Students use appropriate assessments to guide instruction and develop a fluid and reflective relationship between assessment and instruction

At the beginning of the school year I feared that I would get stuck in a rut of test preparation for the entire semester. I was afraid that the purpose of every lesson would be to prepare for a unit test, with a larger goal of preparing for the Regents exam at the end of the year. While I am opposed to high-stakes testing, I cannot avoid testing my students throughout the year, and I would be doing my students a disservice if I did not help them prepare for the Regents exam. However, test-preparation goals can co-exist with larger goals of conceptual understanding and appreciation of mathematics. I found that assessment is much more dynamic than just written tests, and that assessment is not inherently a bad thing. I found myself assessing my students frequently in relatively low-stakes ways.

Formal Tests and Quizzes

About once every three weeks I gave students a unit test, and about once a week students completed a written quiz. However, these were not high-stakes, high-pressure assessments. For tests, students would have at least 40-60 minutes to work in class, but there were no real time constraints, as students were given at least a week following the test to come in during a study hall or after school to keep working on their test. Students were encouraged to ask me questions if they got stuck. I would not give away any answers but I would get students "back on track." At first it seemed wrong to "help" students on tests and quizzes, but I continued allow students to get this type of help at the insistence of my cooperating teacher. I came to realize that I felt wrong helping students because I saw the purpose of testing as giving a grade, when the purpose should be to make sure students understand the math. Many students could explain a solution method to me verbally, but had trouble getting it in writing. Some students had trouble setting up problems but could solve them expertly. A major opposing argument to such a relaxed testing environment is that students have to take a final exam or Regents exam at the end of the year where they can't get help. This is true, but I see the way I handled tests and quizzes as scaffolding. I gave students assistance to take some of the anxiety away from testing, and over time students built confidence and I took some of the scaffolding away, providing less assistance. Sometimes I would let students compare answers and discuss the correct solution methods, instead of me providing any assistance, challenging students to explain their thinking verbally.

One example of the success of this system: when I handed back the first test of the school year, one student looked at his grade and his face lit up. "This is the best math grade I've ever gotten!" This was not a result of grade inflation or coddling. He was in my classroom during his lunch for three days straight, asking a few preliminary questions each day, but working extremely hard to complete each problem. Without my very minimal assistance and insistence that he complete every question (I refuse to let students leave questions blank), he may have given up and lost all the credit for problems that he knew how to do. Since that test, he's been much more confident and has been motivated to keep his grades as high as they were on the first test.

Feedback over Grades

All tests and quizzes I gave received a numerical grade, but I valued the feedback I gave much more than the grades. If students got the wrong answer on a question, I did not just mark it wrong. I would go back through their work and find their mistake. If it was a recurring issue for the student, such as saying a negative number squared is negative, I would write them a short note, pointing out the error and explaining why it is wrong. In contrast, when I see creative and new ways to solve problems, I also point that out to students. I want students to make my feedback and show improvement on future assessments. That is why I gave so many short quizzes throughout the semester - not to prepare students for the Regents, but to give them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge for a grade. By formally assessing the same topic two or three times, I can see improvement, and help students find success in the classroom. Multiple assessments also dilutes the importance of any single test grade, creating a lower-stress environment.

Informal Assessments

Despite having one or two graded assessments each week, I found informal ways to gauge student understanding which were incorporated in to instruction. This could be through worksheets that students completed in groups, but more often was through more "fun" activities. For example, after we had finished a topic, I came up with a few review questions and had students complete them using individual whiteboards, holding them up so I could see how students were understanding the topic. I emphasized that they were not being graded and there was no shame in being wrong; I was simply trying to see what students did and did not understand. Therefore, the assessment was an important part of my instruction, as the results of this activity would inform my future instruction on the topic. 

A very useful tool that I used was Kahoot. This website allows teachers to put together multiple choice questions which are projected one at a time at the front of the room and students, using any internet-connected device, go to a website and have a time limit to answer the question. Students are awarded points for fast and correct answers. I used Kahoot a couple of times with teams of two to three, but students can also use individual devices so the teacher can gauge individual understanding. When I used Kahoot, it got very competitive (in a good way) and students had a lot of fun. The second time I used it, students' faces lit up when they realized we were going to play Kahoot, yet they were having mathematically complex discussions and reviewing important material. Students wouldn't have enjoyed completing a worksheet with the same questions nearly as much. Yes, assessment can be fun!

More Than a Score image courtesy of coreteachers.org

Kahoot image courtesy of Google Play