Rounding Strategies: 3NBT1, 4NBT3, 5NBT4

     After a rough start, my leveled Math class is going smoothly at last.  My students have gotten into a routine of a whole-class lesson on Monday (with pre-test), differentiated instruction based on the pre-test on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, finishing with another whole-class lesson on Friday with a final, standards-based quiz on that day.  Most students are seeing growth as they graph their pre- and post-assessments.  With this leveled group, I have often found that the class doesn't usually fall into three groups, like I have seen with heterogeneous groups in the past.  Quite often, they only fall into two groups.  This has lead to some changes in my I Love Math groups.  Most of the time, I divide the class into two groups.  One works with me while the other works on their Ten Marks or Manga High assignments on the computer.  Then the switch.  When there is a preponderance of students who have mastered the pre-test, I will often include Wednesday as an additional whole-class lesson. 
     This past week we worked on rounding.  Rounding was one of those skills that no one in the class was even close to mastering, even after the first whole-class lesson.  I had to dig deeper in order to meet my students' needs.
     The first resources I used was Learn Zillion.  Using the Quick Code LZ525 you can see a great lesson that uses a number line to show how to round.  We used the following template:

original number:_____________________

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

__________                                                   __________                                                    __________

low benchmark                                                 midpoint                                                 high benchmark

 

     For each  number, they created an individual number line and place the original number as a dot on that number line.  This was a time consuming process, but after doing several together, the light bulb went on for many struggling students who could finally SEE what it means to round.

     After a differentiation day where I reinforced this method, I taught method number 2.  This I introduced as a "game" I called "Slap! Trap!".  I passed out a place value chart and a highlighter.  (Kids always get excited when the highlighters come out!)  Students used a pencil and the chart to write the number to round. 

  I announced: "Round to the nearest thousands!".  Students repeated: "Thousands, thousands, thousands, slap, TRAP!"  When they say slap, they use their left pointer finger to cover the digit in the given place.

 

 When they say trap, they color the digit in the next place to the right with the highlighter.  If the digit they "trapped" is 5 or more, the digit they "slapped" will go up by one.  If not, it will stay the same. 

 

All the digits to the right of the slapped/rounded digit turn into zeroes.  Any digits to the left of the slapped/rounded digit stay the same.  After the number line method, this seemed like a shortcut to many students.

     After instruction, some students gravitated to one method; some to the other.  In the end, all students benefitted from learning both methods.

Testing: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade

As teachers in the US are returning to school, many are beginning to moan and groan about the overwhelming tide of testing that has engulfed the US educational system.  Assessments seem incapable of surviving alone.  Within a year, they reproduce like rabbits. Because, of course, you need a test to see if your kids are ready for the BIG TEST.  And if one of those tests a year is good, then one per term is even better for progress monitoring.  And that test doesn't test everything, so you need to sprinkle in a few others for good measure.  Then, of course, the next grade level wants a different assessment from the ones you use, so...  You get the idea.
     Like it or not, I don't think this frequency of assessment is going away any time soon.  It is too convenient a measuring stick for districts, principals, and teachers.  And that, my friends is the real wave of the future.  In some states, the bottom performing 10% of the teachers in a school must be fired.  In my school, assessment data is used to create yearly goals that count as a percentage of our annual performance review.  Right now that percentage is small.  But it is bound to rise in the coming years.
     So, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!  That's right!  When your students are required to take yet another test, make it worth it... for both them and you.
Making tests worthwhile to you:
1.  Learn as much as you can from the assessment data.  If you don't know how to read the assessment data (few of us learned to do this in college), ask your school "data guru".  Every school has at least one.
2.  Use what you know about your students and how you taught them to interpret the results.  Many people rely on others to "read" their data for them, but even the wisest data guru is limited because they don't know your kids and how you taught them.  Leave the data gurus to look at the big picture- trends across the grade and grade levels. Only you know whether a weakness the test reveals is because you haven't taught it yet or you did teach it, but your students didn't master it.   For example, last year my principal remarked that my Math class was the weakest in the grade level on data, statistics, and probability.  Since I had already looked at my own data, I agreed.  Then I showed her the results for my class at the beginning of the year.  Every child's weakest area was number sense and operations.  Since number sense and operations are the foundation of Math, I decided to focus my teaching in this area throughout the year.  Yes, because of this focus, something had to give.  But, by the end of the year, not a single child had number sense and operations as their lowest area.  And the class overall had the third highest level of overall growth in test scores.
3.  Know your test data well.  Like it or not, your tests scores will be used to assess your teaching ability and compare you to others. Suck it up and be proactive.  Be honest about what your data says.  Even it's not complemenary, be prepared to say how you will use the data.  And find the nugget of wonderfulness in your data, even if it is just one child.
3.  Use your assessment data and, when you do, tell your students that you are doing it.  Something along the lines of:  "Your recent ______________ test showed that ______________.  So today we are going to _________ ."
Making test worthwhile to them:
1.  Given them information about how they performed last time on the same assessment and what their goal is for this one.  A bit of specific advice never hurts.
2.  Give students feedback on their performance as soon as possible.  Next generation assessments can do this immediately, but don't just be content with a score.  Again, here is where your interpretation will be vital.  Put it in kid-friendly language.  Try to come up with at least one positive comment, such as how hard they worked or how long their written answers were.
     I  assure you that when you follow these words of advice, your students will do their best on the test.  They will become hungry for your feedback.

Assessment Data Binder

This week I have been very busy creating products for teachers.  I have to confess that the hot and humid weather here in the Northeast has been behind it.  The only comfortable spot is in front of the computers with two fans running!  And the last place I want to go is the beach or lake because they are so crowded.
My latest product is a Youtube video titled: Assessment Data Binder.



Many people have asked about how I set up my binder.  It certainly is a "hot topic" (no pun intended!). I am very lucky that us fourth grade teachers get a portfolio that includes both numeric assessment data, and samples of student work.  I pour over these portfolios in early July to set up my Assessment Data Binder.  Having plenty of time to look at the portfolios helps me "hit the ground running" when the school year begins. I definitely make tweaks once I get to know each child individually, but surprisingly I don't need to do that very often.  The video has links to my former blogposts where I offer some of the forms for free.  If you are interested in the assessment web, please leave a comment below.  The writing rubric is part of one of my paid products on Teachers Pay Teachers.
What do you do to keep track of assessments?

Working On Writing

My "Triple Threat"

A rubric that shows the child's baseline level (black circle), and their goal (green box).

When I score a piece of writing, I copy this rubric and circle the level that they obtained 

in the assignment with a colored marker.

So when any assignment is scored, the child can see where they were (black circle),

where they should be (gray box), and where they are now (colored circle).

I just got back from a wonderful workshop sponsored by my school.  The training was a continuation on our work with professional learning groups (PLGs).  We had complained that we had too little time to really delve into the PLG process that was new to us during the school year.  Although we have a common planning time of 45 minutes, most of the protocols we were given were designed for 60 minutes or more.  There was a little bit of extra money in our Race to the Top grant, so we used it to work out some unresolved dilemmas using the PLG format.
Our grade level team discussed Writing.  Both this year and next, budget cuts have forced us to make do with less paraprofessional support.  Paraprofessionals are assigned, not to classrooms or teachers, but to individuals or groups of students.  So if none of your students had a goal in a certain subject area, such as Science or Social Studies, you would not have a paraprofessional support during that time.  We felt this most impacted our instruction in the area of Writing.  It is very rare for any fourth grader in our school to have an IEP goal in Writing because very little writing is done in grades K-3, due to Reading First.   Yet many of our learning disabled, language disabled, and ADHD students struggle with the writing demands of fourth grade.  In our PLG we discussed methods to refine our instruction in the Writing Workshop to meet the needs of these students, who often need a lot of our time, and yet be fair to other students.  To boil down the essence of our discussion, we came up with ways to target our instruction based on goals, increase the amount of differentiation, and empower our writers with a growth mind-set.
And thus my latest TpT product was born!  I have worked long and hard the part week on this massive 25-page resource for writing.  It is designed for grades 3-8 and draws on the work of Gail Boushey and Joan Moser ("The Sisters", authors of The Daily Five and The CAFE Book) and the work of Lucy Calkins (known for her Units of Study) but it is my own "take" on the work of these fine master teachers.  Just some of the things it contains are:
- a detailed, 12-page Launching Guide for the Writing Workshop.  All of your instruction for the first seven days is included.  You don't have to plan anything.  The first seven days are the most important so that you set the tone and standards for the year.
- creative activities like Writing collages, and editing necklaces

- my favorite forms (with instructions) for assessment and data tracking in Writing, including:
          - a kid-friendly, baseball-themed Writing rubric

          - my best selling 6 Traits Goal Tracker and Individual Conferring Form
          - 6 Trait Super Grouper Form (for creating small groups based on assessment data
          -  a letter to parents on how to read their child's assessment rubric
The best part is that this product is ON SALE right now for HALF OFF!  That's right, followers!  If you purchase this product before July 11th you get the sale price.  Buy it on July 11th and it goes back to the regular (but still a bargain) price.  So why not treat yourself today?
By the way, I'm not done creating new products this summer. by a long shot.  Right now I'm working on a daily multi-digit numbers and operations review called "4 in 5".  There will eventually be a third, fourth, and fifth grade version.  Right now I'm working on the fourth grade version.  Click here for a sneak peek!

Triangulating Data FREEBIE

I recently finished one of my professional books for the summer:  Assessment in Perspective: Focusing on the Reader Behind the Numbers by Claire Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan.

In this book the authors talked about triangulating data. This means taking data from different sources and compare them side-by-side to build a complete profile of a student's strengths and weaknesses.  I thought a nice way to do that would be in graph form.  So I created a data triangulation form for my Math class.  My form is specific to the grade level I teach and the assessments we use.  For you, dear reader, I have created a generic form that you can use with any grade level and whatever assessments you use.   

Let me know how it works out. 

What Students Think of Questions

     A few days ago I had an interesting experience while questioning my students.  It started in Math class.  I had the following problem on the board:
Jack says 2/5 + 2/5 = 4/10.                                                                Jill says 2/5 + 2/5 is 4/5.
     I had the students sign their names under what they thought was the correct answer.  The first to sign up was one of my brightest students in Math.  She (correctly) chose Jill's answer. Other students rapidly signed up under Jill's answer.  Lastly, my behavior-disordered student signed his name under Jack's answer.  Suddenly, like a leak in a dike, one child after another moved their name to Jack's side, until about half the class had chosen the correct answer and half the incorrect answer.  I gave each child a personal whiteboard and asked them to find two ways to prove their answer was correct.  If this changed their mind, they were welcome to move their name.  More shuffling of names ensued.  Finally, I paired up the students that answered "Jack" with the students that favored "Jill" and had them explain their reasoning to their partner.  They could change their answer if they wish.  After one last shuffle, only three students remained on the wrong side.
     I asked the students, particularly the ones that changed answers several time, to examine why they changed their ideas.  What convinced them?  What failed to convince them?
     Later that same day (with a different group of students), I asked the class to evaluate the activities we had done over the past four days.  The students have participated in a "Mission to Mars" simulation in order to help them understand the journey of Lewis and Clark.  However, I have never mentioned Lewis and Clark to the students, nor told them why we were simulating a Mission to Mars.  I asked the class:  The past few days, have we been doing a Science or a Social Studies unit?  I used this question in order to determine if they understand that Social Studies is the study of human experience.  At first vote, everyone agreed it was a Social Studies unit.  As I questioned students about the reason for their choices, they began to doubt their choice.  More and more students became convinced that they were beginning a Science unit.
     Before the class became thoroughly confused, I told them about the similar experience I had had that day in Math.  That how asking students to clarify and explain their work caused them to question their answer, until many had gone back and forth several times and were very confused.  I felt on the verge of understanding something about critical about using questioning itself.  I asked my students:  Why do teachers ask you questions in school?  Why do we ask you the reasons for your choices?  Many students said that, when the teacher did that, they began to doubt their answer.  They assumed, if questioned, that the answer was wrong.  When they couldn't explain how or why they knew, that confirmed for them that their original "gut answer" was incorrect.  I emphasized to them that, when a teacher asks you to "prove it", he or she is trying to tap into your memory and logic skills that led to that (often correct)  "gut answer".  In fact, more often than not, if a teacher asks you to prove it, he or she means you are right!
     It is so interesting to me how teachers and students perceive things differently.  Is this the result of a lack of questioning?  Should I add more questioning into my teaching?  Or is this indicative of the age of the pupils or the impact of their home environment?  I would love to hear comments from you! 

Are Tests the Only Measure of Student Learning?

Are Tests the Only Objective Measure of Student Learning?

Howard Gardner speaks about multiple intelligence and testing.

     The simple answer to this question is yes.  Objective assessments measure correct and incorrect answers.  Assessments of this type are common in education because they are quick and easy to arrive at a numeric score or "grade".  Numeric scores are easy to rank and compare, which makes them extremely popular in this age of heightened accountability for teachers and schools.  However objective assessments can, by their nature, only assess the lowest three levels of Bloom's taxonomy.  Those levels are:  knowledge, comprehension, and application.  The higher three levels (often called "higher order thinking skills") cannot be assessed in a right or wrong format, since they involve the skills of analysis, evaluation, and original creation.  The assessment of these skills is subjective in nature.  These are the types of skills we want our students to have in the twenty-first century.  These are the skills they will need to get and keep a high-paying jobs or to change from one career to another.

     Facts and figures are just the jumping off point for higher order thinking.  And as teachers we should be in the business of evaluating this cognition, not just the recall of facts and figures.  We can leave that for the creators of our high-stakes state testing.  In other words, we should evaluate students using a range of assessments.  These assessments could include: testing, performance tasks, projects, and observation to name a few (Buzzetto-More and Alade, 2006).

     Even that is not enough.  These evaluations need to be part of a "Continuous Assessment Loop" (Martell and Calderon, 2005) in order to improve student learning.  A Continuous Assessment Loop contains the steps of analyzing the assessment, discussing the results with stakeholders, identifying ways for students to improve outcomes, making instructional changes, and re-identifying goals.  I know I have posted her video before, but Jennifer Jones (one of my teacher-heroes) of Lake Myra Elementary in North Carolina and blogger at  helloliteracy.blogspot.com demonstrates that CA Loop so vividly in this video:

     Technology can make this Continuous Assessment Loop easier for teachers to manage and maintain.  Technology is most useful in tracking and analyzing data over time, rubric creation, and storing digital artifacts (Buzzetto-More and Alade, 2006).

References

Buzzetto-More, N.A. and Alade, A.J. (2006) Best practices in e-assessment.  Journal of Information Technology Education, Vol. 5, pags. 261-269.

First Attempts at a True RtI Model

A few weeks ago, I found this video via Pinterest.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NsyvFN8kX8&feature=youtu.be

I love how everything in the binder was organized and the strong link between assessment and instruction.  However, the binder was designed for much younger students (K-2) with reading difficulties (phonics, accuracy, fluency) that lend themselves to keeping track of data in this way.  My students are entering fifth grade, and those that I am most worried about have comprehension issues.  Comprehension, as a skill, does not lend itself to numeric data.  As I saw it, there were three barriers to implementing something like this that I needed to overcome:
1) a form to assess and graph progress weekly
2) 20-30 one-page passages, per reading level, to assess comprehension each week for twenty to thirty weeks
3) a quick, consistent, easy-to-administer comprehension check that can be converted into a number to be graphed 
4) multiple ways to teach comprehension skills
I think I have finally created this and I share my first attempt here.  Feedback welcome!
Intervention Tracking Sheet
My intervention tracking sheet is a bit more generic and doesn't contain the "digging deeper" assessments that are part of the video, since I don't have them.  I will make do with all the other data I have, which is recorded in other places.  There is a nice big space to graph weekly assessments.  Here is the link to the document in Google docs:

https://sites.google.com/a/sau61.org/mrsjones/Reading%20Progress%20Monitoring%204%20BLOG.docx?attredirects=0&d=1

"Dedicated" Passages to Assess Comprehension
I purchased Daily Reading Warm-Ups from Teacher Created Resources with 150 passages each.  I purchased a third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade version.  Expensive?  Yes, but it is worth the price to not have to create passages from scratch.  I can just hand them the book- no photocopying needed.  These book will NOT be used for instruction, only assessment.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1420634917/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02

Numeric Value for Comprehension Check
I decided to use retells as my comprehension check.  They are consistent and easy to administer.  I created a form that assigns a numeric value for each element of a retell and put this in a chart form.  It is available on Teachers Pay Teachers via this link:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scoring-a-Retelling

Multiple Ways to Teach Comprehension
For a long time I have been influenced by the work of Judith Irwin in reading comprehension.  I will be using her "seven dimensions" of comprehension to guide my instruction.

http://www.amazon.com/Promoting-Active-Reading-Comprehension-Strategies/dp/0137312415/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

My plan is to teach strategies for one "dimension" at a time using Irwin's resource book, assessing the results in overall comprehension weekly. If a student does not make progress for two weeks in a row, I will switch to a different "dimension" and set of strategies.  So it should take a maximum of 14 weeks (or about one trimester) to be able to find the dimension that the child is having difficulty with.
For more information about data-based decision making, read the article:  "Tier III Assessments, Data-Based Decision-Making, and Interventions" by Kristin Powers and Arpita Madal from California State University, Long Beach.

Me on the Web:
Class Webssite:  www.4mrsjones.110mb.com
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You Tube Channel:  mrsc4jones