|
|
Re: assessments
Posted:
Mar 24, 2004 9:55 AM
|
|
I have some ideas about assessment. My first thought is that
assessment is a complex topic with multiple facets. My second thought
is that accurate assessment and appropriate use of assessment results
probably require as much professional development as effective
teaching of math.
We teachers have "the responsibility to understand and monitor" the
growth of our students (NCTM). "The more comprehensive our
assessment, the better able we are to make appropriate adjustments in
our teaching and to communicate students' thinking, abilities, and
accomplishments to others." (NCTM) Understanding and monitoring the
growth of our students means that we have content knowledge as well as
knowledge of the mathematical development of concepts and skills.
Investigations lessons provide opportunities for students to learn
mathematics with deep understanding. Every lesson is a source of
informal assessment, and teachers are offered "Teacher Notes" and
"Dialogue Boxes" to inform us about what to watch for and how to
evaluate what is observed. Our formal assessments must be tasks that
will assess this deep understanding. We need to know students' number
skill and computation level, but our focus should be on how they are
able to use their skills in problem solving situations. We need to
consider what we learn from open, rich assessment tasks versus closed,
fill-in-the-box type problems.
If students have experienced open problems for just a short time, they
will need to learn how to provide a "thinking trail", so they can show
their understanding in their daily work and through the assessments.
Then we, as teachers, need to learn how to make accurate instructional
decisions and inform others about the students' level of performance
based on what we learn from their oral and written work.
Investigations offers embedded assessments with the Teacher Notes
suggesting evaluation of evidence gathered from the assessments.
End-of-the-unit assessments are provided in the Assessment Resource
Book. There are rubrics posted online to correlate with these
assessments. This is assessment and evaluation that looks different
from traditional textbook chapter tests.
The assessments you choose to use in your district will also depend
upon the type of reporting system you have in place - are you
"standards-based" or are grades given according to averaged
percentages? If your learning targets are aligned with the
mathematical emphases in Investigations that you are using as the
basis for your instruction, you will find assessments available in the
units. If your district requires closed, skill-based,
computation-type assessments, those can easily be added, but the
information gained from those assessments may not give accurate
direction for your instruction using Investigations.
|
|
