Western Virginia Public Education

ConsortiumImplementation of the New Math SOLs

Modifying Assessment Items

• What is the concept/skill being assessed?• How could a test item writer ask this in a TEI

format?• What types of classroom activities or

assessments could I use to prepare students?

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Modifying Assessments

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Modifying Assessments

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Modifying Assessments

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Modifying Assessments

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Modifying Assessments

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Modifying Assessments

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ESS Sample Lesson Plans – now available K-12

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ESS Sample Lesson Plans

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Instructional Videos

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Practice SOL Items• It is essential that students have experiences with the

Practice SOL Items prior to testing. http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/practice_items/index.shtml

• Use of the Practice Item Guides is STRONGLY recommended.

• Practice Item Guides provide:– Guided practice with tools– Information specific to TEI functionality– Information on item format

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No Pain, No Gain

• If you are more tired than the kids, it’s not because you are old

• Make kids estimate/predict and think before calculating

• Don’t ask questions that solicit one word answers

• Let kids struggle to make sense of the mathematics

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WESTERN VIRGINIA PUBLIC EDUCATION CONSORTIUM

Dr. Betti C. KreyeSchool of Education

Virginia Techbkreye@vt.edu

You can’t fatten a pig by weighing it!

Famous Quotes:

But I covered that last week (last year, in the third grade, etc), and they just didn’t get it!

The students can’t remember from week to week what I have been teaching!

Engaging Students in the Learning Process

Conceptual Understanding

Success on TestsAnd MORE

Conceptual Knowledge

Research has solidly established the importance of conceptual understanding in

becoming proficient in a subject. When students understand concepts that frame a

subject, they are able to use their knowledge flexibly. They combine factual knowledge,

procedural knowledge, and conceptual knowledge in powerful ways.

Standards in Classroom Practice, McREL, 2002

Working with a partner, write a word problem that could be solved using multiplication.

Share your word problem with others around your table – do all of the problems appear to be of the same type (similar wording and requirements to solve)?

Take the word problem you have written and rewrite it so that it could be solved using a division strategy.

Share this word problem with your table mates – do all of your problems seem to be of the same type (similar in wording and requirements to solve)?

Final Thoughts:

Teach for understanding of concepts, not merely memorizing procedures.

Choose activities and tasks that will engage students in the development of their understanding of the mathematical concepts.

Enable students to make connections between mathematical concepts.

Fencing TaskMs. Brown’s class will raise rabbits for their spring science fair. They have 24 feet of fencing with which to build a rectangular rabbit pen to keep the rabbits.

a) If Ms. Brown’s students want their rabbits to have as much room as possible, how long would each of the sides of the pen be?

b) How long would each of the sides of the pen be if they had only 16 feet of fencing?

c) How would you go about determining the pen with the most room for any amount of fencing? Organize your works so that someone else who reads it will understand it.

Martha’s Carpeting TaskMartha was recarpeting her bedroom which was 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. How many square feet of carpeting will she need to purchase?

How could this problem be changed to require higher-level thinking skills?

Task Analysis Guide

As you enter a classroom ask yourself this question: "If there were no students in the room, could I do what I am planning to do?" If your answer to the question is yes, don't do it.

Gen. Ruben Cubero, Dean of The Faculty, United States Air Force Academy

“If an educator keeps using the same strategies over and over and the student keeps failing,

who really is the slow learner?”