hollie_journal4

Journal #4 February 24, 2009

Since my observations of assessment always seem to be during reading, I was glad when my teacher showed me an example of assessing students’ math. This class does something called Mountain Math, which consists of 24 math problems that are posted on the board. These problems change weekly, and they cover a wide variety of types of problems, including writing a number in words, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, ordering numbers, measuring, basic algebra, telling time, and so on. The students are asked to do a few problems each day until all 24 problems are completed by Friday. Then, the teacher changes the problems so that the students will have a new set for the following week.

Today, the students completed 5 Mountain Math problems in their Mountain Math packets. The students worked on these independently, and they were required to show their work. When they finished, the teacher allowed the students to correct their own work, but they went over the answers as a class. For each problem, a volunteer was asked to write their answer on the board and explain how they did the problem.

Overall, I find that the students really seem to enjoy Mountain Math, and they do well for the most part. Even though there is always one of each type of problem on the board, the problems are different each week. This is a good way of giving the students practice with a wide variety of areas in math. I have been visiting this classroom since the beginning of the year, and I have definitely seen an improvement in the students’ math. I think that the Mountain Math system is definitely effective, and I don’t doubt that it is a big reason for the students’ improvement in math as the year has progressed.