Weekly Report & Reflection Week #11!

Reflection 11

In the second last session of this math course, we started to look at formative assessment. One good question came up was that how do we assess students using the "As Learning" format. Let us give an overview first of all the assessment types. 

From the Growing Success policy document: 

Assessment FOR learning is more commonly known as formative & diagnostic assessments.  Assessment FOR learning is the use of a task or an activity for the purpose of determining student progress during a unit or block of instruction.  Teachers are now afforded the chance to adjust classroom instruction based upon the needs of the students.  Similarly, students are provided valuable feedback on their own learning.

Assessment OF learning is the use of a task or an activity to measure, record and report on a student's level of achievement in regards to specific learning expectations.  These are often known as summative assessments.

Assessment AS learning is the use of a task or an activity to allow students the opportunity to use assessment to further their own learning.  Self and peer assessments allow students to reflect on their own learning and identify areas of strength and need.  These tasks offer students the chance to set their own personal goals and advocate for their own learning.

So looking at the assessment as learning, you can see that it is all about self assessment. How can students self assess in math? Here is a simple example, give them a problem, and tell them what do you already know about this. This will allow the students to self assess and ask themselves all sorts of questions by bringing up their past knowledge in trying to solve the current problem. 

In this session of week 11, the instructor modelled for us how to self assess. He gave us the 5 fingers problem similar to the one below:

Tom likes to count on the fingers of his left hand, but in a peculiar way.  He starts by calling the thumb 1, the first finger 2, the middle finger 3, the ring finger 4, and the pinkie 5, and then he reverses direction, so the ring finger is 6, the middle finger is 7, the first finger is 8, the thumb is 9, and then he reverses again so that the first finger is 10, the middle finger is 11, and so on. Where would number 1000 land (on which finger)

So he had us solve the problem first on our own, then asked us what we go to and how, then he prompted us further and asked why we got there. Then the instructor solved the problem on the board by asking us as a class too (guided teaching).

These problems can be used from grade 2-12. Depends how complicated you can go with the solutions. The solution can be as simple as just counting, or as complicated as making algebraic expressions. 

There are such problems on the:

Collaborative Mathematics website, click HERE.

Math Counts website, click HERE. 

Important notes:

Challenge kids
Let the students do the work