danielles_journal7_2009

Danielle Sutton 4/5/09

The assessment for this journal entry was a pre-assessment using fill-in-the-blank test.

__General Outline of Assessment:__ For this math pre-test, students worked in pairs to answer fill in the blank questions about fractions.

__Assessment Structure:__ To complete this math test, there were different types of questions where students had to fill in the blanks. Questions included ordering fractions from least-greatest, greatest-least, and deciding whether a fraction was greater than, equal to, or less than another fraction. Each student had their own “Fraction City” chart. A fraction city chart is a large piece of black construction paper with colored construction paper strips going horizontally across. Each colored strip was measured individually to represent a different fraction. The strips went from one whole, halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, eights, ninths, and twelfths. ([] is an example of what a fraction city chart would look like). Each student then got three small, different colored cubes to place on their fraction city. To use the cubes and fraction city chart, an example is if a question said “Fill the in the blank and write these fractions from least to greatest: 1/6, 1/3, 2/4”, students could place a cube on 1/6, 1/3, and 2/4 on their fraction city chart and compare which is the least to greatest fraction, then fill in the blank.

__Assessment Results:__ The results were mixed. Some students got all the answers correct (10/10) and some students did not even get half of the answers correct. What the teacher announced afterwards is that she found those students who quickly finished and handed in their pre-test were not using the fraction city and were getting confused, simply assuming that, for example, 1/6 was greater than ½ because the 6 in the denominator was greater than the 2. She then said that the students who worked in pairs and used fraction city individually, then compared and discussed answers did well and answered most or all of the questions correctly.

__Reflection of Assessment:__ I liked this form of pre-assessment. I think that fraction city is a great way for students to have a manipulative at hand and help them compare fractions. It was interesting to see that the teacher’s observations about students who used fraction city versus those who did not showed that fraction city was helping a great deal for most students in the classroom. I think that the problems were generally simplistic, as they only used fill in the blank. However, it is important to keep in mind that the students are just beginning to learn about comparing fractions, so this pre-assessment was a basic way to see where students need more guidance and practice. In time, I think it would be great to incorporate fraction city into word problems that use fractions (like cooking and measuring) so students can see how fractions are a part of day to day life.

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