Showing posts with label eqao. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eqao. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
MPM1D1 - Day 83 & 84 Standardized Test Days
Students wrote their standardized test today and will do the second part tomorrow. Some were nervous about writing. I told them not to be nervous and to just do their best (I know this is easier said than done). I'm very excited that they get the chance to show me what they've learned over the semester.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
MPM1D1 - Day 82 Final Day of EQAO Practice
Today is the final day before we write the EQAO test.
We started with this warm-up at the boards in groups since a number of students said they were having a tough time with geometry.
There was some discussion about what the sum of the interior angles of different figures should add to. Once that was sorted out most groups proceeded fairly quickly.
After the warm-up was done students could work on what they thought they needed to work on. Some worked in pairs, others put their headphones on and worked individually. There was a huge variety in the work that was happening. The vast majority of the class was really productive. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do tomorrow and Thursday.
We started with this warm-up at the boards in groups since a number of students said they were having a tough time with geometry.
There was some discussion about what the sum of the interior angles of different figures should add to. Once that was sorted out most groups proceeded fairly quickly.
After the warm-up was done students could work on what they thought they needed to work on. Some worked in pairs, others put their headphones on and worked individually. There was a huge variety in the work that was happening. The vast majority of the class was really productive. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do tomorrow and Thursday.
Monday, January 15, 2018
MPM1D1 - Day 81 Multiple Choice Practice
I was pleasantly surprised today to see that a number of students had attempted some of the practice multiple choice question that I had sent to them on Friday.
I had them start in groups working at the board on a few multi-step multiple choice questions. Here they are:
The reason for starting with these questions was to get students to realize that just because it's a multiple choice question doesn't mean that it's easy. I wanted them to see that there could still be multiple steps involved.
Once they were finished the warm-up questions they could choose to work on the Opens Response questions from the other day or to practice the multiple choice quizzes in D2L. Most students chose to complete the online quizzes but a few worked on the open response questions. I think my favourite part about this time of year is watching students help each gain a better understanding of the content. There seems to be so much transferring of knowledge. It's exciting to watch.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
MPM1D1 - Day 80 EQAO Multiple Choice Questions
The buses were cancelled today. The plan had been to work through some of the EQAO practice multiple choice questions. From the bank of released questions over the past few years, I created a question library in D2L. From there I created a quiz that randomly selects questions from each of the strands. Students can do the quiz, see how they did and repeat. Every time they do the quiz they get a different set of questions.
I fired off an email to all students first thing in the morning showing how they could access the quiz along with a video showing how to do it. Unfortunately, not many of them took the opportunity to try, but hopefully more will over the weekend.
I fired off an email to all students first thing in the morning showing how they could access the quiz along with a video showing how to do it. Unfortunately, not many of them took the opportunity to try, but hopefully more will over the weekend.
Here's a link to the file containing the quiz if you'd like to import it into D2L. I'm hoping to add more questions as I have time. Below is a video showing how import the quiz.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
MPM1D1 - Day 79 Open Response Questions
Our class writes the provincial assessment (EQAO) next Wednesday and Thursday. So the next few days will be spent practicing and preparing for the test. I always struggle with how to structure these days. On the one hand I want students to be able to focus on what they think they need work on, but on the other hand some students can't seem to handle the independence. I also want them to be able to work with the person(s) that they feel they work with best. The downside is that there may be a disconnect between someone a student chooses to work with and the person they work best with.
In any case we started today all working on the same open response question (perhaps from last year's test?). It's one that was not that different from one of yesterday's test questions.
I gave everyone enough time to finish the question and then we wrote up a complete and well communicated solution so that students had an exemplar of what would was expected for these types of questions.
Once we were done I gave them access to this document with another twenty four open response type questions. As might be expected, some students worked very effectively, while others could have made better use of their time.
More practice tomorrow.
Monday, January 8, 2018
MPM1D1 - Day 76 EQAO Practice & Review
I struggled a little with what to do on the first day back after the holidays. We were supposed to write a test the day before the holidays but the buses were cancelled. Writing the test on the first day back after two weeks off would be a bad idea. I wanted students to review but I figured if I let them study on their own that the period might not be that productive.
As much as I wanted to get started right away a number of students had lots of questions. Questions about when our test would be, the details about the EQAO test as well as questions about the exam. I spent way too long talking about what the next couple of weeks look like and then we got to work.
The warm-up, at the boards in groups, was this visual pattern:
I asked them to find an equation for the volume of the nth term. Once they had finished that they were to do the same but for the surface area. I was very pleased at how quickly the groups got to work and how well they were able to get a solution and explain it. It seems that they haven't forgotten much over the holidays.
After the warm-up they worked on the multiple-choice questions from last year's EQAO test (in groups at the board). This provided a good overview of much of the content that will appear on their final test of the year. There were some great discussions. It's nice to see them pull the course content together like this.
Most groups only made it about halfway through these questions so we'll finish them up tomorrow.
As much as I wanted to get started right away a number of students had lots of questions. Questions about when our test would be, the details about the EQAO test as well as questions about the exam. I spent way too long talking about what the next couple of weeks look like and then we got to work.
The warm-up, at the boards in groups, was this visual pattern:
After the warm-up they worked on the multiple-choice questions from last year's EQAO test (in groups at the board). This provided a good overview of much of the content that will appear on their final test of the year. There were some great discussions. It's nice to see them pull the course content together like this.
Most groups only made it about halfway through these questions so we'll finish them up tomorrow.
Monday, January 19, 2015
EQAO Reflection
Our grade nine students wrote their Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics (EQAO) last week. Often during this time I reflect on the process, because really what else are you going to do for two hours while supervising. This year my thinking wasn't about the pros or cons about the test but rather the way we evaluate it. The test is sent off to be marked provincially but before that happens schools have the option to evaluate it in order to include some or all of the mark as part of the student's final grade. The thinking here is that if it counts for something then perhaps students will take it seriously. At my school we count the test for 10% of a student's final grade. Then about a week later they will write the final exam that counts for 20% of their grade.
The test consists of two booklets that each must be completed in an hour. Each booklet is made up of 7 multiple choice questions, followed by four longer 'open response' questions then finishes with 7 more multiple choice questions. Once the second booklet is completed students are asked to complete a questionnaire.
My observation has been that more often than not students come into the test under prepared and it serves as a bit of a wake up call to them. They then (hopefully) use the remaining classes to prepare for the final exam.
This year I have decided that I am not happy with counting the test for any portion of the students' final marks. In fact, my students did so poorly that after the fact I told them that I was not going to count it at all towards their mark and here's why:
1. Time
Many students did not have time to complete the test. They had an hour to complete each of the two booklets. For the second year in a row my strongest students did not complete the booklets on the first day. These students were very concerned about the impact it was going to have on their overall grade. Rather than providing incentive to do well it caused a great deal of anxiety. As a math teacher my goal is to help students reduce their anxiety towards math not contribute to it. I also try to evaluate what a student knows and does not know. If a question is left blank I have no idea if it was because the student ran out of time or because they did not know how to do it. By removing time from the equation I can make a better judgement of what the student know.
2. Multiple Choice
I have decided that I disagree with the multiple choice questions. They obstruct my view of what the student does or does not know. Some students will get the correct answer by guessing. Others will get the incorrect answer by guessing. In either case, I am unable to see the process that allowed them to arrive at their answer and as a result I am unable make a true judgement of their understanding of the material.
3. Feedback
I don't know much about the official feedback students get so if I'm wrong here let me know. I believe that tests get marked in the summer (the rest of the cohort will write in June) and a mark is returned to the students in the fall. This is far from immediate feedback and is anything but descriptive. Not very useful in my mind. As a teacher I can mark the work, but I'm not allowed to copy anything. This means that I can't show students where they went wrong. I can tell them that they messed up on the bicycle question but unless they can see where, I'm not sure that's useful.
4. Justification
I'd be hard pressed to justify any mark to a student or a parent given that the tests get sent off, never to be seen again. Students should be able to look at their marked work and question my judgement, which is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. In fact, I enjoy when students start questioning my evaluation as it often brings out what they truly meant to write or allows me to better understand their misconceptions.
5. Rationale
When students ask why the test has to count for a portion of their grade I struggle to give a valid reason. I typically say something along the lines of "If you're going to spend two days writing it, we may as well give you some credit for it". It's not an answer I'm comfortable with but it's all I have. One of the reasons I'm not comfortable with it is that the vast majority of my students perform much worse on the test than they do on the final exam. We could probably discuss what that says about my teaching, but let's save that for another post. The real reason that we count the test as a portion of a student's grade is that we believe that this will make them take it more seriously, which means they will perform better, which will make the school look better. Given that twelve out of eighteen students in my colleague's class said on the survey at the end that they didn't know if the test was going to count (and yes he did let them know on numerous occasions), I'm not sure that counting it is a good motivator. Besides, is this in the best interest of the student or the school?
I'm curious to know whether counting the test as a portion of a student's grade makes them perform better. What does the data say? Do schools that count the test outperform those that don't? Is this information publicly available? Are there any schools that don't count the test? Or does everyone count the test so that they don't look bad? Is this in the best interest of the students?
What does your school do about EQAO testing in grade nine math?
The test consists of two booklets that each must be completed in an hour. Each booklet is made up of 7 multiple choice questions, followed by four longer 'open response' questions then finishes with 7 more multiple choice questions. Once the second booklet is completed students are asked to complete a questionnaire.
My observation has been that more often than not students come into the test under prepared and it serves as a bit of a wake up call to them. They then (hopefully) use the remaining classes to prepare for the final exam.
This year I have decided that I am not happy with counting the test for any portion of the students' final marks. In fact, my students did so poorly that after the fact I told them that I was not going to count it at all towards their mark and here's why:
1. Time
Many students did not have time to complete the test. They had an hour to complete each of the two booklets. For the second year in a row my strongest students did not complete the booklets on the first day. These students were very concerned about the impact it was going to have on their overall grade. Rather than providing incentive to do well it caused a great deal of anxiety. As a math teacher my goal is to help students reduce their anxiety towards math not contribute to it. I also try to evaluate what a student knows and does not know. If a question is left blank I have no idea if it was because the student ran out of time or because they did not know how to do it. By removing time from the equation I can make a better judgement of what the student know.
2. Multiple Choice
I have decided that I disagree with the multiple choice questions. They obstruct my view of what the student does or does not know. Some students will get the correct answer by guessing. Others will get the incorrect answer by guessing. In either case, I am unable to see the process that allowed them to arrive at their answer and as a result I am unable make a true judgement of their understanding of the material.
3. Feedback
I don't know much about the official feedback students get so if I'm wrong here let me know. I believe that tests get marked in the summer (the rest of the cohort will write in June) and a mark is returned to the students in the fall. This is far from immediate feedback and is anything but descriptive. Not very useful in my mind. As a teacher I can mark the work, but I'm not allowed to copy anything. This means that I can't show students where they went wrong. I can tell them that they messed up on the bicycle question but unless they can see where, I'm not sure that's useful.
4. Justification
I'd be hard pressed to justify any mark to a student or a parent given that the tests get sent off, never to be seen again. Students should be able to look at their marked work and question my judgement, which is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. In fact, I enjoy when students start questioning my evaluation as it often brings out what they truly meant to write or allows me to better understand their misconceptions.
5. Rationale
When students ask why the test has to count for a portion of their grade I struggle to give a valid reason. I typically say something along the lines of "If you're going to spend two days writing it, we may as well give you some credit for it". It's not an answer I'm comfortable with but it's all I have. One of the reasons I'm not comfortable with it is that the vast majority of my students perform much worse on the test than they do on the final exam. We could probably discuss what that says about my teaching, but let's save that for another post. The real reason that we count the test as a portion of a student's grade is that we believe that this will make them take it more seriously, which means they will perform better, which will make the school look better. Given that twelve out of eighteen students in my colleague's class said on the survey at the end that they didn't know if the test was going to count (and yes he did let them know on numerous occasions), I'm not sure that counting it is a good motivator. Besides, is this in the best interest of the student or the school?
I'm curious to know whether counting the test as a portion of a student's grade makes them perform better. What does the data say? Do schools that count the test outperform those that don't? Is this information publicly available? Are there any schools that don't count the test? Or does everyone count the test so that they don't look bad? Is this in the best interest of the students?
What does your school do about EQAO testing in grade nine math?
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