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Assessing Student Learning
While designing any lesson plans, I always consider, “How can I best determine whether my students grasp the concept we are learning?” This is where assessment comes into play, both formative and summative.
Continuous student assessment, especially when teaching math, is critical. While summative is obviously needed, it’s the daily formative assessments which keep my students and me on track. Math is a subject which builds upon itself and, if a student doesn’t grasp a concept and I don’t realize it, their learning can be derailed for quite a while. You will notice me continually questioning my students in all of my lesson plans. This offers me timely feedback to gauge whether students are understanding the topic, as well as time for my students to voice any confusion or misconceptions they may have. I incorporate lots of peer coaching in our activities as well. This increases engagement among students and, simultaneously, allows me time to go from table group to table group to listen in on math conversations, gain insight into their math thinking, observe the math strategies they are using, and determine who’s getting the concept and who’s not.
Each morning in 6th grade Science class, I review our daily Math Mad Minutes with my students. They have several minutes to work on their own and then we review them on the board, solving and discussing each problem. These are typically review problems over concepts students have already learned in order to keep them fresh in their minds, give them repeated exposure and practice with a concept, and reteach any misconceptions students may still be harboring. Students are correcting and showing their work as we review, prior to turning them in on Friday for a weekly daily grade. This helps promote student self-monitoring and self-assessment. We also readily use Versatile activities during Science where students gain immediate feedback, helping them self-assess and redirect their learning for success with a topic of study.
When designing my lessons, I like to include some sort of independent formative assessment. This is often accomplished with an Exit Ticket, where I ask students to solve a problem and then tell me in written form how and why they solved that problem the way they did. Math reasoning is critical nowadays. My students understanding “the why” behind the math has become an important component for long-term memory of math. Just memorizing the algorithm doesn’t work anymore. I use these Exit Tickets to plan future instruction. Sometimes, I learn that the entire class still needs to work on a concept, while other times additional instruction is needed only for my tutoring group or just a couple of individual students.
For summative assessments, our district is outstanding at providing real-world applications for students to express their knowledge and understanding on the Unit tests they create. Any assessment my mentor teacher and I create also helps us determine students’ strengths and weaknesses toward the topic we are covering. Assessments are never just about the grade; it must always be about the student learning.
While I’m developing a lesson, I always ask myself, “Is what I’m planning necessary and effective?” There is such limited time each day to teach my students. Every minute in our classroom needs to be full of valuable activities, conversations, and interactions. We see our 138 6th grade students for 50 minutes each day. That’s it! I need to make those 50 minutes count. That’s why I need to be clear on how and why I choose to assess my students. What do I want to assess? Why? How will the results of a particular assessment aid my students and me in increasing their learning. Am I using the most effective method to assess what needs to be assessed? How do I plan to proceed with this topic the next time we meet? All these assessment-related questions are important to answer as I design each and every lesson.
Continuous student assessment, especially when teaching math, is critical. While summative is obviously needed, it’s the daily formative assessments which keep my students and me on track. Math is a subject which builds upon itself and, if a student doesn’t grasp a concept and I don’t realize it, their learning can be derailed for quite a while. You will notice me continually questioning my students in all of my lesson plans. This offers me timely feedback to gauge whether students are understanding the topic, as well as time for my students to voice any confusion or misconceptions they may have. I incorporate lots of peer coaching in our activities as well. This increases engagement among students and, simultaneously, allows me time to go from table group to table group to listen in on math conversations, gain insight into their math thinking, observe the math strategies they are using, and determine who’s getting the concept and who’s not.
Each morning in 6th grade Science class, I review our daily Math Mad Minutes with my students. They have several minutes to work on their own and then we review them on the board, solving and discussing each problem. These are typically review problems over concepts students have already learned in order to keep them fresh in their minds, give them repeated exposure and practice with a concept, and reteach any misconceptions students may still be harboring. Students are correcting and showing their work as we review, prior to turning them in on Friday for a weekly daily grade. This helps promote student self-monitoring and self-assessment. We also readily use Versatile activities during Science where students gain immediate feedback, helping them self-assess and redirect their learning for success with a topic of study.
When designing my lessons, I like to include some sort of independent formative assessment. This is often accomplished with an Exit Ticket, where I ask students to solve a problem and then tell me in written form how and why they solved that problem the way they did. Math reasoning is critical nowadays. My students understanding “the why” behind the math has become an important component for long-term memory of math. Just memorizing the algorithm doesn’t work anymore. I use these Exit Tickets to plan future instruction. Sometimes, I learn that the entire class still needs to work on a concept, while other times additional instruction is needed only for my tutoring group or just a couple of individual students.
For summative assessments, our district is outstanding at providing real-world applications for students to express their knowledge and understanding on the Unit tests they create. Any assessment my mentor teacher and I create also helps us determine students’ strengths and weaknesses toward the topic we are covering. Assessments are never just about the grade; it must always be about the student learning.
While I’m developing a lesson, I always ask myself, “Is what I’m planning necessary and effective?” There is such limited time each day to teach my students. Every minute in our classroom needs to be full of valuable activities, conversations, and interactions. We see our 138 6th grade students for 50 minutes each day. That’s it! I need to make those 50 minutes count. That’s why I need to be clear on how and why I choose to assess my students. What do I want to assess? Why? How will the results of a particular assessment aid my students and me in increasing their learning. Am I using the most effective method to assess what needs to be assessed? How do I plan to proceed with this topic the next time we meet? All these assessment-related questions are important to answer as I design each and every lesson.
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