1. Assessing Understanding
Math Summer Institute 2007
Assessing Understanding
Math Summer Institute 2007
Lisa Lunney
Lisa Lunney,

2. Understanding Assessment
Assessment of learning (Summative)
Assessment for learning (Formative)
The assessment cycle
Planning Assessment
Setting clear goals
Using Results
Making decisions
Gathering Evidence
Employing multiple methods
Interpreting Evidence
Making inferences
Van de Walle (2005) p.66

3. Four purposes of Assessment
Promote
Growth
Purposes of
Assessment
Monitoring student progress
Making instructional decisions
Modify
Program
Evaluating programs
Improve
Instruction
Evaluating student achievement
Recognize
Accomplishment
Van de Walle (2005) p.68

4. Two Key Questions!
How can we create rich tasks or questions that enable us to determine if students truly understand?
What classroom management strategies can we employ to enable the teacher to observe and assess?

5. Task Selection Good problems
Begin where they are
Focus on important mathematics
Requires justification and explanation
Promotes doing mathematics and encourages understanding
May be open-ended
Open Process: many ways to arrive at the answer
Open End Product: many possible solutions
Open Question: can explore new problems related to the old problem
Promotes the Big Five!

6. Think Multiple Representations
Verbal: Explain it in Words
Contextual: Write a Story Problem
Concrete:
Use Concrete Materials to Build It
Symbolic:
Write it in Mathematical Symbols
Pictorial:
Draw a Picture Model

7. Classroom Strategies
Group Work
Investigations
Learning Centers