Tests and Quizzes: Examining an assessment strategy on high school mathematics achievement

Shirvani, H. (2009). Examining an assessment strategy on high school mathematics achievement: Daily quizzes vs. weekly tests. American secondary education. 38 (1), 34-45.

In this article, Shirvani describes the information that she has found out pertaining to the assessment methods that include frequent quizzes along with weekly testing. Shirvani explained how the use of frequent testing and quizzing proved to be helpful for the students to retain the information being taught to them. Shirvani had many examples as to how these types of assessments prove to be positive learning tools for the students. Examples expressed, but are not limited to:

• Helps monitor
• Builds motivation
• Produces engagement
• High retention rate
• Reduces anxiety
• Leads to higher student achievement

The article also explained that the assessments being administered would help the student with their problem solving skills. There were many connections that were made relating directly to mathematics along with real life situations. The process standards along with the principles relating to school mathematics were expressed abundantly throughout the scholarly article. From the research, I have found that tests and quizzes can prove to be helpful learning tools for students to learn from as long as they are used in the correct manner.

March Journal Summary #2

The second article that I reviewed was found in the Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School and was titled The Value of Guess and Check. The author states that guessing and checking encourages the development of problem-solving skills by forcing students to try and make sense of the material involved. Having the students gain a better understanding of quantitative relationship is also one of the main goals shown throughout the article. Word problems can never be underestimated while students are learning new concepts. By giving the students the opportunity to guess and check helps them look deeper into the problem and eventually understand it more. Eventually, the goal is to have the students not go through the process of guessing and checking each time a problem comes about, instead they will know how to go about the problem faster and more efficiently. This will not only help the students learn more material in a shorter amount of time, but will give the teacher more time to look at and help students in problem areas. “Guess and check is a powerful problem-solving strategy that can connect a conceptual understanding of word problems with a symbolic representation” (Guerrero, 398).

The value of guessing and checking has always been important to me. Through my educational career I made use of the guess and check method on many occasions. I have learned that by guessing and checking I look deeper into a problem and it helps me understand it more fully. This is an aspect that I would like to incorporate in my own classroom someday. The more a student looks into a problem, whether it is a number problem or a word problem, will be better for them in the end. Hopefully, as my students travel through their academic careers they won’t have to guess and check as much as they did when they first started out. My reasoning behind this is that they understand how to go about a problem quicker and more efficiently. There is a strong possibility that this method will be incorporated in my teaching atmosphere in the future.

Guerrero, S. M. (2010). The Value of Guess and Check. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. Volume 15, Issue 7, (392-398).

http://www.nctm.org/eresources/view_media.asp?article_id=9176

March Journal Summary #1

The first article I reviewed was found in the Teaching Children Mathematics journal and was titled Identifying Logical Necessity. Teachers are used as facilitators throughout the article expressing the importance to make wise reasoning when describing things that happen. The author goes on to state that teachers that know more about the topic regarding logical reasoning are more prone to be able to help elementary students understand the concept. Logical reasoning should not be taught explicitly in throughout a students elementary years, but should instead be presented when an instance occurs that could be related with the topic. Activities used throughout a student's day to day learning should incorporate and encourage students to explain their ideas by reasoning with proof. Proof is vital for a student to grasp onto early in their academic careers since the term is at the root of explaining reasoning and proof. Determining where a student is struggling with their proof statements is something that all educators should master. Mastering this skill will help guide young students throughout K-8 and will prepare them for the next step in the educational careers.

A teacher’s main goal is for their students to learn the material being taught and to have them succeed as they go through their academic endeavors. Students that are able to recognize and explain their reasoning and proof methods will do well as they move on. Teachers must make it one of their main goals to make sure that they are able to recognize and correct a student that is struggling in their logical reasoning. The article expresses numerous activities that will help teachers sharpen their skills in this area and is a great resource that I can see myself looking back to in the future.

http://my.nctm.org/eresources/view_media.asp?article_id=9162

Video work #2

The second video work was done for the grade level of seven and focused on “lessons and graphs.” The teacher explains that she made multiple graphs showing different things. The students broke off into groups of their own making and were given a copy of the graph. She wanted the students to be able to come up with their own pattern of the graph in table form and to come up with the remaining values from those that were already existing in the table.

1. Describe how appropriate you think the primary task in this lesson is for developing an understanding of the mathematics being taught.

By having the students coming up with their own stories they are able to look at the material in a more personal level. This will hopefully help the students bring more personal interest in the material along with them putting more passion and pride into their work. Taking this information and building it around math hopefully will help the students bring about more understanding of why the connections relate to one another.

2. Propose one or more alternative tasks that might have strengthened the lesson or helped to clarify the key mathematical ideas being developed, and justify the use of this task or these tasks.

The students could have each come up with more than one story and related them to one another. This way they would have had more experience in the comparing and contrasting aspect. Representation could have been used more too which could have been used in ways like building things actively or using the students to build a life-like graph.

3. What criteria do you use to determine whether or not to use a particular task with your class?

I am novice teaching right now in a 7th grade social studies class so I can relate well to this topic. Every time I am about to do a lesson I try to think of ways to connect with my students on a personal level. Also, knowing what my students enjoy learning about could prove to be very useful. This aspect of my teaching will come with time as I learn more about my students as I am around them day in and day out.

The overall use of the video was helpful as it gave a real life example of good teaching. There are numerous things that I could see myself making use of in the future as I go through my teaching career. The movies showed a little light on the things that I could better myself at and hopefully in time I will be able to master quality learning techniques.