(no subject)
28 June 2005
Methods
Larry and Chris
The first thing that comes to mind is the use of terminology. It turned up in the micro-teaches as well as the class work. In the micro-teaches we had terminology on both ends, with one person using “mnemonic” and another calling subtraction “take-away.” Then there were terms for saying “Let’s apply this” rather than calling it a “word problem”; calling a laboratory “going on an investigation”; calling factoring “backward FOILing”. It shows how much words count even in math, and it seems relevant that we also talking about the “reading and writing across the disciplines” core classes as our discussion today.
The micro-teaching. One thing I find is that the students are not only nice but helpful. In all the classes I observed, there were always times that there was NO student who knew the answer, there were always times when they got the wrong answer, there were always times when the teacher had to go back and go through earlier work. None of us want to get that kind of behavior when we do our teaching, so we don’t do it to the others. Maybe we should.
We did more on assessment, where I really need the work. This really is the toughest thing we’ve done the whole class. It just adds to my list of “omigod”s. I like the idea of showing the work of the student to show what a 1, 3, 5 looks like on the rubric. The issue of showing “bad work” was addressed, which was one of those things I was thinking about. Showing a good student’s bad section really is a good solution to this.
I want to remember to treat assessment as instruction. It instructs the teacher as well as the student. I had the same question as the one asked, how a new teacher knows what is “important math” and I think that assessing my assessments will be an important part of this.
The three types of questions will definitely come into play with the Microsess problem. (And yes, Word wants to change it to “Microbes”, “Microseisms” or “Mycoses”), I had never thought of giving an “open-ended” question in the math test. Word problems (or applying the concept), fine, but questions for which there might be multiple right answers just didn’t seem right to me. But the examples given make it apparent that these sorts of questions can, and should, be used.
Allocating the points on a question was more difficult than I could have imagined. I think of a test as X questions with each being worth 100/X. But now I realize that it would actually be easier to figure different points for each question than to try to come up with questions that would assess all areas and yet be equal in value to one another.
Things that squared with me were easy. Of course you have to take the test, create an answer sheet before you make copies. I didn’t know the 3x as long for the kids but that makes sense. And of course if you ask a lot of open ended questions, it will take you a long time to grade it.
I want to remember to put a few items at the end of tests that are more manageable, and to be sure there are some questions that the slower kids can get.
Methods
Larry and Chris
The first thing that comes to mind is the use of terminology. It turned up in the micro-teaches as well as the class work. In the micro-teaches we had terminology on both ends, with one person using “mnemonic” and another calling subtraction “take-away.” Then there were terms for saying “Let’s apply this” rather than calling it a “word problem”; calling a laboratory “going on an investigation”; calling factoring “backward FOILing”. It shows how much words count even in math, and it seems relevant that we also talking about the “reading and writing across the disciplines” core classes as our discussion today.
The micro-teaching. One thing I find is that the students are not only nice but helpful. In all the classes I observed, there were always times that there was NO student who knew the answer, there were always times when they got the wrong answer, there were always times when the teacher had to go back and go through earlier work. None of us want to get that kind of behavior when we do our teaching, so we don’t do it to the others. Maybe we should.
We did more on assessment, where I really need the work. This really is the toughest thing we’ve done the whole class. It just adds to my list of “omigod”s. I like the idea of showing the work of the student to show what a 1, 3, 5 looks like on the rubric. The issue of showing “bad work” was addressed, which was one of those things I was thinking about. Showing a good student’s bad section really is a good solution to this.
I want to remember to treat assessment as instruction. It instructs the teacher as well as the student. I had the same question as the one asked, how a new teacher knows what is “important math” and I think that assessing my assessments will be an important part of this.
The three types of questions will definitely come into play with the Microsess problem. (And yes, Word wants to change it to “Microbes”, “Microseisms” or “Mycoses”), I had never thought of giving an “open-ended” question in the math test. Word problems (or applying the concept), fine, but questions for which there might be multiple right answers just didn’t seem right to me. But the examples given make it apparent that these sorts of questions can, and should, be used.
Allocating the points on a question was more difficult than I could have imagined. I think of a test as X questions with each being worth 100/X. But now I realize that it would actually be easier to figure different points for each question than to try to come up with questions that would assess all areas and yet be equal in value to one another.
Things that squared with me were easy. Of course you have to take the test, create an answer sheet before you make copies. I didn’t know the 3x as long for the kids but that makes sense. And of course if you ask a lot of open ended questions, it will take you a long time to grade it.
I want to remember to put a few items at the end of tests that are more manageable, and to be sure there are some questions that the slower kids can get.