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Professor Richelle Marynowski

Education 3700C

20 June 2016

Assessing the Assessment of Circles - Unit Plan Defense Paper

I believe that one of the most important aspects of assessment in

mathematics comes down to students being able to show their understanding in multiple

ways. Not only is this important for students who succeed under varying conditions, but

shouldn’t we be teaching our students to be successful with new concepts in more than

one way? With this in mind in my assessment plan for my Grade 7 Shape and Space

(Measurement) Unit I attempted to include as many different types of assessments that

would challenge as much different types of thinking as possible. This idea of variety

within assessment stems a lot from an idea stated in Elementary and Middle School

Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally that as educators we should be embracing the

diversity that a wide range of learners brings us instead of wanting to be rid of it as it can

positively benefit our entire classroom (2015 Chp. 1). Creating this unit plan based on

ideas I’ve learned this semester also challenged me to constantly consider and remember

the importance of process over product. Coming into this class I had viewed the products

students reached as the most important part of Mathematics, and I was quickly mistaken.

We focus on four Key Processes because this is such an important aspect of Mathematics

and it was because of this that many of my assessments are not reliant on set products

(May 10th 2016 notes). Some examples of assessments that are heavily process-based in

my unit plan include Circle Scavenger Hunt, Using Pi to Measure Pie, and Area
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Labyrinth. The first and third mentioned assessments are both summative assessments,

however, the final product of these assignments is worth far less than the documented

evidence created throughout the project. Students will be required to answer a series of

questions and through trial and error and the application of the correct ideas solve

different problems that lead to others. This is a great example of a heavy emphasis. The

formative assessment assignment emphasizes process in the sense that the entire

assignment is students raising questions and discussing ideas of how to solve the problem

at hand. The assessment that comes from this depends wholly on the students’ discoveries

throughout the assignment. Although I have already figured out the circumference of the

object beforehand, I am far more concerned about how the students reach their

conclusion versus what their final answer is. Throughout the unit plan I also attempted to

cover the four different kinds of mathematical tasks. Students search for patterns in the

Using Pi to Measure Pie activity, they analyze situations in Formula Master, they

generalize relationships in Area Labyrinth, and experiment and explain in Make Your

Own Circle (2015 Chp. 2). By including all of these different tasks I feel as if I am even

closer at creating a unit that hits on a multitude of different ways students can think about

the concepts they are learning and apply them in a variety of situations. My research of

manipulatives this semester was also something that I really tried to implement into this

unit plan. I’ve always really appreciated the use of manipulatives but throughout this

semester I’ve learned so much more about how to effectively use them in the classroom

that I constantly tried to apply that knowledge in the lessons I was planning. One big idea

that I learned more about this semester was the three experiential stages that students

learn at (Larkin 2016). Specifically, the enactive stage where student have the direct
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sensory experience as they do in Using Pi to Measure Pie, the iconic representation of

experience where students work with representations as they do in If I Were a Circle, and

finally the last stage where students engage with symbolic representations as they do in

Formula Master. Another note of manipulatives that I attempted to consider throughout

my assessment planning was how I was going to introduce manipulatives and let students

interact with them without showing them the way to solve the problems at hand. I learned

it’s most important to show students how to represent their work through manipulatives

instead of how the procedure is solved with manipulatives. This was important to

remember for me as I automatically wanted to include me showing the solution in

manipulatives when introducing them but learned that by doing this students would just

copy what I was displaying instead of understanding how to use the manipulatives

themselves (2015 Chp. 7). The introduction of the idea of Rich Tasks was also something

new that I learned this semester that I really tried to implement the assessment of in my

unit plan. The key points of ensuring the task has multiple entry and exit points and has a

high level of cognitive demand is something I really attempted to include in assessments

such as Using Pi to Measure Pie and Area Labyrinth (May 17th 2016 Notes). These tasks

are assessed not on their final product but on the process the students took to get there

and the work that came as a result of that. The Anecdotal Notes are also something I

thought was really important to include in my Unit Assessment Plan. Focusing on

specific individual students will be important to document in order to understand where

different students are struggling and which ones understand the concepts at hand. By

ensuring I accomplish taking these notes during and immediately after the lesson I can

focus on making notes for each student and taking specific note of what they are doing
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and how students feel about their work (2015 Chp. 5). In conclusion, I feel like the

assessments used in my Unit Plan were based on several effective theories learned

throughout my semester and feel my knowledge of student learning, exploration, and

work with manipulatives really positively affects the Unit Plan I have created and ensures

the assessment techniques used throughout are incredibly valid and reliable.
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Works Cited

Larkin, K. (2016). Mathematics education and manipulatives: which, when, how?

Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 21(1), 12-17.

Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., Bay-Williams, J. M., McGarvey, L. M., & Folk, S.

(2015). Elementary and middle school mathematics: teaching developmentally

(Fourth ed.). Toronto, Canada: Pearson Canada.