Organizing Your Mark Book

One of the great things about the Growing Success document is that is gives us a strong picture of the types of assessment we need to be doing on our students:  Assessing for Learning, Assessing of Learning and Assessing As Learning.  Assessment can be recorded in many different ways:  anecdotal notes, descriptive feedback and as marks in our mark book.

The Junior Division at Manhattan Park looked at different forms of assessment during their PLC for math.  What really "clicked" for them was an idea that they saw in the Damian Cooper book "Talk About Assessment" which all of your schools have a copy of.  In thinking of the types of questions they were asking, they also started thinking about how they were assessing the questions.  They saw a sample of a mark book where the students were marked in each of the areas of the achievement chart and decided to try it for the unit they were working on.

What Doris and Diana said they liked about this chart (which they modified to meet their needs) was that they could look and see what types of questions they needed to assess to make sure they were getting the true picture of their student's progress.  As well, the area at the bottom really allowed them the opportunity to record their observations of each student.  This allowed them to have a bank of comments for the report card that was not only student specific, but in parent friendly language.

You can also help parents understand why there is more to a mark in math than just answering questions like 8 x3 = 24, as you can show specific question types their child was successful in, and struggled in.

How To Organize A Unit

In Ontario, we have a specific Math curriculum that we follow.  At times, the expectations seem overwhelming, and knowing where to start can be tricky.  Backwards Mapping is one effective strategy that helps us keep track of not only where we want the students to end up, but also where we want to take our students.  Creating a unit plan is another strategy.

Maryna used the template below to plan out her unit on Patterning. 

She laid out a progression to her lessons, being sure to include tasks that were purposeful, used technology, and allowed her students to demonstrate understanding at all four levels (and categories) of the achievement chart.  The plan is not set in stone.  As she progressed through the unit, she made changes based on what her observations of the student were - Assessing for Learning, Assessing As Learning - and made sure that she helped close the "gaps" that her students may have had in their learning.

Having a plan not only allowed Maryna to focus more on the students, but it also allowed her the opportunity to make sure that she met the curriculum expectations for her grade, thus preparing them for the future.

Let's Start At The Beginning

In Heather's Grade 2/3 class she wanted to start problem solving with her students on a more regular basis. In the lesson we co-taught we wanted the students to get comfortable with some of the logistics of problem solving.  Things like working in pairs, using a marker to write their answer down, and crossing out wrong answers.  These are all huge steps students have to overcome in order to show their thinking.  We also hoped to see what different strategies the students used to help her get an idea of where to go in her lessons (Assessment for Learning)

For some students, they took to the challenge like it was nothing new.  For some, they needed to be silly with the markers and draw on their hands for a few minutes before they got to work.  Getting the students to write an answer down was the hardest part.  Many of them were afraid to make a mistake and wanted to make sure that they they put down the right answer - or put down what Heather and I were looking for. 

When we congressed, we had the students look at how there were many different strategies that they could have used to solve this problem.  We labeled each strategy, and then posted them on the black board in a Bansho so the students could see what their next logical strategy was.

It was a very successful first try at problem solving (and co-teaching).  At times we worry about how "messy" the student work is.  But we need to remind ourselves that it is okay to be "messy" as it shows us how our students think, and how we can help them become clearer in their though process. 

What Makes A "Good Question?"

What makes a good question?  That's a great question! 

The primary division at Wexford asked just that question at the start of our pathway.  In order to set up our pre-assessment task we needed to create a question.  Not just any question, but a question that allowed us to not only meet all four levels of the achievement chart, but one that allowed our students to achieve at one of the four levels.

We looked at the above question (please ignore the writing below the purple pattern - it was our scratch pad for our thinking on another task).  We asked ourselves if it was a "good question."  Looking at the achievement chart, we noticed that it did cover knowledge and understanding - It shows us if the student can make a pattern and knows what attributes are.  Our next question became "Can a student achieve a Level 4 on this question?"  After some debate and discussion we concluded that no, they couldn't.  Quite simply because we didn't give them the chance to demonstrate they had thorough knowledge of patterns.

The second problem we looked at was very different.  As we went through the achievement chart, we were able to identify how the solution would allow the students to demonstrate their knowledge in each area, and at different levels.  It also allowed us to anticipate student solutions, and discuss ways that the student could improve in their answer.

For the pre-assessment, the teachers came up with a very open, very appealing question for the students.  It also was able to be used from Grade One to Grade Three.  It was along the lines of:

Our school council wants to design a new school t-shirt.  They want it to have a pattern that has different attributes on it.  What could the shirt look like?  Explain the pattern.

Beginning Our Pathway

Participating in a math pathway is something that will be new to many of us.  Clairlea has been involved in a great deal of professional development surrounding math for the past three years.  In that time they have done a lot of work on creating rich tasks for their students, and also have co-taught with myself, Susan (our IL) and now each other.

When they started looking at the route that they wanted to take this year, they started by thinking of the different types of assessment that we use in our classrooms.  To help organize their brainstorming, an "Idea Pot" was used.  An idea pot is a great tool to use in our classrooms as a way to keep track of our ideas on a particular topic. 

Once we discussed the ways in which we assess, we turned to the achievement chart to look further into the areas of knowledge and understanding, application and thinking/problem solving.  These three areas come up a lot when we talk about EQAO results, but what do they really mean?

The group was divided into three smaller groups.  Each group became an "expert" on a specific type of question.  The groups sorted through various EQAO questions and picked out the questions that applied to their type of question.  They then organized their data using a Freyer model using the following headings:  Definition of type of question (in parent friendly language); examples of that type of question; non-examples and answered one of the questions.  

In defining the term in parent friendly language, it then helped us have some dialogue around the idea of Learning Goals and Success Criteria.  As well, it helped give us some ideas for writing the new Provincial Progress Report.

After doing this activity it helped us shed light on the types of questions we ask our students, and gave us some insight into being aware of covering the four levels of the achievement chart.