Instructional Decision Making

As described in my contextual factors, my class is made up of a variety of

learning levels. There are several highs, several lows, and many that fall in between
the two. There are also several students that receive accommodations, so just
incorporating that into plans is a challenge in itself. During every classwork time, I
made it priority to check in with those students frequently. There are also three
students who leave in the middle of math class for resource. They take their books
with them, but always seem to have problems with the material the next class day.
Before I started the unit, I had everyday planned out. I knew just how long the unit
would take and what was going to happen each and every day. I basically followed
the layout that the book provided me because that is what my cooperating teacher
does. Towards the beginning this plan was working perfectly, but after getting
deeper into the unit, I noticed that some modifications were necessary in order for
my students to meet all learning goals. While these did prolong the unit, I believe I
did make the most appropriate instructional decisions under the guidance of my
cooperating teacher, especially when it came down to the quiz scores.
Before the first quiz happened, based on LG1, I thought the students were
understood all of the content. There were still a few strugglers, but there always
are. They tend to be the same students each and every time. After a while though,
you have to look past that and help them outside of class time. There were several
instances where I would pull the students into a small group and work with them
away from the rest of the class. This seemed to help out a little bit. The day before
the quiz, students completed a review sheet. This review was in the same format of
the quiz, which would consist of very similar questions. When checking over the
review, I was sure that the class, apart from those few that I mentioned, had met

LG1. It turns out that the majority of them did not. Some of my brightest students
failed the quiz, but this was due to many careless mistakes. There were other
students who answered every single question wrong. They definitely did not
understand the content. After reviewing the quizzes and discussing things over with
my cooperating teacher, she led me to using the next class day as a Quiz Re-take
day.
I separated the quizzes into the high, or what was the highest of the class,
and lows (or zeros). Those who had the higher grades (and just had many careless
mistakes) would be able to correct their quizzes for half credit. After they finished
making corrections, they did extra practice online on Compass. Those students who
clearly did not understand were re-taught and completed brand new quizzes. I
thought that doing this would improve student progress toward the learning goal
because it would give students a second chance. I knew that some of the
carelessness from my higher level students was due to focus issues. Receiving their
quizzes back would let these students see that they need to pay more attention in
class and to the problems on the quiz. Those students who were given new quizzes
obviously needed more review and practice, which they did not show during the
actual quiz review. There are some students who tend to slide by or fake
understanding, which is definitely what happened. I knew that mastering LG1 was
imperative to comprehending the other 3 goals, so I figured that students deserved
that second chance.
Before each section of the new quiz, we worked through several examples
together on the board. Then students were allowed to work through just the
corresponding sections. While they were working, they still had several questions,
which was okay. Doing the quiz this way took a while, but students scores were

much better. For example, one student scored a 25 on the first quiz, but received a
75 on the re-take. There were some who still did not meet the learning goal, but
these were my normal low students.
Quiz 2 was just like the first, in that students seemed prepared during the
lessons and review. After grading the quizzes, they obviously were not. Because this
happened again, I felt like I had failed at teaching this unit. To fix the quizzes, I
followed the exact same routine from Quiz 1. The group of students who had to
completely re-take the quiz was much smaller though, making me feel better.
Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with unlike
denominators is not an easy subject to learn or teach. The original quiz scores
showed just that. I did not want to run into this problem again, so I modified the last
few days of the unit. The first thing I did was add in an extra review day, giving
students two days to work through the problems and ask questions. During this time
I actually chose not to go over the answers. I wanted students to focus on
completing every question. They were allowed different amounts of time to work
with a partner and check answers or get help. On the day of the test, students were
required to bring in their completed reviews. My testing plan was similar to that of
the quiz retakes. This would save me time by not having to grade and re-grade the
tests. The students also would not have to worry about their scores and reworking
quizzes. My main goal was to end this unit on a strong note, no matter how it was
done.
I had scheduled the test for two days. On the first day, I reviewed page one of
the review with the class. We worked through every problem together on the board.
Then they completed page one of the test. This was possible because the questions
on the review and test corresponded perfectly. They were in the same format, with

just a change of numbers or wording. After all students completed the first page, we
moved on to page two of the review and test. The next day, students reviewed and
completed pages three and four. While this might not have followed normal
summative testing rules, it was necessary in order for my students to succeed.
There were already 8 students who would have received the test page by page, so
why not give it that way to the whole class? It helps them focus on only a few
problems at a time, which is good for those students who tend to rush through
assessments and end up with many careless mistakes.
The test scores were a huge relief. There were still some that were low, but
once again, that is a norm for those specific students. The majority of the class
received As and Bs, a drastic change from the quizzes. This showed me that even
though students received a lot of guidance during the test, they still were able to
achieve the four learning goals that this unit required.
These three assessments stressed me out. I am very appreciative of my
cooperating teacher because she reviewed the quizzes with me and helped me
come up with an idea to re-assess. It is her class, and while the scores reflect my
teaching, their overall grades could affect her evaluation scores. She was mainly
focused on making sure the summative assessment scores were decent, which is
why she highly suggested that I do the quiz in that specific format. I am still
learning, so I was not going to turn that down.
Overall, I am very glad that I had a few days built into the end of the unit,
allowing me to adjust my short-range plans and re-assess students. This not only
helped with student comprehension, but allowed students to see their mistakes and
work back through them. Spending 4 days on the test review and test, gave them
the opportunity to take their time and actually show that they understood the

content. Now that the unit is over, I have discovered some of the problems that a
teacher might run in to while teaching and assessing. I am thankful that I have such
a great cooperating teacher to guide me in my instructional decision making.