Mathematics Formative Assessments Paper

Words: 1268
Pages: 6

Chapters 2, and 3 of the Mathematics Formative Assessments Textbook focus on integrating the FACTS strategies into your curriculum and selecting the correct strategy. Formative assessments are not formative if the information gathered from the assessment is not used to drive your further instruction. Integrating the FACTS strategies can not only improve student’s ability but when used correctly they can also improve a teacher’s ability to get her/his learning objectives through to their students. The FACTS strategies are taking the ideas of assessment to a completely different level. Teachers can start their lessons with these strategies or implement them into different levels of their lessons. However when teachers use their FACTS …show more content…
I work in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes so I see how the math standards are layered. They build on one another and students are expected to bring what they now from the previous year’s standards and apply it to the new standards. There is a great example on page 16 which describes students computing with percent’s. This was very relevant to me because we are just finishing up this unit and there was a large group of students that did not understand the relationship between percent’s, decimals, and fractions. Nor did they know the percent’s are out of 100. Now being in all three grade levels I am seeing how the standards are working together yet many students are not carrying over their prior learning. This is a great example of how students are learning steps to solve math problems on a test but are not carrying this information across contexts. Students need to be actively engages in their learning. They should be interacting with prior and new knowledge through conversation, and inquiry so that they can make personal connections with the math and make the learning …show more content…
This cycle depicts a continuous assessment, instruction and learning continuum to help math teachers determine the appropriate FACTS strategies to use foe each stage of their unit. Self-assessment and Reflection are the centermost part of the MAIL cycle because these two pieces are the most important for encouraging metacognition. I like this cycle and the reasoning behind it. This cycle gives students a chance to interact with new knowledge while examining their preconceptions of the information. Once their ideas and preconceptions/misconceptions are revealed, students are encourages to explore, argue and explore and test their ideas. Through this process students come to realize that their preconceptions do not match what they found to be true. Once students have found their misconceptions, and developed new learning they can make sense of the new content and apply it to other concepts. This is where true learning takes place! Even the art of teaching has seen the punitive effects of regimented curriculum, with unrealistic pacing guides that drain the creativity out of teachers. Teaching and learning needs to be well thought out and about, students and teachers need time to investigate and work through math. ! I think that we are naturally wired like this from an early age but traditional education breeds out the explorative, inquisitive, and creative nature that we naturally