October 26, 2010

While reading Assessment is Essential, I began to think about how I could use this type of assessment in my future secondary math classroom. Traditionally, these forms would not be seen in a mathematics class, but I believe they can have a small place in my classroom.

Problem-solving plays a big role in math. The ability to problem-solve is generally the main role math plays in students growth of knowledge. I think short essay could be used to allow students an alternative to solving a problem. In a situation where students are given a lengthy problem, I would find it acceptable for the student to describe the process for which they believe the problem can be solved. This would also be good when using challenging problems that may be above some students' levels. Short answer can even be used in answering questions about graphs. Though, I don't believe this will be main form of assessment in my classroom, using this can help to diversify my assessments and also allow students who may be strong in this type of assessment to succeed.

The chapter, by Susan K. Green and Robert L. Johnson, provides future teachers with detailed information about designing and scoring short answer and essay assessments. The discussion on rubrics was most important to me. I think making detailed and accurate rubrics is necessary to being a successful teacher. Correction: making and using detailed and accurate rubrics properly is necessary to being a successful teacher. Rubrics if made correctly can assist the students in knowing what the teacher expects and also makes teacher bias a less likely occurrence. I have heard people discuss that rubrics for students tends to shut down their ambition and they simply do what they need to and that is teaching students to only do work in a way that the teacher finds acceptable (whether or not the student thinks the work is what it should be). I suppose that might have some truth but if a teacher uses a rubric for grading properly - he or she is less likely to have grading biases.

For David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson in their book, Assessing Students in Groups, discuss incorporating peer assessment in groups. The information was pleasant and seemed likely to assist in classroom learning and in time-saving, but I have some worries over their writings. In all the situations, the students were supposed to judge one another on their performance. Though, this would be helpful, I also think it might be hard to establish. In my experience, even if you try to get all students on board and understanding their duties in the situation, you will still have some that do not pull the proper weight. In this situation, a different student may suffer from one students lack of motivation. It also discusses peer assessment of social skills in this chapter. This may be good for younger students or for older students observing younger students but I think it would not be appropriate for secondary and possibly junior high students. Students are growing up in a world that is already judgmental I don't think that providing a place for students to judge each others social skills is appropriate for a good classroom climate.

I found the majority of the information to be some unrelated to my field. However, some of it could be twisted to fit into math. For instance, instead of cooperative writing and editing pairs, students could interact in cooperative problem-solving and editing pairs, where students would work on problems together and edit one another thinking until it follows the math rules or problem-solving format.