Designing a Weekly Math Review (5/24/20)

At the end of every lesson in math, my students complete a paper exit slip (example of one on multiplying fractions and whole numbers). Depending on the lesson, it involves generally one to four questions. Students complete it individually during the last 10 minutes of the 70 minute math block. When they are finished, I review it with the student, have them revise if necessary, and leave a grade. Students are encouraged to keep the exit slip in their math folder or bring it home to help them with the night's homework.

Thinking about my current practices for math formative assessments and my understanding of Google Forms (I have used the platform a lot in lessons, especially during this time of remote learning), I realized I had never implemented Google Forms into math lessons. As a result, I am interested in creating a formative assessment through Google Forms - referred to as a Weekly Math Review. The content of the formative assessment would be several questions that relate to that week's math lessons and self-reflection questions. Keep reading for my thoughts so far on this!

I would still like to keep doing the exit slips I described above for Monday through Thursday's lessons. The Friday lesson's exit slip would be incorporated within the Google Form (compared to a Friday exit slip AND the Weekly Math Review). These daily exit slips allow for students to independently complete problems and for me to give individual feedback before ending the math block.

With this in mind, the purpose of my Weekly Math Review is that it would be a review of the math lessons before closing off the week. This weekly review emphasizes that math lessons are not just one and done. I am interested in seeing if this gradual review throughout the chapter would benefit students on the summative assessment (end of chapter test).

In addition to the math content questions, I would include self-reflection questions. I have been reading about different assessment theories this past week, such as the social-constructivist theories of learning. These theories place emphasis on the importance of students self-monitoring their learning and thinking. The purpose of these self-reflection questions would be to involve metacognition and to help me evaluate student understanding.

It is true that not all math lessons will blend nicely into a Google Form (e.g. creating a line plot). If this is the case one week, I can always make a paper edition of a Weekly Math Review. By using Google Forms though, it will create a digital portfolio of their progress. I enabled the Google Form to email respondents a copy of their responses. It will help me evaluate class data to inform my instruction. For example, I can use the data to identify a few students that I would like to provide with extra practice. I use Google Forms throughout the year, so my students will understand the format of the assessment.

As I continue crafting this formative assessment, I still have a few questions to consider going forward:

• • Should I label what lesson the questions come from? Or just do a random order of questions?

  • Do I let students use their math books? This could help students with the habit of going back in a text to search for support - essentially it would be an open-book assessment.

  • Do I use multiple choice sparingly to avoid guessing? I might want to have students type in their answer more.

Update #2 (8/9/20)

Since my last update to my Weekly Math Review (WMR) over a month ago, I have considered some additional ideas for this formative assessment. Below, I carried over the text from my Update #1 post and made some changes and additions, as shown in BOLD text.

Purpose of WMR

In my first blog post about the WMR, I discussed the purpose behind this weekly assessment. To reiterate, this would be a formative assessment that students complete during the last part of the math block on Fridays. The assessment contains both math and self-reflection questions. I want to implement this because it provides a review of the week's lessons. Since so much of the math curriculum builds on the previous lesson(s), I believe that the WMR will help my students see the connections between lessons, practice their math skills, and build their confidence on the math concepts.

My math content questions will provide me with data and grades, and my self-reflection questions will help me further evaluate a student's confidence and understanding of the week's lessons. Essentially, I want this WMR to give me insight toward how my students are understanding and feeling about the math concepts. I am curious if the self-reflection questions will help me learn more about my students and if these weekly reviews will help student achievement on the summative chapter tests.

What Comes Before Assigning the WMR?

The WMR is a formative assessment that gives me information about student understanding of the week's math lessons. Monday through Friday, I will continue to teach math as I usually would. This involves direct instruction, small group work, and a daily, independent exit slip. Friday's exit slip could be included within the WMR (so there might be one to two more questions from that lesson). During the week, I would be monitoring and supporting student understanding. In the past, I have allowed for students to come into our classroom before school starts for some extra math support.

For the sample WMR Google Form I created, it is based on lessons from fifth grade Go Math Chapter 11: Classify Triangles, Classify Quadrilaterals, and Understand Volume. Students should expect to see questions on the WMR that are based on that week's lessons.

Updates to the WMR Google Form Assessment

As I have mentioned, the content of the formative assessment would be several questions that relate to that week's math lessons and self-reflection questions. Each week, I would create a new form. (For this WMR, all of the questions are within one section on the Google Form. This was done so that all of the questions could be easily seen on one page. When I assign WMRs for students, the Google Form will have multiple sections for easier organization. For example, the self-reflection questions would be a separate section from math content questions.) If there is a week that would not adapt well to a Google Form, I can always do a paper WMR or I can create questions that allow for students to upload a photo of their work/answer (they can take the picture through their device's camera). As I implement the WMR, it is also important that I am honest with myself in terms of the time it takes to manage the creation and assessing of this weekly assessment. I can see myself creating the WMR side-by-side with my lesson planning for the next week (which I typically do the Wednesday or Thursday before). If needed, I can make changes to the WMR throughout the week prior to the Friday assessment. I would plan to review the assessment responses that same Friday or the weekend (I am working on that home/life balance, but I still feel the need to do at least a little prepping and grading over the weekend!). One alternative to consider is what if my WMR is instead given every other week? The main changes would be that it now covers two weeks of math content and allows for a little more breathing room in between. I want to initiate my WMR as weekly, but the two week idea is something I can keep in mind if I have issues managing this assessment with fidelity.

I have made a few adjustments to the assessment (click on WMR 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 if you would like to see the Google Form questions in PDF form), specifically for the math content questions. For the questions (#1-#4) about triangles, students now have to type out the classifications (versus multiple choice) and explain their rationale. While I do list out the possible classification choices (e.g. isosceles, obtuse) within my question, I felt that it was important for students to write out the answers. The multiple choice type of question was not representative to what students normally would do - in their math books and on the chapter test, students would have to write out their answer. I also included questions for students to explain their thinking. This will help me better understand how students are making sense of the problems. It may also lead me to discovering any discrepancies between a student's understanding and the learning goals - this is something I read more about recently in John Hattie and Helen Timperley's "The Power of Feedback" article. No matter the math content on the WMR, I will definitely want to include questions where students explain their thinking. This would also provide a good opportunity for students to use mathematical language within their responses. One aspect of the math content questions to consider for the future is if I allow my students to suggest the WMR questions. Interested students could submit a question to me via sticky note/paper. I would vet it and potentially adapt it into the WMR (substituting it for a similar question I had already prepared). This option might help to engage students more.

In my latest changes to my WMR questions, I adjusted questions #9 and #11. For #9 (see screenshot below on left), I made the prompts in the column more specific. Instead of stating "Lesson: Triangles," I substituted it with the lesson's "I Can..." learning goal. Learning goals are written on the board daily in my classroom, so this Google Form provides another instance of displaying the learning goals to my students. The more specific statements can better support a student's self-reflection of their understanding - " Lesson: Triangles" is more vague compared to now putting "I can classify triangles by the length of their sides, or by the measures of their angles."

When going over my WMR Google Form again, I also wanted to see where I could implement a second digital technology. I love using virtual bulletin board tools - I assign them often for quick formative assessments when I want students to see responses from everyone. Question #11 ("How could you use this week's lessons in the real world? Or where might you see these concepts in the real world") lends itself well to such a digital tool. In the past I have used Padlet, however, I have had issues with the site setting a maximum amount of Padlets for a free account. So, I researched alternatives and discovered Google Jamboard. While I do think Padlet offers more features, Jamboard will do the job for my WMR and I like how it is a part of the G Suite for Education since that is what my school uses. For question #11, students will click the link to access the Jamboard (see screenshot below on right). From there, they will create a sticky note post to answer the question. By the Jamboard being public, students will learn from one another's posts. It can also springboard to a whole class discussion on how the math concepts relate to the real world.

One other feature I added to the Google Form is response validation. I learned more about this feature during the last week of school and in a recent district webinar. Response validation allows me to place certain criteria on how a student completes a question. For example, I want my students to type complete and meaningful sentences for the explanation questions. I can set a character count minimum to try to support this. If a student were to type a shorter response and click on the next question, an error text would appear (see red text in screenshot on the right) and the student could not submit the Google Form until they fix the issue (e.g. typing more than the character count minimum). I can customize the error text so that it provides helpful feedback as students complete the Google Form. When using response validation, I need to make sure I am using it meaningfully. Since a goal for my fifth graders is to work on expanding their thoughts with evidence, setting a character count minimum for explanation questions helps to remind them of this goal. It also takes a few minutes behind the scenes to set up response validation, so I will need to make sure I can maintain using this feature throughout the year.

Assessment Instructions

When it comes time to assigning the WMR on Friday, the instructions for doing so are listed below.

• • 1. When there is 15 minutes left of class, students will transition to taking out their electronic device (Chromebook, iPad, etc.) at their desks.

    2. Students go to our Google Classroom page and find the Google Form assignment at the top. If students are on district managed Chromebooks, I will enable Locked Mode to prevent opening tabs.

    3. Students complete the Google Form. They can use their math book for support. They can show work on a separate sheet of paper. I will be monitoring around the classroom.

    4. Once the Google Form is submitted, students review the answers (the Google Form will either be auto-graded or show potential responses). They can ask me questions about it by raising their hands. If time is short, students can write down their question on a Post-It and I will discuss it with them later that day or before the next math class.

    5. Students start on homework or finish uncompleted pages in the math book.

Most of the instructions remain the same from my last WMR post. However, I included in step 3 that students can use their math book. In my last post, I had considered whether or not I would allow students to do this. This is a formative assessment and I want students to have opportunities to practice going back in a text (math book). They can go back to their notes and review problem solving processes. I believe that this helps form test studying habits that they will need to develop for higher grades. If a student is using their math book and is having difficulty with a problem, I can point out key parts in the book to focus on. This would also give me feedback that I might need to reteach the concept to the student next week (ideally, I would have also been checking progress during the past week and reteaching as needed).

What Comes After Assigning the WMR?

Due to the capabilities of Google Forms, I can make this a Google Form quiz, meaning I can assign point values to questions and allow Google Forms to auto-grade. Students can see missed questions, correct answers, and point values. I can also select for the grade to be released right after submission or later after I manually review it. Since I do use Google Forms a lot in the classroom, it is important that I go over these features with my students. On the WMR (and most other Google Forms I assign), I will have the grade be released right after submission. For questions that can be completely auto-graded (e.g. checkboxes), students can see their accuracy. For short response questions, students can see feedback/possible answers. Then, I would manually review responses either later that day or by the next math class and re-release the updated scores. (Something to consider for my grading process is a digital tool like Flubaroo. While I have gotten the hang of how to grade within Google Forms, Flubaroo does offer some perks like being able to leave comments on student responses.) Since I will use Google Classroom to push out the Google Form, I can import grades directly to Google Classroom for students to view. If needed, I can also leave private comments to students on Google Classroom. To summarize, part of the feedback will be provided automatically after students submit the Google Form, while the other part will be through me manually going over the responses.

Through the WMR, I will be able to identify specific things that my students do not understand - the intention is that I am able to assess their current status and help them reach the learning goals (Common Core math standards). It is important then that I consider how I will use intervention to support my students. For students that would benefit from this, I would either have them come in before school (students have a 40 minute period where they are at school before classes officially start) for one-on-one/small group support and/or work with them during small group time during the math block. During this intervention, I can specifically discuss questions from the Google Form and go over similar new questions. If a large percentage of the class could benefit from further instruction, then it might be worth revisiting the concepts at the start of the next week before moving on to the next lesson in the math book.

It is also important that I reflect on the self-reflection questions. If students are expressing "I understand it well, and I could teach it to someone else" on question #9, I want to give them the opportunity to lead and help others during small groups! If students still need someone to coach them through it, I can work with them on the math processes, model with manipulatives, reteach, and so forth.

Students will be able to refer back to the Google Form throughout the chapter. When preparing for the chapter test, I would direct my students to using the chapter's WMRs to support their studying.