danielles_journal2_2009

Danielle Sutton 2/10/09

The assessment for this journal entry was a pre-assessment based on multiplication for third grade students. __ General Outline of Assessment: __ During this assessment, the students were each given a worksheet with 20 multiplication problems on it. The students had to complete as many multiplication problems as they could within three minutes. It is known within the classroom as “Mad Minutes Multiplication”. __ Assessment Structure: __ Before beginning this assessment, the teacher had a stack of different worksheets with different multiplication problems on them. She had a chart in her room that showed what number of multiplication each student had mastered (for instance John may have checks in column number 1, 2, 3, and 4, which means he has mastered multiplication up to the number for, and his pretest will be based on the 5’s table). So the teacher would then refer to the chart and hand each student there specific worksheet. The classroom had a range of students at the 4’s and through the 8’s. After receiving their worksheet, they had to return to their seat and keep the paper face down until everyone was seated and ready to begin. The teacher then timed them for three minutes, at which they were to complete as many problems as they could. The teacher previously had the students explain to me that the most important thing to do with the worksheet was complete the ones you know first, because then you know you have that particular multiplication problem down well. Then you were to try and complete the ones you were unfamiliar with as best you could, because even though you were being pre-tested for a new number, sometimes you may still know the problem (i.e., even if Jane is pre-testing for the 6’s, she should already know that 6x3=18 from her 3’s table). At the end of 3 minutes, the students hand in their worksheets. While completing this worksheet, students were not allowed to use number lines, calculators, or any other tools to help them. The pretest included all new multiplication problems for each particular student from 1-12 (i.e. John, who is pre-testing for 5, would have 5x1,5x2,…..5x12). They also had some problems from other mastered numbers (i.e. John may have 3x3, 4x7 and so on), and at times some of the multiplication problems from the new tested numbers were duplicated in reverse (i.e. Jane, who is pre-testing for 6, may have 6x8 and 8x6). __ Assessment Results: __ On this particular day, I was able to grade the worksheets. In order to grade them, the teacher told me to first check off all the correct answers. Then I had to mark off the answers they got incorrect. After marking the incorrect answers, I had to write them on the bottom of their worksheets (i.e. if Jane got 6x8 and 5x9 wrong, I would mark these on the bottom of her paper) along with any problems they did not answer. When the students receive back their worksheets at the end of the day, the multiplication problems at the bottom indicate which problems the students really need to master or in some caseS revisit. There were mixed results. All of the students had at least two wrong, and at the most nine wrong. The majority of the class had an average of thirteen correct. Three students in the class only had to complete fifteen out of the twenty problems on the worksheet. Overall, the results were varied, but it is important to keep in mind that it was a pre-test. __ Reflection of the Assessment: __ I think this was a good assessment, in that the teacher did not hand out the same pretest to all her students. It was great to see that she recognized that not all students will be at the same level, and not all students can simply master a set of multiplication problems and move on at the same pace as everyone in the class. So I thought it was great to see that the teacher kept individual learning rates in mind while doing this assignment. A major downfall to this assignment in my opinion is having it timed. I think it puts a lot of added pressure on the students to complete the problems, and sometimes they get nervous about racing against the clock. A lot of students had similar responses when handing their papers in, like “Oh I knew that one! I just couldn’t remember it quickly enough!” While I understand that sometimes it is important for students to have certain topics come quickly to them (like basic multiplication, addition, subtraction, and so forth) I think that sometimes a student may miss a problem just because of the pressure of time, not because they simply did not know the answer. I think having it timed as a whole class creates unnecessary competition as well. After the pretest, many students were bragging about how they finished the entire sheet. Any student who proudly proclaimed this still got a problem wrong, as everyone had at least two wrong on this pretest. So it was evident that some students felt that by simply completing the worksheet, this must mean they were very proficient at the task. It made time seem more important than understanding.

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