The Final Product

Yup.... that's a pretty good depiction of how things can go in the classroom. 

You can't just teach them, you have to make sure they are learning.

And a good way to ensure that students are learning is to assess their knowledge as you go along.  

Formative assessments are designed to inform teachers of students' learning and to allow them to know when it is safe to move learning forward.

Have students master the skill being taught now?

Yes = next step

No = readdress and review

Assessments can be done in a variety of different ways...

As a teacher I will be responsible for developing effective assessments that will alert me to the progress of my students and then use that information to determine how to proceed or alter my methods, so that no students gets left behind and is unable to reach the standard.

Looking at part 3 of this Ohio 3rd grade Mathematics standard:

with the lesson objective being:

Students will be able to use division (for equal-sized group situations) to find the unknown number of groups or the unknown group size by using graphic organizers, arrays and/or word problems to correctly determine the solutions to problems.

The following formative assessments could be used to check students' knowledge.

Assessment 1 ~ graphic organizers:

1. Students are given a division word problem(s) and a graphic organizer.
2. They are asked to solve the problem(s) by drawing the solution(s).
3. The problem(s) is(are) then reviewed and checked in class, so that students are able to correctly see the process of solving the problem(s) and the process used to reach the correct result(s).

 Example:

      David  is going to a party.  He is bringing 18 cookies to share with everyone there.  If 6 total people are at the party, how many cookies will each person get?

This assessment will allow me to see if students understand (1) basic division, (2) if they are able to extract information from a word problem, and (3) if they can use an array to visually show how a problem can be solved.

Assessment 2 ~ arrays:

1. Stations will be set up around the classroom with counting cubes and containers at each station.
2. Students will be asked to determine how many cubes will go into each container.
3. Students will record their findings on a worksheet.
4. Students will have a time limit per station.
5. Once every student has been around to every station, a set amount of time will be allowed for students to revisit a station if needed.
6. The teacher will be walking around watching students work through the problems and be available to answer questions.

This assessment is similar to Assessment 1 ~ graphic organizers, but instead of asking students to draw the solutions to the problems, it allows students to physically manipulate a learning resource.  Plus it gets the students up, moving and engaged in their own learning.

Assessment 3 ~ word problems:

1. Students are asked to create their own word problem and provide the solution.

This assessment will show that students are not only able to extract information from a word problem to solve it, but that they are able to thinking through the process of (1) solving division problems and (2) identifying key elements that go into making a word problem work. 

These assessments will be helpful to determining whether or not a student is ready to move forward and what needs to be readdress before the summative assessment at the end of the unit.