Multiple Measures: Connecting Assessment to the Classroom

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Multiple MeasuresConnecting Assessment tothe
Classroom

• Nita Schmidt
• Whole Language Umbrella
• St. Louis, July, 2004

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Setting the Context

• Rural elementary school in NW Iowa
• We were in our third year of using
  English-language arts portfolios for assessment
• We were still tweaking it to satisfy ourselves,
  our parents, and our students.
• Could we create an assessment that met House File
  2272, but also met our own needs?

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What did we do?

• We met on Saturday mornings to brainstorm and
  strategize ways to assess our students.
• We contacted our AEA math and language arts
  consultants and gathered other professional
  resources about performance assessment.
• We embraced Leland and Harstes (1994) work on
  multiple sign systems and believed work with
  multiple sign systems could give us a plethora of
  information in any assessment situation.

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Our Goals

• Assess students in ways that will show meaning
  making across several sign systems.
• Meet the requirements of House File 2272 but
  fulfill our own assessment needs first.
• Address the curricular areas of reading, writing,
  math, and art.
• Pay attention to parental interests in counting
  money and teacher interests in geometry.

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Our Plan

• Use performance assessments to enrich already
  established portfolios.
• Build scaffolds to provide structured practice
  before assessments.
• Develop a grading rubric for the tasks.

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We began to practice.
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And practice
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Billy Goes ShoppingScaffold-Practice

• Billy wants to buy some new school supplies. He
  has .90 to spend. He needs to save .25 for the
  bus. Look at the price list and choose some
  things for Billy to buy. Find three different
  ways for Billy to spend his money. If Billy has
  change, show how much change he would have left
  from .90.
• Remember. Billy needs .25 for the bus each
  time.
• Price List Eraser .10, Rulers .29, Pencils
  .25, Pens .39, Book covers .20
• First Way Second Way Third Way

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And practice.
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The Assessment Tasks

• Geometry Assessment Project
• Fourth Grade Shopping Spree

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Geometry Assessment Project

• Design a quilt square that includes at least 4 of
  the following characteristics
• Use at least 2 but no more than 3 geometric
  shapes
• Have a line of symmetry
• Show a flip, slide, or turn of the basic
  component
• Have a repeating pattern
• Show congruence or similarity of a shape
• Show ¼ of the total design with only 1 geometric
  shape
• Completed squares must be accompanied by a
  detailed explanation of your quilt design and the
  mathematical ideas it shows.

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Fourth Grade Shopping Spree

• Create a picture that describes your feelings
  about math. You have 10 to buy whatever
  supplies you can afford to accomplish this task.
• You must spend at least 8.
• Pipe Cleaner 3 for 1.50
• Buttons 4 for 1.00
• Pinch of Sequins .10
• Construction Paper 4 for 2.00
• Tissue Paper 4 for 3.00
• Yarn 1.25
• Shake of Glitter .59

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• Chart your purchases and show us how your money
  was spent.

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• Explain how much money you have left after your
  purchase.
• Create a picture about math with your purchases.
• Write about your picture. It may be a
  description, a story, or an essay about math.

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That will be 1.56. In math we have been dealing
with money. Yesterday we wrout some things that
we could buy like yarn, pipe cleners, and sequins
and that kind of stuff. In the middle do you see
the red flower and the heart? Ive dune this
flower like this because Ive never seen a flower
with a heart on top. The blue pipe cleaner to
the bottom left is the entrence to a place youve
never seen before. The trail of sequins to the
bottom below the spikes leads you the laze bed
that has sequins on the side. The gold glitter
in the lower right is a pool of gold glitter that
will drain all your wores. Have you ever been to
a place like that!!
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Bong! Did you feel the coler hit you? Look in
the top left corner see that green patch? With
all those colers, shaps and glitter called
sequins. The swans, flowers and shelles just
makes my jow drop from beauty! I choose red for
the swans because red makes me think of joy.
Four buttens in the center represent my four
names Jason Allan Shurely Jones. See in the top
right corner the yellew constructun paper and the
red snowflake? That snowflake represents winter
and the colers in the patch are the colers I
usely see on cristmas. Every thing on the bottom
are just colerful deceratouns. Thats the coler
of my math progect.
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Rubric

• CD All parts of the task are answered
  accurately and completely. All directions are
  followed.
• D Answer deals correctly with most aspects of
  the task, but something is missing. May deal
  with all aspects but have minor errors.
• ND Does not address the task or only addresses
  the task minimally.

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What does this show about math, art, and writing?

• Writing really does help kids think about ideas
  in other content areas like math.
• Even though mathematics is typically communicated
  through the manipulation of symbols, words can
  express math ideas.
• Construction was a motivational and important
  part of these assessment tasks.

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Writing is a way to work yourself into a subject
and make it your own. William Zinsser
(1988) Writing to Learn
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Conclusions

• Allowing students to construct and write
  interpretations of mathematical concepts
  encourages the communication of meanings that
  would not be made public if writing was the sole
  sign system used.
• We demanded risk taking, but we got sensitivity!