Havilah Jones Western Governors University Task 603.2.3-03, 602.3.

18-04, 05

Assessment Plan The unit that I am teaching is a 3rd grade math unit. In this two-week unit, the students will be learning about fractions. They will learn about what a fraction is, locating fractions on a number line, finding equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. I plan to assess the students in many ways. In addition to a pre-assessment and a post-assessment, I will have a few different types of formative assessments throughout the unit. The first assessment will be the pre-assessment. This pre-assessment aligns to the units goals and objectives. The pre-assessment will be given prior to any introduction to the fractions unit. This will help to inform me of any prior knowledge the students have before we begin. The pre-assessment covers the four learning goals and objectives for the unit. It will ask about unit fractions, fractions of a whole, fractions on a number line, equivalent fractions and comparing fractions. The post-assessment will be given at the end of the two week unit. It will be the same as the pre-assessment. I chose to keep the two assessments the same in order to have the most accurate data to inform me of the students progress. This way, I will be able to track the progress of each student for each of the learning goals without wondering if the questions from the pre-and post-assessments both align to the goals and objectives equally.

During the unit, I will give the students a number of different types of formative assessments. I will informally assess the students as they participate in the lessons. I will take quick notes as I notice which students understand and which students might require some extra attention. These quick notes will help me when planning for future lessons. I will know if I need to repeat a concept with the whole class or if I need to take some time to re-teach a small group of students. Other formative assessments will include in-class worksheets, homework assignments and a mid-unit quiz. I plan to give the students time at the end of each lesson to complete a worksheet that covers the learning goal and objectives of that lesson. This will allow the students to have time to practice the concept while I walk around the room to assist any students that require extra help. We will quickly correct these in class in order to re-teach, clarify and reinforce the concepts from the lesson. I will also be sending homework home with the students each day that requires them to practice the concept from the lesson for that day. If there is time during class the next day, we will correct them together. Otherwise, I will have them turn these in so I can look at them and check for understanding. The mid-unit quiz will cover the first learning goal. This learning goal is an important concept for the students to understand in order to move on to the next learning goals. I want to assess the students to make sure they understand the concept well enough to move on in the unit. These assessments will authentically and appropriately measure student learning because each question has been designed specifically to measure a learning goal. The questions require the students to formulate an answer in order to show that they understand the concept. The questions on the pre- and post-assessments are also created in the same style as the examples in the lessons as well as on the in-class and homework assignments so the students will be familiar

with the content and meaning of the questions on the assessments. This will take away any chance of misunderstanding getting in the way of a student being able to show their understanding of the concepts. After the pre-assessment, I was able to see that the class as a whole had very little prior knowledge about fractions. The class average on the pre-assessment was about 21%. Some students in the class also struggle with math and reading. Because of this knowledge, I did create some adaptations for the assessments. For the in-class assignments, I had a mental list of those students I knew already had special needs and required extra help with math. I made extra effort to spend time with them to assist them with the in-class assignments. I made sure to give enough time for them to complete their assignments by planning some extensions for those students who finished early. I had a number of activities for them to choose from. Each of these activities allowed for creative practice with fractions, comparing fractions and/or finding equivalent fractions. When correcting homework in class, I made sure to pay attention to these students and took note of any portions of the homework where they struggled. After such a low average on the pre-assessment, I knew that it would be important to provide adaptations for the post-assessment. I made sure to allow extra time for each of the students to complete the test. I made sure to plan a quiet activity for the students that finished early so they would not disturb those who were still testing. I made another adaptation for the whole class. After reading over the standards again before giving the post-test, I realized that the standards for Learning Goals number 3 and 4 required students to be able to Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model (Utah Education Network, 2011) and Compare two fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator by reasoning about their size by using a visual fraction model (Utah Education Network, 2011). The

assessment I had designed did not allow for students to use a visual fraction model so I got out the fraction tiles and told the students that they could use the fraction tiles or draw a picture in order to answer the questions that aligned with learning goals 3 and 4. Not every student chose to use the fraction tiles, but I made sure to encourage those students who had been struggling through the unit to use them. When I first started planning this fractions unit, I recognized the importance of making sure my learning goals, objectives and assessments all aligned. I felt the best way to make sure they aligned was to start with looking up the standards. Once I had the standards, I was able to create my learning goals. I constantly looked back at these standards and learning goals as I created the lesson plans, objectives and assessments. As I created the assessments, I thought about each question and made sure that it aligned with the objectives and learning goals. I knew that if the assessment questions aligned with the objectives and learning goals, then they would align with the standards (because the standards were the basis for the learning goals). I will be analyzing the pre- and post-assessment data in order to determine if the students meet the learning goals I have set for them. I have assigned each student a number (1-27) in order to keep their names private. I have entered their scores from the pre- and post-assessments into a table. Their scores are divided up into each learning goal. This way, I can easily look at the graph in order to see where each student started with each learning goal on their preassessment and then immediately compare this score with their final scores on their postassessment. For the first learning goal, I decided that students will have met the goal if they are able to identify and write fractions that name a part of a whole with at least 75% accuracy. There

were 7 questions on the assessments that tested this learning goal. Students received a percent score depending on how many out of those 7 they answered correctly. For the second learning goal, I decided that students will have met the goal if they are able to identify a fraction on a number line. There was only one question on the assessment for this learning goal. I chose to only have one question because I would not be focusing as much on this learning goal during the unit as I would be on the others. Students would meet the goal if they were able to answer this question correctly. For the third learning goal, I decided that they would meet the goal if they could correctly identify 2 out of the 3 equivalent fractions (or a score of 67%). There were three questions on the assessment that tested this concept. The fourth learning goal assessed whether students could accurately compare fractions. There were four questions on the assessments for this learning goal. I decided that they would meet the learning goal if they were able to answer 3 out of the 4 questions correctly (or 75%). While assessing the students, it is important to collect supporting evidence of their progress. While the actual scores of the students assessments can show a lot about what they know, looking at their actual tests can tell you a lot more information. For example, when a student has answered a question incorrectly, the teacher can sometimes see the reason why the student answered incorrectly. This can give the teacher a lot of valuable information about what to teach the students in order to clear up the misunderstandings. Sometimes the mistakes are simple and can be cleared up quickly. Other times, the teacher can gain insight to a problem that requires some intense re-teaching. Collecting the supporting evidence can also help the teacher to improve her teaching over the years. She can compare the assessments from past years in

order to determine whether she should be considering a new method of presenting the information or even a better way of assessing what the students know.

References Utah Education Network (2011). Mathematics Grade 3. Retrieved from http://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=5130