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 for Data Handling Unit

After presenting my students with a pre-assessment to gauge their level of understanding, I found that nearly all...except one wrote I don't know...yet! This then made me think that I need to really build a good visual and conceptual understanding. 

So I emptied out boxes of linking cubes and posed the question

Show me visually what is the most common colour?

I explained that I didn't want to know how many of each colour their were. I wanted to be able to 'see' their answer.

Without any prompting this team automatically started to organise into colours. They didn't do that in the pre-assessment I gave them 5 minutes earlier!

This team sorted and then counted. We discussed that the question required them to show me the answer visually. 

This team organised them straight into lines.

This team tried to go up, but soon struck a problem!

This group took a different route. They individually started to make groups of colours. After they finished the class reflected that it was difficult to see which was the most common colour. Someone then said if they made them all the same shape, then it might be easier!

My next question was, how could you have organised this better to make it even easier for me to see the answer. 

The result...

After about an hour of engaged students. I then shared that they basically just did the pre-assessment task without any help. They all went... really... we did? We discussed that all you have to do now is replace the coloured cubes with numbers. 

We also then reflected on how we could improve these visual graphs even more.

"Add" numbers at the top was one suggestion. 

We then talked about where we could add numbers, introducing X and Y axis.

On our reflection wall we shared what we had learnt from todays inquiry.

You need to organise your data

You need to show things in the same way, like using lines or shapes

You need to be accurate

You need to start from zero

You need to answer the question

Assessment

A question that I recently had was, "How important is it to expect students to solve problems mentally?" My school uses a diagnostic interview that requires students to solve problems in their head. I'm wondering, why?

In my lessons I promote the use of materials or drawings, yet when it comes to assessing them I ask them to put them away... thoughts?

Knowing your Students: Assessment and Grouping

So, from the beginning of the year I have taken the time to interview my students using a diagnostic interview taken from NZ. This process allows me to understand how my students solve problems. Combine this with our schools PYP Maths Scope and Sequence I am then able to determine where my students are and how I can extend them.

I don't 'group' my students, I just make sure I know where they are and how I can best support them.

Watch this video from Jo Boaler about the negative effects of 'ability grouping'.

I used to group students but I now see students, who would normally be placed in my terribly named 'Camels' group a.k.a the 'low group', really start to believe that they are good at maths and hence start achieving.

The power of letting kids work together and to learn from each other is no more evident than in maths. It's also the essence of inquiry learning.

When you start seeing 'low' students solve problems they believed were too challenging and saying "I solved it!" is a rewarding experience.