Assessment Module Design
This page contains guidelines and suggestions for teams as they design assessment modules to be used with selected chapters of Investigations in Number, Data and Space.
Assessment Modules Slide Show. Shown on first day of the workshop, it explains in general terms what an "assessment module"
is intended to be.
Why are teachers being asked to produce assessment modules?
The program funding this workshop requires us to produce some work of lasting
value that teachers will share with one another. When we designed the present
workshop, we considered having participants work on lesson modules, but the
lessons in Investigations are already so well-crafted,
coherently integrated and thouroughly tested that we felt it would be more valuable
to produce materials that would work well with Investigations lessons than to
start something entirely new. Assessemnt appeared to be an area where there
was some demand for additional resources. Thus, our workshop
goals include the production of what we call "assessment modules".
Each teacher team in our project will produce an assessment module that is designed
to be used with specific curriculum unit.
What job is an assessment module intended to do?
Investigations is based on the philiosophy that the deeper we understand
the way our students think about math, the more effective we can be in helping
them learn. Assessment of the quality and kind encouraged by Investigations,
however, is time-consuming and mentally demanding, since the teacher must accumulate
detailed knowledge about each student's mathematical development. When taken
seriously, this job can easily become overwhelming. An assesment module is
a tool that will make the assessment easier without compromising its integrity
by helping teachers anticipate, recognize, classify and respond to the kinds
of abilities that students at a given level may posess and the range of mathematical
behaviours thay may exhibit. An assessment module consists of materials and
procedures that have proven their value in the hands of several different teachers;
it is supported by extensive examples of actual student work, and it incorporates
the experience of several classes. It is in a form that is user-friendly, and
it contains enough detail so that when teachers use it they can confident and
secure. In short an assessment module is a way for teachers to share their assessment
experience with one another.
How is an assessment module organized?
Ideas are most effectively shared when everyone uses a common format. The idea
of an assessment module is new, so we need to create a format that we can all
share comfortably. At the present time we expect that each module will have
the following four sections:
- Teacher guide. The teacher guide should identify the investigation
that the module is linked with, and should provide a brief summary of the
mathematics in that unit. It should provide references to specific pages or
sections in the unit guide in which the investigation appears. It should also
provide a brief summary of the thought behind the assessment activity or task
that the module contains: Why was this particular task chosen to assess
this particular piece of mathematics? What can and cannot be learned about
student thinking by using it?
- Activities/tasks for students. The module should contain one to three
specific problems, tasks or activities. You may use the activities that appear
in the curriculum unit, or invent your own. See Jan Mokros's suggestions,
"What
makes a good assessment problem?"
- Album of student work. This consists of a selection of student papers
that show the range of responses that you have observed. Papers should be
accompanied by teacher onbservations concerning the the students' thinking.
This is not necessarily evident in the written work and probably has to be
acquired by talking with students about thier papers.
- Guide for interpreting student work This section of the module discusses
the range of tools, representations and strategies that students have demonstrated,
the various levels of thinking that they bring to bear, the difficulties that
they have encountered and any other information that teachers can collect
from actual experience using the assessment modules.
How should a teams go about producing a module?
- Focus on a single investigation. Each Investigations curriculum
unit contains several related investigations. Each investigation consists
of several sessions. An assessment module should put the themes of one investigation
at center stage. Obviously, the themes in any one investigation relate to
themes in the unit and in other units as well. You need to exercise judgemnt
in featuring one theme, and respecting its connections with other themes.
We recommend this scale since a whole unit is too much to tackle within the
limited time resources you have. On the other hand, a session is too small
a piece to focus on, since the important ideas in each investigation tend
to take several sessions to develop fully.
- Use the resources included in the curriculum unit. Useful components
for your assessment module can be found here. Look at the Teacher Notes sections
and in the embedded assessment activities. See the section entitled "On Assessment"
that starts on page I-10 of every unit guide. Also, be sure to look at the
list of assessment resources that appear in the Unit Overview (which begins
on page I-12), and examine the sections "About the Mathematics in this
Unit" and "About the Assessment in this Unit", which are in
the beginning of each unit.
- Approach assessment by observing students and analyzing student work.
Talk with students as they work. Examine written work and ask students to
explain their thinking. You can use multiple sources of information to assess
the skills, abilities and knowledge that students have and the ways in which
they progress conceptually. You are likely to find that some problems or tasks
are very successful in helping you get a window into student thinking, while
others are not so reliable or revealing. The assessment module should collect
together the most successful strategies you have found.
- Consider various forms of assessment and what teachers can learn from each
type.
- Decide whether you want your assessment module to be used as a tool for
helping you plan instruction or as a tool for collecting information to report
to parents or decide on grades.
- Display successful methods and put them together with student work in package
that will make sense to other teachers and help them assess their own classes
with greater sensitivity, ease and efficiently .
How will module authors benefit?
- Increase content understanding
- Develop the elements of content understanding that are most relevant to teaching
- Increase sensitivity to student thinking
- Increase understanding of assessment and evaluation
- Become more effective in preparing students to meet state benchmarks
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