Assess Success: Exploring Authentic Assessment in the Mathematics Classroom

 "The emphasis is on local curriculum development, teacher decision-making on pedagogical approach and alternative assessment methods - e.g., Strategies for Active and Independent Learning (SAIL); Strategies for Effective Engagement and Development (SEED); Science Practical Assessment (SPA). Such moves are attempts to open up pedagogical practice and begin delinking it from a strong examination culture,  oriented towards the replication of facts and ideational content." (p. 292) The Main Points Conventional Assessment Assessments typically measure recall of discrete facts, retrieval of given information, application of routine computational formulas or procedures Have been increasingly used for high-stakes reasons - judging teachers' professional capacity and performance, overall school and system efficacy Results in teachers "teaching to the test" rather than to intended learning outcomes "Struggle to establish valid measures of students' higher-order ...

Google Drive Folder with Resources HERE "Developing" - let them use notes! They just won't progress beyond that level Core questions = all do, Advanced questions = can do, if you want to get to those top two If you want to get to xxx course, you need to do advanced questions Use curricular competencies rubric Demonstrate levels of mastery  "Compare the following..." Tests are split into learning outcomes, each section just gets one overall Tests -- "Celebration of learning" Mid-course Feedback from Gr. 12 students: Positive: Decreased anxiety levels during test Focus on big concepts Lets me know if I know concepts, not the right answers Have purpose in re-learning Less stress on ensuring get each and every mark Negative: No sense of urgency Feel stress of not knowing the percentage Multiple Choice Questions - Why? Take the work they have scratched down into account Reassessment: Didn't ask them to reassess the whole test; they can just do part of ...

Research BTC on FB -- Way more! For specific things  What is a Thinking Classroom? Curricular and Non-curricular tasks -- heavily skewed towards curricular Not "for enrichment"! Place where students work collaboratively in groups of three on VNPS Intentionally disrupt order of classroom Students find autonomy Place where we maintain flow, bring order to the chaos Can't do consolidation, etc with cold brains, so if you run out of time and have to do the next day, you need to start with a quick task Meaningful notes happens best AFTER consolidation Option: The only "homework" is to make meaningful notes at home.  What Happens in a Thinking Classroom? Students think. Students collaborate.  Even against all odds, collaboration seems to work Students find voice and autonomy.  The boundaries begin to dissolve. Students have pride. Profound emergence of empathy.  For the first 3 weeks, marginal improvement in collaboration, then BAM! Things explode.  Students take...

- Consolidation should occur at the lowest board, so as to not leave anyone out.  - Ask students: "How could we extend? What could be the next question?" This creates curiosity and students who are automatically open to trying the next thing.  - Students have the freedom to think how they want to think, so those who are generally lower confidence thrive in T.C. - "Sharing time" at the beginning of Unit Tests -- no pens and pencils.  - Complexity Science "the more we try to control and pressure learning from without, the more we obstruct the tendencies of students to be actively involved and to participate in their own education." - Stefanou BCAMT Weekly Math Tasks "Next Stages": Task Consolidation Use student work. As you circle the room, plan the sequence. This is your teaching time.  Ask students who are not in this group to describe the reasoning/thinking. This improves engagement and removes the ownership of thinking.  Still keeping them thin...

 - The teaching move keeps the thinking going - A "move" can be allowed, if it keeps the thinking going - Do the move you anticipate will keep the mathematical thinking going - You can change the constraint, etc, it's your math! - It feels different to "go in the opposite direction" (you own it, you discover it, you belong to it) - The solution to the task is the argument. The benefit to this is the middle space.  -  Menu Math : 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 9, 10 --> Build 10 fractions that, when added together, create the largest number.  Switch: Build a number that has a remainder of _ when divided by _. - Have students act as a designer. We, as teachers, are invited into what they know.  - "Ask for forgiveness, not permission." - Student Agency          When agency comes in, you've got to be prepared to be surprised! - Keep students thinking.  - You are allowed to change just a single group's instructions! Keep...

Presentation Slides - Mystery Functions - Learning Transformations, etc  - Desmos Test Mode (Separate App) - Use warm-up to get them thinking - Chris Hunter blog Proficiency Scale - Nat Banting Math Menu Tasks - Tests are not easy, but are relatively predictable (practice tests w/ more than will actually test on) - Assignments due a week later, test within that time frame - Assignments should take 3-6 hours - Focus on Unit-type assignment, less "project-based" assignments - 3 assignments in Pre-Calc 12 (don't overdo it), take the best 2 Assessing Assignments - Words are often not specific enough on rubrics, so may need to use examples - Moving along is additive (if you can do B, you can do C and C-) - Don't necessarily need descriptors in every category (ex. red on C- and A, not in-between -- outliers) - Group in A's, B's, C's, etc and then re-look for A+ vs A vs A- - Take a long time to mark - Allow retests, need to put in the time, outside of class pop ...

Whenever I hear educators discuss assessment, the following phrases are bound to arise: "Assessment OF, FOR, or AS learning"; "summative assessment"; and "formative assessment". These three phrases are generally the basis for many disagreements in the professional realm.  The biggest theme I saw arise during this week's reading and podcast was the need for authentic tasks and meaningful assessment, especially when viewed through the students' eyes.  Nat Banting is well-known in Western Canada (and beyond), as he is the creator of FractionTalks.com , as well as the provider of many rich tasks used in classroom all over.  He stressed in Episode 110 of the Making Math Moments That Matter Podcast that too often we focus on knowing , when we should be focusing on just sitting  with the problem or task at hand. Everything he does in FractionTalks is about simply thinking about what is in front of you and considering it from different angles and perspec...

  This is the second time I'm reading Jo Boaler's Mathematical Mindsets , and I couldn't get past the first page in Chapter 8 before stopping multiple times! Reading with my pen in hand, I'm starring and underlining things in addition to what I noted last time. (Sorry for those who find writing in books to be sacrilegious!) Right off the bat, I appreciate how firmly Boaler communicates her dislike and distrust of testing and grading student "understanding". By testing students, teachers encourage them to see their success through a lens of letter and numbers. "Such crude representations of understanding not only fail to adequately describe children's knowledge, in many cases their misrepresent it" (Boaler, 2016, p. 141). Having the unique opportunity to teach Grade 8 and  Grade 11/12 math, I see the widespread beliefs students hold about their mathematical abilities. Although it is already quite developed in Grade 8, students are still much more ...