Dyana_Journal+1

Dyana Brown Assessment Journal 1 February 6, 2009

In my first grade classroom, my teacher is implementing a new approach for mathematics. The school district has started using a new system of learning called, “EnVision.” This mathematics guide for teachers comes with already written lesson plans and step-by-step instructions for each chapter in mathematics that first graders should learn. So, EnVision also includes assessments that have fill-in-the-blank tests. So, my teacher starts off with all of the children sitting on the rug area and introduces the lesson of the day. For this day, the new lesson was about subtraction. She begins reading a math story from a large printed book to the class. After reading the math problem that talks about subtraction, the teacher demonstrates with the students the same concept by having students stand up. Some students then, sit down to indicate the phrase, “take away.” After completing the story on the big printed book, the students are then given mini booklets about the same exact story. The students complete the book with their responses while the teacher observes and checks to see that students have the correct answers. When the students return from their morning recess, the teacher asks students to sit at the rug again and goes over the concept of subtraction for a second time; however, this time, she also introduces how students write out the equations. For example, the teacher emphasizes that “the bigger number goes first” when writing the equation. She also discusses how the math phrases, “take away” and “less than” differ from each other. One the teacher feels the students have a good grasp on the topic, the children return to their seats and complete the fill-in-the-blank worksheet from the EnVision chapter. The first part of the worksheet is completed with the whole class, orally. The teacher asks students to write out the problems and to choose the numbers to subtract. After the first portion of the worksheet is completed together as a class, the students must then complete the rest independently; however, students ask each other for help and the teacher offers assistance when asked. I feel that the way the assessment was implemented is both effective and ineffective. First, I think that going over the first portion of the worksheet as a class helps to engage the students more into the lesson. This way of teaching is also a good way to manage the students’ behavior. Also, the teacher has a better sense of which individual students understand the topic and which do not when she asks students to choose numbers for the equations. The teacher also makes sure she sits in on each group’s interaction with one another and how they solve the next few problems on the worksheet. So, I guess observation also plays a part in the assessment of the children. Also, the fact that this assessment is more informal allows the students in the groups to help one another and to reason the answers together. On the other hand, since the assessment is only fill-in-the-blank, students could very well be working on the assessment, but just looking for the “correct” answer without wanting to figure out the problem. The students could easily copy the answers from their classmates sitting at the same groups. If this occurs, then the teacher could have no way of knowing whether or not the student actually understands subtraction, or just copied his friends. Though at this point, the teacher knows her students’ strengths, I think I would have the students also write a math story that depicts a math equation. This way, the students are delineating that they comprehend subtraction. Other than this, I feel that this assessment is effective for this topic. The assessment is really a combination of fill-in-the-blank //and// observation, which I believe make the assessment an overall, effective one.