Formative Assessment Lessons (FAL) Bullitt County August Days 2012 Patrick Durham Instructional Coach BCPS

What is a FAL??? FAL=Formative Assessment Lesson Engaging STUDENT oriented/focused lesson. Teachers DONT TEACH; they facilitate. You are not on stage anymore! Develops MATH PRACTICES & build relationships among math content Structured Lesson with specific components Assessment AS learning

FAL cycle Pre-Assessment Individual Attempt Group/Partner Attempt Discuss possible methods of solving Post- Assessment Student debrief on various ways to solve (if applicable) Very powerful for student learning Administer day before scheduled FAL Administer after discussion of methods

FAL Prezi Walkthrough -Created by Seth Hunter, KDE Math Specialist & President KCTM

Why FALs? FALs incorporates Highly Effective Teaching & Learning (HETL), Assessment Literacy, & KY Core Academic Standards for Math (KCASM). They can be engaging and rigorous.(Imagine that: FUN and Demanding!) Math the Weird Beast Math relationships, not a series of steps! Math relationships, not a series of steps!

FAL Research Shell Centre for Mathematic Education Research; Nottingham, England

What it takes to be College Ready College Course or Course Area Test EXPLORE Score PLAN Score ACT Score English Composition English Social SciencesReading College AlgebraMathematics BiologyScience202124

Shared Responsibility

Time to FAL Time to be a kid again! Experiencing 1 st person=understanding

Formative Assessment Lessons (FALs) Where are the Cookies? Adaptable for Grades NF.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction or whole number by a fraction 4.NF.4: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplying & dividing a fraction by a whole number

Pre-Assessment Give the day before FAL is planned minute time allotment NO ASSISTANCE, unless accommodations are required (reader) Use this to group responses homogeneously. (classify answers into categories of understanding: each FAL will outline these typical areas of understanding)

Framing the Lesson Framing the FAL is critical. Direct student attention to the content to set their thinking. Introduce FAL to the students.

Cookies FAL Warm-up (10 min) Sally has 3 apples and eats ½ of them. Jim eats 1/3 of what Sally had left. How much of the apples are now left?

Individual Attempt Allow students to view problem(s) minutes Only allow students to develop plan of attack to solve. DO NOT allow them to solve the problem completely. NO HELP!!! (accommodations need to be met)

Collaborative Learning Ask for needs of clarification. Group students according to pre-assessment results. (typically no more than 4-5). Use group responsibilities/jobs to involve all in group. About 15 minutes. No wasting time! Monitor, not teach. Assist strugglers with questions, not answers

Collaborative Discussion Questions Describe the problem solving approach the student used. Describe the way the student organized the solution. Describe what the student did to calculate the number of cookies on the tray. Explain what the student needs to do to complete or correct their solution.

Whole Group Discussion minutes May need management structure for positive discourse. Allow students to discuss their answers and processes to solve. Based on conferring & during work times, you may need to target specific groups to provide correct thinking/strategy. You may provide an alternate strategy if needed to focus thinking. Also allows them to walk away with the satisfaction of having a correct answer.

Sample Discussion Questions Which approach did you like best from the sample solutions? Which approach did you find most difficult to understand? Did anyone use a different method than the samples of student work you analyzed?

Post Assessment minutes Return students original pre-assessment and allow them to correct/change/modify answer. (may just give them a clean pre-assessment instead of their original). NO help, only accommodations.

Updated Thinking/Debriefing 5-10 min/Remainder of class session, may go to next day if needed. Student/Teacher discourse over new/updated thinking. Develops deep connections for students. Also allows them to walk away with the satisfaction of having a correct answer.

Resources Q: drive under FAL. Folders according to level. The quality of the problem/ task to be used (cognitive demand, content, ties to targets) – – – Grouping strategies – rds.pdf rds.pdf NCTM 5 Keys to effective Formative Assessment – How math standards link together in a symbiotic relationship.