Place Value Number Talks: Formative Assessment

We were 3 weeks into our Place Value unit and I wanted to give students an opportunity to reflect on their learning. I also wanted to gauge where there were at in their understanding of the central idea. 

So, I thought of getting the students to use their Seesaw App to video themselves making a mini "number talk".

I have posted a few samples below. 

The positives of giving students the opportunity to express their learning in a safe environment allowed me to get a good understanding of where they were at and where I need to take them next. 

The first video is off an ESL student. I was surprised that this was actually him speaking. Listening to him present so confidently made me think about the need for me to give my ESL students more time and freedom to share their thinking in ways that they feel comfortable. 

In the video below the student needs help with reading numbers up to 1000.

Fun and engaged. From a student who in the pre-assessment said she knows nothing about place value. 

From watching these videos I learnt that...

• I need to focus on developing the language of maths and to provide more support for my ESL students.
• Some students need help with reading numbers to 1000
• Some students are still confused about the how the place of a number affects its value. 
• Some students are ready to be challenged.

Most importantly the videos allowed me to see how much growth they had made from the start of this unit. 

Using the Summative Task as the Provocation

I was struggling to come up with a provocation or ideas for our Shape and Space Unit. We are doing a unit the looks at monuments, so I wanted to try and incorporate some kind of building or creating into the unit. 

This unit really made me think how about how I could make it engaging for students. I didn't want to just go through property after property of different shapes. I wanted to give the students ownership of their learning and make them have to use the knowledge they have gained in some way. 

So I thought, what if I give the students the summative task as the provocation for the unit. One that requires them to draw a structure or monument that has to incorporate certain properties?

I have never tried this before, but I thought no harm in trying... I hope!

First, I used the Teaching Student Centered Mathematics text (a wonderful resource), to find out what learning outcomes or big ideas that I need to address at a Grade 2 level. 

I then gave my students time to go through the outcomes and identify what they knew already and what they needed to know. This also turned out to be great formative assessment task that allowed me to find out my students prior knowledge. It also allowed me to challenge those students how needed it. 

Here are some of the student going through the expectations. 

I told students that it is ok not to know any of them... just write I don't know it yet! 

I also gave students time to try and draw it ... most found this challenging.


The kids are now really keen to go and find out what these outcomes mean and then use their acquired knowledge to draw their monument.

I am not sure how this will work out. My one reservation is that, does it give students the scope to inquire? As I mentioned earlier I was really having trouble thinking of how I would get them to do that. Time will tell if this works out.

If you have any ideas then please share.

... I will post again with how it worked out.

Student Formative Assessment Tools

A big part of the PYP is reflection and students taking ownership for their learning. 

I was battling with how to monitor students knowledge of multiplication strategies and times table facts throughout our UOI. 

I talk a lot with my students about learning together and supporting each other as maths learners. It is important that you build a strong supportive learning culture before you ask students to share their learning with their peers. 

I also discuss that different strategies are used for different purposes. I don't want my students to think that the 'best' maths student is the one who can recall all their multiplication facts the quickest. 

I tell my kids this story...

"I don't group you into groups of 5 then using my knowledge of 5x4 = 20 +1 = 21 to count how many students are here today. I skip count. Does that make me bad at maths?"

I want my students to have a range of strategies available to use in different situations. 

SO....

I created a 'strategy line' and after posing a problem, I asked students to come and write what strategies they are using. I encouraged them to add their name to more than one. I also asked them to explain why they put their name at certain strategies and to reflect on how they solved problems.

Here are the students responses. 

Strategy Reflection Line

T Chart to show what facts they feel they need to work on. 

Of course this is just one tool I use for assessing where my students are at. This combined with diagnostic interviews and conferences with students allows me to understand where my students are at and where I need to take them. 

Provocation Tables for Multiplication and Division

As part of a formative assessment/provocation for the start of our new unit on multiplication and division, I set up four different stations. Each station was designed to provide me with different information to help me plan where to take my students next.

Table 1:

This question was designed to see how students would solve this problem. Students responses varied from...

5+5+5+5+5=24
or
5+5=10, 5+5=10, 10+10=20, 20+5=25
to
5x5=25

Table 2.


This activity was designed to see if students could conceptually visualise multiplication facts.

I really liked this students response. Showing creativity in his maths thinking.


Table 3:

Note: Students knew we have 21 students.

This station was set up to check students understanding of division. I purposely used words such as 'divide' and 'equal groups' to gauge their knowledge of these concepts.

Many students required the use of materials to solve this problem.

Some were about to use their knowledge of multiplication.

Others found it too challenging and wrote 'I don't know?'

Table 4:

For this activity I purposely used the word 'operation'. I wasn't sure if it was too challenging, but I wanted to find out what students knew what it meant. Some required help, but once I had explained it to them, they were then able to provide an answer.

Some students wrote 5x5x5, 2x2x2 and 4x4

Others used addition e.g. 5+5+5

Some students wrote 'I don't know?'

GREAT!!!!!! I always encourage and praise my students for being courageous enough to share that they don't know. I constantly refer to our Maths Essential Agreement that states, "mistakes are good" and "it's ok not to know". Too often maths is seen as a competition to see who can answer questions the fastest, even among 2nd Graders. It is so important that students are able to feel comfortable to share their level of understanding.

An example of a student recording their thinking.

During the activity I asked students to revisit the 'reflection table' to write down any new wonderings they may have.

Pleasing to see students using materials to help them solve problems. It is so important that students don't view using materials as a sign that they don't understand. One student even said, "I am just using them to check"