MIAA 330 Mathematics

Assessment
Demonstration of Advanced Practice
By Amy Schmerer
January 29, 2015

Week One: Designing

Assessment
The Common Core State Standards ask students to transition to new standards and
transform the way in which they learnto make the progress they need to become
college and career ready
My school district decided to wait on implementing Common Core until this year. I
believe this was a disservice to our students as we are behind the curve now.
The mathematics curriculum and assessment is vastly different from the old
curriculum. I am watching students gain a better grasp of concepts at a deeper
level of understanding. They are able to do things I didnt know they could at such a
young age.
We are doing a ton more algebra and constructed and expanded response than we
did prior to common core. When I think a lesson will be way over their heads, like
the distributive property of division, they now say, this is so easy! Teachers and
Parents are resistant to change. Kids are sponges!
The following page is an example of an assessment. There were of course a range of
scores, but most grasped the concept and had the correct answers, they just didnt
follow all the steps required in order to receive a 4. A few are resistant to having to
show their work and explain. They say they know it so why bother I want to see
their drawings and read their explanations so I know how they solved the problems.

Problem Set 3
Grade

rd

Model each problem with a drawing. Then, write an equation

using a letter to represent the unknown and solve for the
unknown.
a. Each student gets 3 pencils. There are a total of 21 pencils.
How many students are there?
b. Henry spends 24 minutes practicing 6 different basketball
drills. He spends the same amount of time on each drill. How
much time does Henry spend on each drill?
c. Jessica has 8 pieces of yarn for a project. Each piece of yarn
is 6 centimeters long. What is the total length of the yarn?
d. Ginny measures 6 milliliters of water into each beaker. She
pours a total of 54 milliliters. How many beakers does Ginny
use?

Analysis of Impact
Analysis of Impact of Assessment on Student Learning:
I use assessment outcomes to guide my instruction. They allow
me to see where the holes in my delivery may have been. They
allow me to see who needs further small group instruction.
I then reassess until I am confident the student has a grasp of
the content.
I believe quality assessments that are used to find holes in
learning are a valuable teaching tool for the teacher. They give
us information to use to guide our instruction. They allow us to
see who is ready to move on and who needs further assistance.
Assessments, in my mind, are therefore most useful to the
teacher, not the student nor parent, especially in the primary
grades.

Week Two: Error

Analysis
The Purposes of Error Analysis:
(1) Identify the patterns of errors or mistakes
that students make in their work
(2) Understand why students make the errors
(3) Provide targeted instruction to correct the
errors.
When conducting an error analysis, the
teacher checks the students mathematics
problems and categorizes the errors.

Common Student
Errors:
Addition and Subtraction:
Lack of understanding of regrouping
Confusion of 1s and 10s in carrying and writing
Forgetting to carry 10s and 100s.
Forgetting to regroup when subtracting 10s and 100s.
Regrouping when it is not required.
Incorrect operation (the student subtracts instead of
adding or vice versa).
Lack of knowledge of basic number facts.

Common Student
Errors:
Multiplication and Division:
Forgetting to carry in multiplication
Carrying before multiplying
Ignoring place value in division
Recording the answer from left to right in
multiplication
Lack of alignment of work in columns
Lack of knowledge of basic number facts

Common Student
Error

Word Problems:

Difficulty in reading
Inability to relate to context of problem
Inability to understand the language and vocabulary
of the problem
Difficulty in identifying the relevant and the irrelevant
information
Difficulty in identifying the number of steps required
to solve the problem
Trouble in doing mathematical operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division)

Analysis of student
work:
Problem: The 5th grade teacher asked students to write and solve a 3
digit by 2 digit multiplication problem and explain the steps they took
to solve the equation. The teacher did not write the problem down
for them. The equation was 434x21.
This student first wrote 40,034x21. The student did not have an
understanding of place value. The teacher again asked her how to
write 434 and guided her by telling her that she wrote forty thousand
thirty-four. When the student corrected she wrote 4,034. She still
showed she did not have conceptual understanding of place value.
The teacher taught a mini lesson on place value.
The student was ultimately able to write and solve similar algorithms.
This is because the teacher assessed then filled the gap in the
students number sense through small group lesson and reassessed.
I would insert audio if I knew how ;)

Week Three:
Assessment for All
Improving Content Assessment for English
Language Learners: Studies of the Linguistic
Modification of Test Items
John W. Young, Teresa C. King, Maurice Cogan Hauck,
Mitchell Ginsburgh, Lauren Kotloff, Julio Cabrera & Carlos
Cavalie
The bottom line of the article was to develop content
assessments that are of greater accessibility to ELL
students. As far as Im concerned and what I will be
taking into account, is greater accessibility to all students.
I believe that the goal of assessment should be to see if
the students comprehend the content, not to trick them
with the language in which it is presented.

Modifications the ETS

Implemented:
Remove Empty Context

Refine Context

Simplify Vocabulary Unpack

Make Item Stem Concise

Make Options Concise

Reduce If Clause Simplify Verb Forms

Reduce Wordiness

Add Emphasis to Key Words

Graphic Representation

Week Four:
Assessment Data
Engage NY lessons usually consist of 30-45 minutes of students using
white boards (or realia depending on the content) and turn and talk on
how you solved problems before moving into the independent practice.
The lessons are very scribed and hit many modalities. I get immediate
feedback on who understands and who is a bit lost. When they see other
students results they usually self correct. They usually see they may
have used the incorrect numbers or performed the wrong operation. I
am able to immediately identify those who need further assistance so
when the students move into the independent practice I know who I need
to assist or reteach. (We are mainly working on multiplication and
division concepts at the 3rd grade level. In Engage NY students havent
been asked to memorize facts but have to show how they solve it. They
use number bonds, tape diagrams, arrays. They can illustrate the
distributive and commutative properties of division and multiplication at
this point. They can prove how they are related. I use Making Math Real
on the side to aide in the memorization of the facts. Engage NY doesnt
go into memorization but MMR helps in automaticity now that they have
a strong conceptual understanding.)

Week Four:
Assessment Data
I have found that what I have taught using Engage NY
thus far has been successful and accessible to my
diverse population through the use of ongoing informal
assessment.
We do not have any district summative data at this
point.
The modeling and conceptual development in this
curriculum is superb. There are ample opportunities
embedded for discourse, white board use and hands
on activities. All of which give the teacher immediate
feedback on who is struggling and needs targeted
instruction. This has increased student success as
evident in student work and assessment.