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Welcome to Module 7

Assessment andEvaluation

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Getting Started

“From their earliest school experience, students draw life-shaping conclusions about themselves as learners on the basis of the information provided to them as a result of classroom assessments.”

- Stiggins, Student-Involved Classroom Assessment, Prentice Hall, 2001, p.

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Share your own assessment experiences as a student with your elbow partner.

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Getting Started

What kind of meaningful classroom assessment information do we want to provide our students? Use

to jot down ideas.

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Key Messages

The improvement of student learning is the most important focus of assessment.

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Key Messages

Assessment is an ongoing awareness of students’ learning and needs, rather than an occasional event in the program.

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Key Messages

Of all the assessment strategies, formative assessment is the most valuable strategy for supporting students’ learning and for promoting students’ independence and responsibility as learners.

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Key Messages

Observation is the most efficient and effective way for teachers to assess students’ mathematical abilities, and is an integral part of all assessment strategies.

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Key Messages

Teachers should use a variety of assessment strategies in order to assess students’ mathematical development as completely as possible.

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Key Messages

Teachers should not provide a grade/mark/level on an individual assessment or a collection of assessments unless the grade/mark/level serves a clear purpose: to communicate achievement of curriculum expectations to students, parents, other teachers, and administrators.

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Assessment and Evaluation— Different Forms of Assessment

Successful teaching of mathematics in the early grades involves more than providing engaging learning activities; it requires that teachers be “in tune” with their students’ learning needs.

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Assessment and Evaluation— Different Forms of Assessment

The improvement of student learning is the most important focus of assessment. There are three different types of assessment, all of which contribute to the learning process.

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Assessment and Evaluation— Different Forms of Assessment

Form 3 groups. Each group is responsible for studying one form of assessment:

Diagnostic (pp.8.4 - 8.6)Formative (pp.8.6 - 8.8)Summative (pp.8.8 - 8.9)

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Different Forms of Assessment

Read the section on your assigned form of assessment. Create a list of main points on this form of assessment. Give an example of what this assessment looks like using one of the grade samples.Record your points in the appropriate section of the Venn diagram on BLM 7.1.

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Different Forms of Assessment

…and record points in the other sections of the Venn diagram.

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Working on It

Linking Assessment and Instruction

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Linking Assessment and Instruction

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Quality instruction and assessment are not necessarily different activities, and in fact, should become nearly indistinguishable.

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Linking Assessment and Instruction

When students experience difficulties and receive no useful feedback, they are likely to attribute their problems to a lack of ability, and give up. But when they receive specific information about ways in which they can improve and are given opportunities to revise their work, they receive a clear message from the teacher that gives them confidence and enables them to improve.

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Linking Assessment and Instruction

Read page 8.14.This section will provide you with background information for the next task.

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Linking Assessment and Instruction

Select one of the four assessment situations. Record your responses to the following on chart paper.

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Linking Assessment and Instruction

To help you with this task, refer to BLM 7.5 — an example from the Guide to Effective Instruction, Kindergarten to Grade 3, 2004.Be ready to present your thoughts to the whole group.

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Teacher’s Assessment

A Kindergarten student miscounts a set of objects by counting some objects in the set more than once.

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Inference From Assessment

The student may have difficulty recognizing one-to-one correspondence while counting, and lacks a strategy for counting each object one time only.

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Next Instructional Step

The teacher models counting a set of objects, touching and pushing aside each object as it is counted out loud. The teacher then asks, “How many objects are there altogether?” to check whether the student understands the cardinality principle of counting (that the last counting word indicates the number of objects in the set).

Next, the teacher and student count aloud together, as the student touches and pushes each object aside so that it will not be counted twice. The teacher then asks the student to count other sets of objects to determine whether he or she is now counting sets successfully.

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The Task

1. Choose an assessment situation from the envelope.

2. On chart paper, record- an inference from the assessment; - a next instructional step.

3. Present your ideas to the group.

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Working On It

Observation –A Powerful Lens on Learning

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Observation

Young students demonstrate their mathematical knowledge and understanding through what they do, say, and show. Therefore, observation is the most efficient and effective way for teachers to assess students’ mathematical abilities.

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Observation

Teachers must be attentive observers of their students as they seek evidence of how well students are learning concepts and skills.

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Observation

Read pp. 8.16 - 8.20.Answer the questions on BLM 7.2 .

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Working on It

Assessment Methods

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Assessment Methods

Teachers should use a variety of assessment strategies in order to assess students’ mathematical development as completely as possible. The use of various assessment strategies also allows all students to demonstrate what they know and can do in ways that suit them.

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Assessment Methods

Divide into three groups.Investigate the following topics and

record your findings on BLM 7.3.Group 1Personal Communications (pp. 8.21 - 8.24)Group 2Performance Tasks (pp. 8.24 - 8.26)Group 3Paper-and-Pencil Tasks (pp. 8.27 - 8.32)

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Assessment Methods

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Working on It

Evaluation

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Evaluation

Read the section on Evaluation (pp. 8.33–8.35). List three important ideas on evaluation discussed in this section. Compare ideas with others at your table.

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Evaluation

It is not expected that teachers will evaluate achievement in each category of knowledge or skills; rather, teachers should take these categories into account as they evaluate holistically.

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Evaluation

Teachers should not provide a grade on an individual assessment or a collection of assessments unless the grade serves a clear purpose: to communicate achievement of curriculum expectations to students, parents, other teachers, and administrators.

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Evaluation

Evaluating student achievement results in an understanding of the degree to which a student has been successful in learning. The purpose of evaluation, however, is not to label the student and his or her accomplishments, but to gain a stronger awareness of the learning that has occurred and of further measures needed to improve learning.

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Reflecting and Connecting

Consider the variety of assessment and evaluation methods and ideas that were examined today. Choose a method or idea that would be effective in your classroom. Try it with your students.Be prepared to talk about this experience with your colleagues at the next session.