Assessment


 * Assessment Strategies **

**Clickers to focus my review (Amy K.)** Two days before the test, I spent an entire math period doing clicker questions with the grade 8s to see where they were at with the material I had taught. The sections that they were weaker on overall were the sections I would focus my review to.

A teacher (not my AT) has this theory on marking: marks are a representation of how well a student knows the content. If they have a high mark, it's because they know their stuff. So then, why would you ever dock marks for a late assignment? By that same notion, why not let kids take a test again and again and again? Why not let them hand in an assignment a second time and mark it just the same way? If they have poor work habits (i.e. constantly handing things in late) then that will be reflected under Learning Skills on the report card; it will not be represented on his/her mark because that represents how well they know the material. It was an interesting strategy to say the least. And to my own surprise, I actually like it.
 * Hand it in on time (or don't) and then hand it back in whenever you want (Steve H)**

**Assessment (Rubina):** I created a 'build a cell' project for students to work on independently. They were given a week to complete a report (organelles, functions, materials, justification for materials, one organelle which best represents the model, and if you had more time what would you add/change in your project) and create a model out of recycled items or food materials. The assessment was based on the requirements for the project. However, when the students brought their projects and showed more effort in creation of their animal or plant cell, I realized I needed to adjust my assessment and add a effort/creativity mark. I also assessed students with quizzes and tests, but I didn't feel this was the best form of assessment.

As my placement came to a close, my AT wanted me to give the students a test/quiz, based on what I did for the last two weeks. The students became really uptight when I told them, we would be having a test, opposed to a quiz. I think this is simply because a test is assumed to be longer and more challenging, whereas a quiz is shorter, and more practical based on what they did. I told the class that the QUIZ, would be based on exactly what they did in class, and they would be provided what they needed in for the test (calculator, etc..). I feel this relieved a lot of the stress that the students may have had surrounding a test.
 * Test or Quiz? (Greg)**

My associate teacher does not like the whole teach 'em and test 'em method that she has seen teachers fall into through her 10 years of experience. She has found creative ways to try and relieve the stress and anxiety that comes with a test or a quiz. As an example, we were reviewing order of operation today and as practice the teacher got all of the students to write down a four term equation with a variable as the answer. A few classes later the students received a "random" question from another student to solve. These have now been collected and I have been charged to mark them, for which I will be cheering for all of my students. I think this is a great way for all of the students to really perform at their best while relieving the stress that is always involved with a formal evaluation.
 * Against the Test (Julian)**

I quizzed my students after GCF and LCM lesson. My AT wanted those marks to count, I was all about assessment. But then, how to motivate students to give their best if the marks don't count? So we reached this formula: if the results of the quiz were better than the GCF&LCM portion of the test, then the score of the quiz would replace the mark in the test. Needless to say, the students got stellar results in the GCF/LCM questions in the test. The quiz was very helpful in identifying the students who didn't get it and were asked to stay after school for more instruction.Out of 3 classes there were 4 students who didn't get it and also didn't come in for extra help, so I guess the next step would be to involve the parents. There is no reason not to succeed in tests, provided enough practice in tests in provided.
 * Best of 2 (Doina)**

A quick quiz I prepared to rest students on the trapezoid lesson:
 * Grade 7 - Trapezoid Quiz (Brian)**

I taught my students an entire unit on the coordinate plane and transformations, including translations, reflections, and rotations. My AT used a program called ExamView Pro**,** a software package that came with the Math Makes Sense textbook, that had question banks divided by chapter and section. It was incredibly easy to generate quizzes with just a few clicks, having selected a few criteria that you desired for the quiz: How many multiple choice? How many short answer? Knowledge and Understanding, Communication, or Thinking? These quizzes appeared to be comprehensive, and I was confident that they would adequately show was the students knew. What I failed to take into consideration was the fact that the questions were all quite similar in their presentation, and if a student could not understand one, they would not be able to understand any of them. As an example, if a student was under the misconception that the y-coordinate was first, and the x-coordinate was second in an ordered pair, then they would have no chance of getting any marks on the quiz. This flaw became blatantly obvious upon marking the quizzes: students who were able to answer all questions posed to them in discussion were failing their quizzes! For the unit test I decided to take another approach: make my own test from scratch, and incorporate as many different types of questions into it as possible. If a student was under the same misconception as stated above, they would lose marks on the only question where they would have to apply coordinate plotting skills, and not on one where they would have to model a transformation. There was even a question that asked for transformations but provided no coordinates at all! As a result, students did a lot better on the unit test, and I was very pleased with the result. It was evident that by taking the time to create a better test, the students would be more able to prove their skills.
 * Software-generated VS. Homemade (Alex)**

**Assessment (Michelle K)** At the end of my lessons I would try to do a ticket out of class. I found that this was a great way of seeing where the students were at with their understanding of the material taught. This helped guide the following lessons; are the students comfortable enough with the material that we could move on or do we need to review it again. My AT liked giving homework checks (quizzes) specifically in math, to see where they were at. I thought that this helped the students prepare for the test, however, I would probably try to use clickers for such an activity in order to make it less like a test for the students.

**Assessment (Michelle K)** My AT collects and marks almost everything the students complete in order to assess where they are at, although not everything is used towards their report cards. If a student does poorly (less than 50%) on a lab or test that will be used towards their report card, the student will have an opportunity to rewrite it. However, if they choose to rewrite either the lab or the test, the student’s new grade will be deducted 10%, thus if they received 80% on the second attempt, their overall mark that will be recorded would be 72%.