Im a pre-service teacher about to complete my last placement in Australia. Im really enjoying your blogs! Do you mind if I ask what is your favourite way to performance assess a whole-class to check if they have the right skills? Im trying to decide on 3 performance assessment methods to use and would love you advice. :)
1) Mini whiteboards. Every kid has one, they write answers then hold them up at the same time. This helps me figure out whether we need more time on a skill or if we can move on. I also jot down specific students to follow up with individually on a post-it.
2) A quick low-stakes quiz (graded for completion) that starts with very basic skills and gradually gets harder. Generally around 6 questions, taken on a Google Form so I can collect data quickly. I use these to identify individual students who need more support, and try to figure out where exactly they're getting stuck. Students take it on their own, then move on to another independent activity while I check in with students one-on-one.
3) Harder tasks, typically in context involving multiple parts. The Illustrative Math curriculum has a lot of good ones. I use these to challenge students to apply what they know in new contexts and see how well they can transfer their knowledge.
Awesome thanks this is really helpful. If the school you were teaching at didn't have mini whiteboards.. what would you replace this with? I really want a super quick way to see if all the kids in the classroom get something but need to work within the constraints of the school I'm doing my placement in. The school does quizzes as you have suggested, but don't do anything currently for super quick check ins.. might not be an easy answer to this
Finger voting. Project a multiple choice questions, students hold up fingers at the same time. 1 for A, 2 for B, etc.
Choral response is ok for a general sense of is everyone confused or not. Works best for shorter questions with quick answers. I used it today to check for understanding of radius vs diameter. I use a signal (hold my hand up, they respond when I put my hand down) so they all say it at the same time.
Have students answer on paper or a notebook and circulate around and look. Again hard to get precise but I can get a general sense of whether or not I can move on.
All have advantages and disadvantages. All worth adding to your repertoire in my opinion!
I love this. It's the re-teaching moments - the realizations about students that we make as (math) teachers which lead us to creating an in-the-moment small group to go over something systematically.
I also love how you phrased the questions that we all ask in our heads but aren't always sure how to verbalize to others: "What are the missing pieces that are holding students back? How can I make sure I find and remediate them, rather than leaving it to chance?" I think it speaks to how many things we as teachers hold in our heads at once in order to support our students' learning.
Definitely. Something that idea of "how many things we as teachers hold in our heads at once" made me think of is that it's really hard to hold all that stuff in your head if you don't understand the content you're teaching really well. And not just understand it as in knowing how to do it, but knowing all the places students are likely to get tripped up and some helpful responses. That's a big part of expertise in teaching. I wish I had more mentors and resources early in my career to develop those skills, rather than spending so long learning through trial and error.
So helpful. Thanks!
Im a pre-service teacher about to complete my last placement in Australia. Im really enjoying your blogs! Do you mind if I ask what is your favourite way to performance assess a whole-class to check if they have the right skills? Im trying to decide on 3 performance assessment methods to use and would love you advice. :)
Fun question!
1) Mini whiteboards. Every kid has one, they write answers then hold them up at the same time. This helps me figure out whether we need more time on a skill or if we can move on. I also jot down specific students to follow up with individually on a post-it.
2) A quick low-stakes quiz (graded for completion) that starts with very basic skills and gradually gets harder. Generally around 6 questions, taken on a Google Form so I can collect data quickly. I use these to identify individual students who need more support, and try to figure out where exactly they're getting stuck. Students take it on their own, then move on to another independent activity while I check in with students one-on-one.
3) Harder tasks, typically in context involving multiple parts. The Illustrative Math curriculum has a lot of good ones. I use these to challenge students to apply what they know in new contexts and see how well they can transfer their knowledge.
Awesome thanks this is really helpful. If the school you were teaching at didn't have mini whiteboards.. what would you replace this with? I really want a super quick way to see if all the kids in the classroom get something but need to work within the constraints of the school I'm doing my placement in. The school does quizzes as you have suggested, but don't do anything currently for super quick check ins.. might not be an easy answer to this
A couple other options I've used:
Finger voting. Project a multiple choice questions, students hold up fingers at the same time. 1 for A, 2 for B, etc.
Choral response is ok for a general sense of is everyone confused or not. Works best for shorter questions with quick answers. I used it today to check for understanding of radius vs diameter. I use a signal (hold my hand up, they respond when I put my hand down) so they all say it at the same time.
Have students answer on paper or a notebook and circulate around and look. Again hard to get precise but I can get a general sense of whether or not I can move on.
All have advantages and disadvantages. All worth adding to your repertoire in my opinion!
I love this. It's the re-teaching moments - the realizations about students that we make as (math) teachers which lead us to creating an in-the-moment small group to go over something systematically.
I also love how you phrased the questions that we all ask in our heads but aren't always sure how to verbalize to others: "What are the missing pieces that are holding students back? How can I make sure I find and remediate them, rather than leaving it to chance?" I think it speaks to how many things we as teachers hold in our heads at once in order to support our students' learning.
Definitely. Something that idea of "how many things we as teachers hold in our heads at once" made me think of is that it's really hard to hold all that stuff in your head if you don't understand the content you're teaching really well. And not just understand it as in knowing how to do it, but knowing all the places students are likely to get tripped up and some helpful responses. That's a big part of expertise in teaching. I wish I had more mentors and resources early in my career to develop those skills, rather than spending so long learning through trial and error.
Yes