmates these random foods. (Yes, yes, I know: I should have taken a course on classroom management). On perhaps two occasions has he positively contributed to the class.

Today, I read the answers from his pop quiz and thought they were worth sharing:

Question 6: Who were the Ebionites and what did they say about Jesus?"

An appropriate answer: A group of Jewish people who believed Jesus was 100% man and 0% God. They said Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and God adopted him as the Messiah.

My student's answer: "They are stupid people with a stupid name."

Question 7: "Who were the Marcionites and what did they say about Jesus?"

An appropriate answer: A group of anti-Jewish people who believed Jesus was 100% God and 0% Man. They also believed that two gods existed: the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New Testament.

My student's answer: "A group of people who we would be better off if they never existed."

(Note: Ironically, some would actually agree with my student)

Question 8: "What did the Council of Nicea say about Jesus?"

An appropriate answer: Jesus was 100% God, 100% Man.

Or: See Nicene Creed.

My student's answer (part 1): "He is loving, kind, etc."
My student's answer (part 2): "I am not interested in what someone says. It is supposed to be about my belief. You are destroying my belief."

Puzzled by how to respond to his answer, I decided to talk to some of the other religion professors about what they would do. Knowing the student, each of them said they would write something such as "What belief is that?" or "Your belief that your god is not doing work?" One of the religion professors also said that this response is clique from people who don't actually want to work, don't know the answer, and just want to make the teacher feel bad.

After thinking about the situation, I came to a few conclusions:

1) My student picked the wrong question to say that I was destroying his belief. The other two questions would have been better to point out that I should quiz them only on the most vital points. This is a religion class on the history of Christianity. If he considers himself Christian, the answer to the question is his belief. All he had to do was say his belief and he would be right.

2) I remember telling him that Jesus was not born in a vacuum. I will have to tell him that he was not born into a vacuum either.

3) Low expectations bring happy results. I definitely didn't expect him to pass the quiz, but he did get two answers right.