I spent a good deal of time right before break trying to figure out exactly how far I can push my students for the second semester of Algebra 1. These skill items will be broken down into chunks for the skills tests, and MC-ized for the benchmarks and final exam. I regret how many concepts I had to leave out due to time pressures; and still, the list seems daunting and endless.
If you're interested, this is what my students will be doing over the coming months.
doc / pdf
Thinking Thursday: Explain a Math Trick
2 days ago
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9 comments:
Thanks for posting these. I do not teach Algebra 1, but I may create my skills lists to math your format for my Geometry class. Thanks for all of your great posts. I enjoy following your blog.
These are amazing! My husband is a math teacher and they have been trying to come up with assessments like this. Did you work on these by yourself or with a group and were they compiled over years of teaching? (I see you have taught for nine years.)
Thanks, I'm glad you guys find this useful. I worked on these mainly by myself. The actual items weren't compiled over years (I wrote the fall semester items over the summer, and these I just wrote over christmas break), but they are a reflection of all that I have learned in the past 9 years. I use the CA algebra 1 blueprint and STAR released questions as a guide, and then see how much I can possible get my students to do in the short time that we have.
Matt - I hadn't come across your blog before. It looks really interesting. Hopefully I'll find some free time this weekend to go over some of your old posts.
Are these then your actual assessment questions? Do you pre-test them with it or do you just use them for the post-test? I am endorsed in math, but am currently working in a keyboarding/computer classroom. I am always discussing ideas with my husband (since he is currently teaching math). I cannot wait to show him what you have done. I am really looking forward to following your posts.
Those are the actual assessment questions, though I change the values for the tests (since I post these). But I give these as practice tests ahead of time so that students know exactly how they will be assessed. I only use these as post-tests, since my class is not really differentiated yet. In the future, I'd like to create more differentiation, and then pre-testing would have more value for me. If you look in my algebra 1 box.com widget on the sidebar, there is a folder containing skills tests (right now it contains the first semester tests) so you can see what they look like. The class documents folder as a pdf of my fall semester skills list. For the benchmark and final exams, I use basically these same items, but write them in multiple choice form. Any feedback you or your husband have would be great!
I'm not sure WE should be the ones giving you feedback. I feel like we should be learning from you (especially the way you explain things). I'm not saying we are not good teachers, but we are always looking for a new or better way to explain it so that it can reach every student. I'll try to glance through those. Thanks!
I think the skills list and sample assessment questions look great! Do you (a la Dan Meyer) allow students to re-take assessments of specific skills? How is this type of assessment logistically working for you? Thanks for posting/sharing your wealth of resources!
The list is broken into individual skills tests, with 4 - 6 skills per test. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it seems to be working ok right now. Students are allowed to retake an individual skills test as many times as they like; they can do this during after school office hours, or before school. They have to retake the entire skills test, not just the questions that were missed. I decided to do it this way to encourage students to review the group of skills, not just the single test item. Logistically, it is working well, though the number of tests to regrade spikes quite a bit before progress reports are due!
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