I have struggled for a really long time with trying to find the best way to assess student before a unit is taught. Many of the 8th grade concepts have not been seen before or have been seen in such small quantities that it is really silly to give them a multiple choice test (which are easy to grade and are objective).
Reading through a blog (can't remember which one but I will go searching for it because it was good!) they were doing a strategy called Talking Points. During a TQA day, the 6th grade teachers were trying to come up with a way to assess students but not give them another test. We started talking about this and decided to make a statement that matched each GLE. Then had students decide if the statement was True, False, or Unsure. Students paired with each other and discussed their view. Eventually the students did a little online research about what they could find out about the statement. The teachers want to then use it as a journal opportunity after they teach the GLE. Two of the teachers shared student work in our PLC and it was great to see student thinking and writing in math! It should end up being a great journal prompt in the future and students will be able to see their learning over time.
6th grade Pretest
So... while getting ready for the new 8th grade unit... again I was struggling with how to help teachers assess students. Duh! Let's try this Talking Points strategy. It really is aligned to our Reading for Meaning strategy that was used in a few classes. One of the 8th grade teachers is going to try it out. I know it will be a good use of student's time. Eventually some items will have to be rewritten but I think it will help with our journaling and not overwhelming kids and inundating them with so.many.tests!
8th grade Unit 4 Talking Points Pretest
I needed to get back to reflecting on some good work that people in my building are doing -- don't judge the grammar or many run on sentences! I just claim to be good at math(at times)!
