Week 5 Discussion ( Your 1st post is due by Tuesday): Submission Preview

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

1. Exit Ticket – This form of informal assessment is commonplace in a lot of classrooms. I find it a particularly important form of informal assessment for mathematics because it gives teachers a very clear picture of what objectives (or part of objectives) needs to be reviewed in the next class period. It also shows teachers the objectives that were comprehended by students, and that can be used to access background information in the next class.

I teach high school mathematics (grades 9-12). Exit Tickets in my classroom are typically between 3-5 questions. The questions are short and targeted to see where student thinking is (or isn't) breaking down.

2. I found this article really interesting. I'm still thinking about ways I can increase student-involvement in assessments in my classroom. I used to do a lot of student-involved recording keeping. I had students chart their assessment scores in order to see growth over time. The challenging part was (1) how often to chart information and (2) how to explain to students that their trajectory may not be perfectly linear. To speak to the first point, charting progress takes class time and students are at varying levels of interest in the activity. I still found that students with low scores were uninterested in making a pretty chart of their low score, and students with high scores really loved it. I also found students losing interest if at first their chart was rising and then they had a bad test and it took a big drop. My solution to this was to use mastery/standard-based feedback for students so they were getting a look at the same information and had the ability to improve. The issue with this is mastery grading can be complex to graph, so I relied on a computer system to input data. Students were able to view their data, but it certainly took away from the student-involvement idea.

The other two ideas from the article were very important. I try to make my rubric and grading system as transparent as possible (student-involved assessment). We also talk a lot about how the AP test in Calculus will be graded and how to maximize points on that test. Finally, I like the idea of student-involved communication. I often have students write reflections after a test or at the end of the quarter. I write sample responses to help guide the students, but I still struggle with getting thoughtful, substantial answers from them. It's either, "I did really good on this test," or, "I didn't do well on this test, so I need to study more."

3. "Strive for progress, not perfection"

I've found this to be an important quote for the school I'm teaching at now, where students are high achieving and very competitive. I've had students very upset about scoring 90% on a test and I've had to talk to them about why they are so focused on perfection. Unfortunately, I think the messaging they are receiving from parents and college counselors about the realities of getting accepted to "top" universities tells them otherwise.

4. See attached. My lesson did not use student presentations as a formal assessment tool, but the rubric I created would be a good way to assess those presentations if I wanted to evaluate student achievement from them.

1. Exit Ticket – This form of informal assessment is commonplace in a lot of classrooms. I find it a particularly important form of informal assessment for mathematics because it gives teachers a very clear picture of what objectives (or part of objectives) needs to be reviewed in the next class period.  It also shows teachers the objectives that were comprehended by students, and that can be used to access background information in the next class.  I teach high school mathematics (grades 9-12).  Exit Tickets in my classroom are typically between 3-5 questions. The questions are short and targeted to see where student thinking is (or isn't) breaking down. 2. I found this article really interesting. I'm still thinking about ways I can increase student-involvement in assessments in my classroom.  I used to do a lot of student-involved recording keeping.  I had students chart their assessment scores in order to see growth over time.  The challenging part was (1) how often to chart information and (2) how to explain to students that their trajectory may not be perfectly linear.  To speak to the first point, charting progress takes class time and students are at varying levels of interest in the activity.  I still found that students with low scores were uninterested in making a pretty chart of their low score, and students with high scores really loved it. I also found students losing interest if at first their chart was rising and then they had a bad test and it took a big drop.  My solution to this was to use mastery/standard-based feedback for students so they were getting a look at the same information and had the ability to improve. The issue with this is mastery grading can be complex to graph, so I relied on a computer system to input data. Students were able to view their data, but it certainly took away from the student-involvement idea. The other two ideas from the article were very important.  I try to make my rubric and grading system as transparent as possible (student-involved assessment).  We also talk a lot about how the AP test in Calculus will be graded and how to maximize points on that test.  Finally, I like the idea of student-involved communication.  I often have students write reflections after a test or at the end of the quarter.  I write sample responses to help guide the students, but I still struggle with getting thoughtful, substantial answers from them.  It's either, "I did really good on this test," or, "I didn't do well on this test, so I need to study more."    3. "Strive for progress, not perfection" I've found this to be an important quote for the school I'm teaching at now, where students are high achieving and very competitive.  I've had students very upset about scoring 90% on a test and I've had to talk to them about why they are so focused on perfection.  Unfortunately,  I think the messaging they are receiving from parents and college counselors about the realities of getting accepted to "top" universities tells them otherwise.  4. See attached. My lesson did not use student presentations as a formal assessment tool, but the rubric I created would be a good way to assess those presentations if I wanted to evaluate student achievement from them.

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

Hi James,

I don't have a set template for the Exit Ticket. However, I do try to break down the skills in the lesson into separate questions. For example, if I teach a math concept that has 3 steps... I usually ask one question about each step individually, and then the final question requires all three steps at once. This way, if a student is struggling I can see if they are having trouble with 1 part of the problem or if they are just struggling to put it all together.

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

Hi Son,

I teach high school math and I find that "confidence from their earliest experiences" can be lacking if a student decided "they aren't good at math" starting in elementary school! I always start the school year talking about malleable intelligence. We read an article and talk about how hard work increases intelligence (it is not fixed). This seems to help motivate the students who come into my class feeling "they will never be good at math."

Jessica Frances Rumel Mirch

Hi Valerie,

I recently starting giving "practice quizzes" in my Algebra II class in the same way you give your "un-quizzes." It started because I kept telling students that they have to study by quizzing themselves. Too many students were just looking over their notes, and then getting so upset they weren't doing well on the assessments. They have been liking the practice quizzes, but what I need to transition to now is teaching them how to write their own practice quiz. I've explained to them a million times that all they need to do is take one of each type of homework problem and mix them up, but for some reason I can't get the students to actually do it. I think I'm going to start making it a required assignment they have to turn in.