Bonnie Parret

Chapter #5
EDMA 616 Fall 2013

What thoughts and feelings come to mind when you hear
Assessment?
The Assessment Standards outlines four specific purposes of assessment...
Formative Assessment
is a planned process of regularly checking students
understanding during your instructional activities.

When implemented well, formative
assessment can dramatically increase the
speed of student learning
by providing feedback that promotes
learning and using the results and evidence
collected to improve instruction.
Nyquist 2003 & Wiliam 2007
Summative Assessments
are cumulative evaluations that might generate a
single score such as an end-of-unit test or standardized
test.
Concepts and Procedures
The opportunity for students to demonstrate how they
understand the concept.
Productive Disposition
Data collected about students confidences and beliefs in their
own mathematical abilities as well s their like and dislikes
about mathematics.
Mathematical Processes
Problem solving
Reasoning
Communication

A good problem-based task designed to promote learning
is often the best type of task for assessment.

Good tasks should permit every student in the class, regardless of
mathematical prowess, to demonstrate knowledge, skills, or
understanding

Often assessments tasks include real-world or authentic context for
problems.

The justification for answers will almost certainly provide more
information that the answers alone.

Provide opportunity for students to learn.
Provide data for the teacher.
Beginning around grade 2
Real-world context
Size of numbers can be adjusted.
Students must develop the habit of sharing, writing,
and listening to justifications. If explanations are not
regularly practiced in your classroom, it may be
unrealistic to expect students to offer good
explanations in assessments.
Marilyn Burns
Many activates have no written component and no
answer or result. For example, students playing a game in
which dice or dominoes are being used.
A teacher who sits in on the game will see great differences in how
children use numbers
Some will count every dot
Some will use a count-on strategy
Some will recognize certain patterns without counting
Data from these student conversations and observations can and
should be recorded.

Scoring vs. Grading
Scoring is comparing students work to criteria or
rubrics that describe what we expect the work to be.
Grading is the result of accumulating score and other
information about a students work for the purpose of
summarizing and communicating to others.
The process of moving from teaching tasks to assessment tasks
involves the addition of a rubric.
A rubric is a framework that can be designed or adapted by
the teacher for a particular task.
A rubric consists of a scale of three to six points that is used
as a rating of performance on a single task.
Scoring with a Three or Four-Point Rubric
Advantage: relatively easy initial sort
Task-specific statement that describe what
performance looks like at each level of the rubric
Applied to a single task that may have multiple
components.
Discuss your generic rubric early and often.
Post it prominently
Explain how it will be used.
Allow students to be self-reflective with it.
Anecdotal Notes
Observation Rubrics
For individual Students
For full classes
As an assessment tool writing provides a unique
window to students perceptions and the way a student
is thinking about an idea.

Journals provide a place for students to
Show conceptual understanding and problem solving
Ask questions for clarification
Share attitudes towards math
Students should have a clear, well defined purpose for
writing in their journals.
Productive Dispositions
what I liked the most (or least) about math is
write a mathematics autobiography
what was the most interesting math concept this week?
Concepts and Processes
I think the answer is.because
write an explanation for a new student
explain what you learned about

Drawings and Early Writing
Giant Journal
Mathematical power comes from knowing how much
we know and what to do to learn more.
Open-ended writing prompt such as,
How well do you think you understand the work weve been
doing on
Write one thing you liked about class today and one thing
you didnt.
Questionnaire
Used to get in-depth information about individual
students knowledge and mental strategies.
Use problems that match essential understandings for
the topic students are studying.
Be prepared with paper, pencil, manipulatives, etc.
It is often useful to have a scoring guide or rubric to
recording notes and observations.

Which is more?
Tests will always be part of assessment and evaluation.
Tests should match the goals of instruction.
Tests can be designed to find out what concepts
students understand and how their ideas are
connected.
Tests of procedural knowledge should go beyond just
knowing how to perform an algorithm.
Test should allow and require students to demonstrate
conceptual basis for the process.
If a test is well constructed, much more information
can be gathered than simply the number of correct or
incorrect answers.
Permit students to use calculators
Use manipulatives and drawings
Include opportunities for explanations
Avoid always using preanswered tests
Teach Fundamental Concepts and Processes
A problem-based approach is the best course of action
Test Taking Strategies
Non-content specific strategies
Types of question formats
Read carefully
Estimate
Eliminate choices
Work backwards

What gets graded gets valued
Grading must be based on the
Performance task and other activities
For which you assigned rubric ratings.
The grades you assign should reflect
All of your objectives
A multidimensional reporting
system that relies on multiple assessments
is important for improving the validity of
a grading system.

Old MSBSD report card
New MSBSD report card