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Ilyssa Knoblach Assessment Journal 2 2/13/2009

During my observation the day before Valentines Day, my cooperating teacher gave the class an observational assessment. The students were all given a math worksheet, of graphing. On the graphing worksheet, the students were asked ‘money’ problems. For instance one of the questions may have sounded like this, “Lucy had $2.50. She than went to the store and bought a Valentines Day card for $1.50. How much money will Lucy have after she buys the card?” The answer would be $1.00. After finding out the answer, the students would write the answer ($1.00) on the graph. After the students graphed all the points, the students were told to connect them. The points created a Valentines Day mailbox! After creatively coloring their mailbox, the students were asked to write a sentence explaining what the points have created, and what is in their mailboxes. After completing the math/mailbox worksheets, each student stood up in front of the class to show their results to the class. One of the students said, “My points created a mailbox that had pink and red hearts all over it. Inside my mailbox is a card from the Jonas Brothers!” This is one example of the student’s sentences. As the students presented their work, the teacher made comments on each of them. All of the students completed their work appropriately. Therefore, my cooperating teacher gave the students a ‘ticket’ of having their work completed accurately. The tickets were used at the end of the day, for the classes Valentines Day party. At the party, the teacher set up ten tables of gifts such as pencils, stickers, etc. that the students could ‘buy’ with their tickets. Of course the students had to give the right amount of tickets to receive the gift of their choice. I found this activity to be a fun way of engaging the students in mathematics, and the holiday. Each student was very excited to share their completed worksheets, and ideas. This class is very creative and artistic, therefore having art in all of their work allows for the students to complete their assignments in their best possible ways. I found this assignment to have worked very well for this particular math, and the holiday. The class was very jumpy about it being a holiday party, therefore engaging the students in not only a ‘valentines’ worksheet, but a math concept worksheet was effective.