Victoria L Coburn

January 29, 2015

Lincoln Unified Cohort
Reflection Summary

MIAA 330
How will increasing my knowledge of various assessments
help me find ways to have my students use their results to
improve their own understanding of mathematics?

During the M.I.A.A. 330 course I learned that Common Core

summative assessments are designed to be high quality assessments
that will help improve learning for students. By analyzing student
errors I can revisit targeted areas that still need more practice. I
learned that the tests are created without bias towards races, the
content is sensitive to students needs, questions are written that take
student learning disabilities into consideration, and they are written
with simple English, not language that is unfamiliar or unnecessarily
complex for English language learners. This makes the testing format
fair for all individuals. The information gathered from the tests will
give teachers accountable information that will guide us in our
instruction. Since the results from Smarter Balance are to be returned
very quickly, hopefully we can use any errors made by the students to
review and finish off the school year with a solid foundation of the skills
needed for that grade level.

In the past, most of the assessments I used for mathematics came

from the enVision math program or the CST tests in the spring. I would
usually score the math exams and just look at the overall percentage.
I now know that teachers must not only teach math, but to also look
more closely at the students responses. I need to analyze the errors
and find out if the error lies in mathematical processes or a language
development of the concept. Once the reason for the errors is
identified, it will help the student as the concept builds from year to
year. In this way students arent making these same errors in the next
grade level. I learned that learning trajectories are a three part
component that all combine together with an outcome of mathematical
mastery in a given area. The first part is a mathematical goal, such as
learning how to add. In the next component, as the student progresses
through school, they go through developmental sequences in which
they learn about the topic. This progression through the levels
naturally follow each other. In the example of addition, a student
wouldnt begin one year counting blocks and adding 2 blocks to 3
blocks to get 5 blocks and jump right into double digit addition. There
would be levels in between that need to be mastered first, such as
taking away counters and know from memory that 6 + 5 = 11. The
third component to learning trajectories is effective activities that aid I
the development of the topics. The activities are matched to each of
the progression levels . Hopefully with our adoption of Engage New

York, we will come to see that the activities they suggest are helpful for
the mathematical progressions through the grade spans.

In the M.I.A.A. 330 class, I also learned that teachers need to

develop more formative mini assessments that are created with a
purpose. From this course, I learned many various assessment
techniques. We also spent some time learning about the Depth of
Knowledge Levels. There are various levels of assessments: recall,
knowing a skill or concept, strategic thinking, and extended thinking.
Every math objective fits into one of the Depth of Knowledge levels. It
is important that the instruction and the assessments match the DOK
level of the objective to accurately tell if students are understanding
what was taught.

I learned that there are a variety of assessment formats: selected

response, constructed response, and extended response. From all the
testing formats we studied, I was most impressed with assessments
that include a rubric. This is helpful to the students and helps them
learn from their mistakes. By understanding all the parts necessary to
get the highest score on the rubric, students can compare their answer
with an exemplary answer. I know as a math student when I was in
grade school, I wanted to know why something was wrong, especially

when a math problem had multi-steps. Where was the crucial point
where a single mistake lead to the entire problem being incorrect.

Even though this is Lincoln Unified School Districts first year of

implementing Common Core math curriculum, in a few short months
we have already come a LONG way from I choose C and I dont
know why. Gone are the little tricks to help students be better test
takers and on to becoming better mathematicians. We still have a
LONG road ahead of us. But with quality formative assessments
guiding our teaching and helping students understand their mistakes,
we can lead to better results in the Smarter Balance summative exams
in the spring.