For teachers to successfully deliver new common core based lessons in mathematics to their students, they will need to incorporate a variety of formative assessments to monitor student success in mastering the content or meeting the objective of the lesson. Asking for a show of hands as to determine if enough of the content has been grasped so the teacher can move on is not efficient. Formative assessments must go deeper, be more varied, and allow all students-especially English language learners-to fully demonstrate their grasp of lesson content.
In the article "
formative assessments in math classes at all levels", the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) offers 5 creative approaches to conducting formative assessments in math classes.
1. Be sure students understand the learning goals by clarifying in student friendly language. Be sure students know the criteria for success. This provides them with a purpose for learning.
2. Create a classroom environments filled with effective classroom discussions, questions, activities, and tasks which demonstrate student learning.
3. Provide feedback that identifies what students are doing well so that they will know what to repeat. "Good job!" means little if anything since the student doesn't know what he did well/
4. Have students learn to take charge of their own learning.
5. Have students support each other within the class as they grapple with ever increasing math problems. In effect, students should be resources for each other.
The article expand on this of course. In fact, these suggestions would work in any discipline.
Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS
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pdf of article)
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