Surveys are very useful tools to enable a teacher to determine her students prerequisite level of knowledge in a specific area.  It gives a teacher an indication of where she should start a lesson and what specific areas can be skipped or need to be re-enforced.

Mrs. Bowers’  6^th  Grade  Math  Survey

I created a survey using Survey Monkey that consisted of the following three questions:

1.  What is the equivalent fraction (in lowest terms) of .25 and 25%?

2.  How would you express the integer 5 as a percentage?

3.  What is the decimal equivalent of the mixed number 6 3/8?

The purpose of the survey was to quiz my 6^th grade students on their level of knowledge before beginning my lesson that addresses the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standard for Mathematics in 6^th Grade.  Specifically, I was addressing Standard 4.1, Number and numerical operations, Strand A., Number Sense, Indicator 6, which states that by the end of Grade 6 students will be able to use whole numbers, fractions, and decimals to represent equivalent forms of the same number.  Please click on the triangle icon below for this specific standard, followed by a printout of my survey and the response summary.

Judging from my very limited responses and detailed analysis, I would review concepts in depth with the entire class and focus extra attention on the relationship of a number, both whole and fractional to it’s decimal and percentage equivalent.  From my survey, I found that most of my students do remember and understand the fractional equivalent of a percentage.  A whopping 71.4% recalled that 25% is ¼ and nobody even chose 25/100, so those that did remember, are reducing or are recalling the relationship of a quarter to a dollar.  In addition, these same students (who understood question #1) also got question #3 correct and were able to convert a mixed number to the proper decimal equivalent.  Unfortunately, even though 71.4% of the class understood the concepts tested in questions 1 and 3, that means almost 30% of the class didn’t.  With an average class size of 26 students in Howell, this represents at least 7 of my students.  I cannot ignore these 7 students, nor do I believe the remainder of the class would be hurt by a thorough review of these concepts.

Furthermore, only 14.3% of the class recalled that the decimal goes after the whole number and 5 represents 500%.  This is very common error and I found myself rethinking the question a few times before including it in the survey, because I knew they’d all get it wrong.  I wondered if the wording wasn’t too ambiguous; I reviewed terminology with honored colleagues, and decided to leave it in.  This is the reason I’ll go back to the Italian accent, pizza pies and chicken nuggets, even if they are in the 6^th grade.  As a Math teacher, all you want is for them to “get it”…to truly understand the mathematical concepts and relationships and their relevancy and application to everyday life.  I want all of my students to meet and exceed the standards because I know they are capable of accomplishing this and I know I can help them get there.