Math

Math Assessments

Standard #6: Assessment

The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.

Introduction

Math assessments, whether through informal observations, or written or oral responses, allow me to assess how well my students understand our core content. At the beginning of each lesson I explain to my students what our learning goals for the lesson are to keep my students focused on and invested in our daily and weekly tasks. Eventually, my students will learn how to evaluate their own success with these goals and to ask for assistance if they do not understand something we are working on. We also discuss when these daily goals align with our larger year-long goals, which can be found on the "My Kindergarten Goals" sheet in the conclusion section of this page. Assessments in a variety of forms help me monitor learner progress towards these goals and make instructional decisions that will help students get the practice they need to achieve.

At my school we use the math curriculum Eureka Math, a Common Core compliant curriculum which aims to engage all learners through a variety of fluency practices, hands on activities, problem sets and exit tickets, and regular mid-module and end of module assessments. We also administer diagnostic and benchmark assessments multiple times per year per district policy. Please read the descriptions and click the links below to learn more about each of these assessments and how I use them to inform my teaching.

District Diagnostic Math Assessment

The District Diagnostic is given at the beginning of the year and administered in the same state multiple times throughout the year to gage students' progress towards end of year goals. This assessment covers a wide variety of Common Core aligned kindergarten math standards and allows me to see what skills my students come in with and what they will need to learn over the course of the year to be successful.

Daily Eureka Math

Fluency practices, problem sets, and exit tickets are daily formative assessments that are usually administered on paper in a whole group setting. They are directly related to the main lesson of the day, which involves the use of a variety of manipulatives. Reviewing these small assessments help me understand which students may need extra support before our formal mid-module and end of module assessments.

Eureka Mid-Module and End of Module Assessments

Module assessments are formative and summative assessments that are completed one on one focusing on verbal responses and use of manipulatives. These come directly from our Eureka Math curriculum, and I compare results with my kindergarten teaching team after each test to study trends and plan remediation.

District Benchmark Math Assessment

The District Benchmark is updated each time it is given throughout the year to reflect current math learning goals. It covers kindergarten standards which teachers are expected to have taught in the intervening quarter.

Conclusion

I use a variety of assessments to inform my instruction. Without these assessments, and a careful analysis thereafter, I would not know what skills my students were mastering as a class and individually, and I would not know when to provide remediation or extensions. Using assessment data is a regular part of my math planning so that my students and I understand how they are progressing towards end of year goals and what supports may be necessary to promote growth.

It is critical that my students understand how they are progressing towards our learning goals so that they are motivated to keep trying. Assessments and analyzing their results helps me and my students understand how they are individually progressing and motivates them to reach our end of year learning goals.

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