Because Thinking Math’s curriculum spirals, assessment happens all throughout the learning process, not just at the end of a “unit”. Teachers gather information in several ways to develop a complete picture of each student's understanding.
Teachers may use:
- Classroom observations and conversations to listen to students' mathematical thinking and reasoning.
- Student work to see how students represent ideas, solve problems, and explain their strategies.
- Formative assessment during instruction to identify what students understand and what they are still developing.
- Check-ins tests and assessments at different points in the learning cycle to measure progress with grade-level content covered so far.
- Personalized practice (Atlas) and reports that provide additional information about student progress and areas where more support or practice may be helpful.
More Than "Right or Wrong"
In Thinking Math, the answer is important—but how a student thinks about the mathematics is important too.
Teachers look at students' ability to:
- Understand mathematical concepts
- Apply skills and strategies
- Reason and solve problems
- Explain their mathematical thinking
- Represent ideas in different ways
- Make connections between mathematical concepts
This means two students might arrive at the same answer using different strategies, and those strategies give the teacher valuable information about each student's understanding.
Mastery by the end of the year
As a spiral curriculum, content is built over the year and revisited several times, so mastery isn't expected after the first exposure. Some part of the struggle (known as productive struggle) from students is expected as part of their learning process.
Due to this, a “target”, “near target” or “below target”, would show where a student's understanding is at any given point throughout the year. The spiral allows for multiple opportunities to grow on their understanding to achieve mastery of the standards by the end of the school year.
Feedback Helps Students Grow
Assessment is used to guide learning, not simply to produce a score.
Teachers use the information they gather to provide feedback, adjust instruction, determine when students need additional support or practice, and identify when students are ready for greater challenges.
Thinking Math's personalized practice also provides students with immediate feedback while giving teachers progress information they can use to make instructional decisions.
