It is that time of year again; the time when April showers truly turn into May flowers and the time when we begin summatively assessing our 3rd-10th grade students in the math classroom.
Let’s start our weekly blog by acknowledging how far we have come with stakeholders’ perspectives on standardized testing. Catherine Gewertz, an assistant editor for Education Week, recently synthesized research and surveys that track educator, administrator and student attitudes towards assessment over time. This fascinating article, Survey: More Teachers Think That 'Just the Right Amount' of Time Is Spent on Testing, offers many charts and graphs as quantitative evidence.
Looking for a way to pump up your students on the day of the MCAS exam? Look no further. These four activities offer quick ways for students to practice key math concepts from the year while simultaneously getting up, moving around and pumping blood to their brains! The four sample activities include Function Foursquare, Pythagorean Hop Scotch, Justification Jump Rope and Rational Red Light/Green Light. These activities are targeted to an 8th grade audience but can be changed and adapted as you see fit! All activities have been placed in a public dropbox.
Good luck to all!