The school district I am in has cumulative tests covering everything taught each six weeks. The twist is, these tests are made by administrators and not teachers. This really isn't a problem to me. It is a learning tool for me and a teachable moment for my students on the importance of all material covered in class.
We as teachers can really get bogged down in the variables of a test like this. By that I mean, oh the test question was worded funny or well they were only given one chance to show mastery on this, my students are _______ fill in the blanks, thoughts, and reasoning. The one thing my school district did was have us put our scores up standard by standard right next to every other teacher in the district who had to teach the same thing we did. My oh my did I fall short! I say I fell short even though I had great reasoning as to why my scores looked the way they did... but upon further reflection I decided to take responsibility for what I was seeing. My reasoning? Because EVERY teacher has that one class, that one student, that one group, etc. who is a apathetic to learning, behavior problems, home problems, and the list goes on and on. We all have that, so where did I fall short so that I wasn't in line with the other teachers in most of my standards? I need to preface this by saying that I was on par with most of the teachers, but several teachers had stand-out moments where their scores were much higher than the rest. What did they do? I wanted to know! How did that teacher TEACH to this level of understanding? The answer was one I've heard in a different phrasing over the years I've spent as a teacher... my favorite phrase... "DRILL AND KILL".
What does drill and kill mean to you? To me it means repetition, over and over, spiraling and reviewing more even after you've moved on. The techniques these teachers used inspired me to focus on where we fell short on specified standards, and incorporate a new standard within my classes so we could spiral and "drill and kill". The results after only 1 week are identifiable for anyone who steps in my classroom including the students. What I learned most from the process were the misconceptions my students had about concepts that I looked at as cut and dry. As an example, while reviewing the "Decimal of the Day", one part of the expanded notation should have been written as (2 x 10) because the 2 was in the tens place value in the number. My student asked why couldn't he just put (20 x 1) because that is the same answer as (2 x 10). How would you answer this question? I went back to the basics of place value. I asked him how he could write 20 in the one's place in standard form? It is through this questioning and guiding process that he made the connection of why expanded notation is done the way it is.
One of the things I learned about this test was that my students lacked skills important to their success in mathematics; most importantly academic vocabulary and place value understanding. So, one of the things I did was develop a Decimal of The Day to do in conjunction with our daily warm-up. The concept is that I give them a new decimal number each day. I may give it to them in standard form, word form, or expanded notation, but they then have to give it to me in all the other forms, plus rounding. In addition, when I start the review to see how we did, students have to say the number in proper form. Students fall in the habit of saying numbers like 1.2 as one point two instead of one and two tenths. Saying the number properly in standard form not only helps them with writing the number in word form, but it reinforces place value concepts and academic vocabulary. All these pieces are needed so a student can round to the proper place value, write expanded notation properly, and write a number in standard form if it is given in a specific way.
I made this form:
I was able to fit two per page, and I copy the pages front and back. This gives me 4 days of practice, and the students can turn in the page each week so I can monitor their progress. Four days a week on the board I give students a D.O.D. My why, is that only 29% of my students could recognize a number properly written in expanded notation on their test. My goal is that when they are retested, that number will grow to mastery.
I of course know that there are thousands of ways to review. This is just one little piece. I have a multi-standard page that I use for my warm-ups. I spiral review specific standards in all possible forms it could end up on a test using that form weekly. I choose to target specific areas my students fall short in using forms like the Decimal of the Day. What method do you use in your classroom? Do you find yourself sitting next to those teachers with excuses too? Are you one like I have been? What did you do to change your mind set? Please chime in!
We as teachers can really get bogged down in the variables of a test like this. By that I mean, oh the test question was worded funny or well they were only given one chance to show mastery on this, my students are _______ fill in the blanks, thoughts, and reasoning. The one thing my school district did was have us put our scores up standard by standard right next to every other teacher in the district who had to teach the same thing we did. My oh my did I fall short! I say I fell short even though I had great reasoning as to why my scores looked the way they did... but upon further reflection I decided to take responsibility for what I was seeing. My reasoning? Because EVERY teacher has that one class, that one student, that one group, etc. who is a apathetic to learning, behavior problems, home problems, and the list goes on and on. We all have that, so where did I fall short so that I wasn't in line with the other teachers in most of my standards? I need to preface this by saying that I was on par with most of the teachers, but several teachers had stand-out moments where their scores were much higher than the rest. What did they do? I wanted to know! How did that teacher TEACH to this level of understanding? The answer was one I've heard in a different phrasing over the years I've spent as a teacher... my favorite phrase... "DRILL AND KILL".
What does drill and kill mean to you? To me it means repetition, over and over, spiraling and reviewing more even after you've moved on. The techniques these teachers used inspired me to focus on where we fell short on specified standards, and incorporate a new standard within my classes so we could spiral and "drill and kill". The results after only 1 week are identifiable for anyone who steps in my classroom including the students. What I learned most from the process were the misconceptions my students had about concepts that I looked at as cut and dry. As an example, while reviewing the "Decimal of the Day", one part of the expanded notation should have been written as (2 x 10) because the 2 was in the tens place value in the number. My student asked why couldn't he just put (20 x 1) because that is the same answer as (2 x 10). How would you answer this question? I went back to the basics of place value. I asked him how he could write 20 in the one's place in standard form? It is through this questioning and guiding process that he made the connection of why expanded notation is done the way it is.
One of the things I learned about this test was that my students lacked skills important to their success in mathematics; most importantly academic vocabulary and place value understanding. So, one of the things I did was develop a Decimal of The Day to do in conjunction with our daily warm-up. The concept is that I give them a new decimal number each day. I may give it to them in standard form, word form, or expanded notation, but they then have to give it to me in all the other forms, plus rounding. In addition, when I start the review to see how we did, students have to say the number in proper form. Students fall in the habit of saying numbers like 1.2 as one point two instead of one and two tenths. Saying the number properly in standard form not only helps them with writing the number in word form, but it reinforces place value concepts and academic vocabulary. All these pieces are needed so a student can round to the proper place value, write expanded notation properly, and write a number in standard form if it is given in a specific way.
I made this form:
I was able to fit two per page, and I copy the pages front and back. This gives me 4 days of practice, and the students can turn in the page each week so I can monitor their progress. Four days a week on the board I give students a D.O.D. My why, is that only 29% of my students could recognize a number properly written in expanded notation on their test. My goal is that when they are retested, that number will grow to mastery.
I of course know that there are thousands of ways to review. This is just one little piece. I have a multi-standard page that I use for my warm-ups. I spiral review specific standards in all possible forms it could end up on a test using that form weekly. I choose to target specific areas my students fall short in using forms like the Decimal of the Day. What method do you use in your classroom? Do you find yourself sitting next to those teachers with excuses too? Are you one like I have been? What did you do to change your mind set? Please chime in!
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