ECE 415, DBDM Math Assessment · Web viewdefinitely help them to develop their addition skills. I adapted my worksheet to include a ten-stick so that the students could color in an

Courtney GagnéECE 415, DBDM Math Assessment

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My DBDM assessment activity focused on addition. Our data team decided to focus on

two standards for this assessment. We focused on CCSS.K Operations/Algebraic Thinking

standard1: Represent addition with objects, fingers, drawings, verbal explanations, expressions,

or equations, and CCSS.K Operations/Algebraic Thinking standard 2: Create addition word

problems and add within 10 by using objects or drawings to represent the problem. As a team,

we decided that in order to test these two standards, we needed to test that our students can do

three different things; represent their addition in some way, write the math equation, and fill out

a math word problem through understanding the addition they had performed. We also decided

that we would test the students in adding together manipulatives with different properties to

make sure that they had gotten through the abstraction rule in their development of number

sense.

I brought this lesson into my classroom and worked with my cooperating teacher to adapt

it so that it would work well for our specific students. We had decided previously that this

activity would be completed during the morning work-time; where the students work their way

through the three work tables and play in skill-set groups. My activity was set at a certain table

as usual and was one of the work-table activities for each student to complete. Mrs. Monarca and

I worked with the students at morning meeting to play a math game with dice, unifix cubes, and

white boards in order to get them in the right mindset for more addition. I would have completely

done this on my own but some of the students were having an off day and it was extremely

difficult for even my cooperating teacher along with the rest of the adults in the classroom to get

the students’ attention. She then explained to them that this would be the skill they would be

practicing at my math table. Mrs. Monarca had recently begun an introduction on addition and

had told me the students had been doing extremely well with it and that my activity would


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definitely help them to develop their addition skills. I adapted my worksheet to include a ten-

stick so that the students could color in an amount of blocks one color and add another color

blocks to that. I decided to have students in the intervention and on-level groups tested on adding

together blocks of different colors, while students in the advanced group were challenged to add

together stickers of different colors and different shapes. There were five problems in each

packet that were created by the children. The majority of the students did not complete all five

problems. All of the groups had about 15-20 minutes to complete what they could in the activity.

When they were told to switch we had them finish the problem they were working on and then

move on to the next table. Some of the students I was specifically assessing, I asked to stay for

another additional problem if I needed to see any of their skills in particular.

The intervention and on-level groups were expected to follow through their work packets

like so: each child chose two colors and colored in a random amount of blocks one color and

colored another amount the other color that they chose. They then counted each color and filled

in the blanks on the packet. Then they counted the entire number together and created a number

sentence. Halfway through the lesson, my lead teacher in the classroom (Mrs. Monarca)

suggested that I use dice to help the students randomize so that their final product did not always

end up being eleven. This helped the students a lot in learning and it also helped me a lot in

assessing their mathematical development.

Students in the advanced group were given packets with two open spaces for shape

stickers to go. They were told to use the dice to determine how many stickers they would put in

one box and then roll the dice a second time to determine how many different shapes would be

added in the other box. There were five problems in this packet as well, and again the majority

did not finish. The students counted each amount of shapes and then counted them all together


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and filled in the blanks on the packet. Again, this group would then count the entire amount of

shapes all together and write a number sentence.

During the entire assessment, with all groups, I took pictures and I was able to take a

couple of videos of the particular students I was assessing. I also filled in the rubrics and I was

able to jot down quick notes about each student I was assessing on their rubric sheet. After the

activity was completed with all groups, I copied the sheets of the students I was assessing and

then I sent the packets home for all the students’ parents to see.


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Name: ________________________________

I have __________ ___________ cubes

I have __________ ___________ cubes

All together I have ___________ total cubes

____________ + ____________ = ________


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Student Analysis

Name: Serena

Objective 3 2 1

Operations/ Algebraic Thinking 1: Represent addition with objects, fingers, drawings, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.

Operations/ Algebraic Thinking 2: Create addition word problems, and add within 10 by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.

Serena was in the intervention group and was the second student that I assessed in this activity.

When she began the activity Serena started off with extremely low total amounts of blocks. I had

scaffolded by telling the students that they could color in all the blocks but they didn’t have to

and that they just needed to make sure that they were using two colors for each problem. I

scaffolded Serena further by asking her after she had finished coloring if she wanted to color any

more blocks. Unlike the other students, she chose not to fill in the entire eleven blocks on her

sheet. Instead, she typically chose to fill in a portion of them and went in a pattern for the

majority that she completed. As she counted the blocks on her paper she used strong one-to-one

correspondence to dictate which color she was counting at the time. She was also easily able to


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separate the colors and count every single block of each color even though they were sometimes

separated by how her patterns went. At times, Serena could easily use automaticity to figure out

how many blocks she had colored in a certain color. This did not vary when she made patterns.

For example, on one of the problems Serena had colored in a pattern that read yellow, green,

yellow, yellow, green. She was able to read this pattern aloud to me as well as count the

separated yellows together and figure out that she had colored in three yellow blocks and that she

had colored in three green blocks. This was all still done with automaticity. She was also easily

able to put together all of the blocks for each problem no matter the pattern or color differences

that she had created. Mid-way through the activity, this group was offered dice in order to help

randomize their addition. Serena chose not to use the dice and continued with her own

randomization at this time. I sometimes prompted Serena when she got distracted by asking

questions like “can you tell me how many blocks you have colored orange”, “how many blocks

did you color blue”, and “how many blocks did you color all together”. My purpose in this

prompting was to encourage Serena to communicate about the addition she was doing. I also

prompted her to color more blocks by saying “why don’t we color in three more purple blocks”

depending on the colors she was using and how many total blocks she had colored in. My

purpose in this prompting was to be able to get a sample of her work with higher total numbers

and addition of higher numbers. At times, I would prompt Serena further by asking her to read

me the full sentence that was written on the paper. My purpose in this prompting was to see that

she had understood what was written and also to strengthen her ability in creating full sentences.


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Name: Emma

Objective 3 2 1



Emma was in one of the two on-level groups and I assessed her first in this activity. When Emma

began this activity she paid good attention to directions and began by making patterns in her

coloring. After she had made the pattern for the first problem, she noticed that I was working

with other students on counting their separate colors. While watching, she realized that this was

the next step in her work and began counting. When I came back over to her I noticed that she

was coloring over some of her pattern and I prompted her by asking “can you tell me how many

purple blocks you have?” She then finished coloring over her pattern and counted, with strong

one-to-one correspondence, each purple block (including the block where a corner was purple

and the rest was pink) and said that she had six purple blocks. I then read the sentence on the

paper to her while pointing to prompt her into writing the rest of the word problem. She quickly


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understood what she needed to do and began writing the word ‘six’ and then phonetically spelled

the word ‘purple’. Afterwards she was able to read me the entire word problem on her paper

without prompting. For the majority of the problems, Emma tended to color in all of the blocks

on the chart. But each time that she did this, she would vary the numbers that she used. This

helped her to learn that there were other ways of making the product eleven. On the last problem,

I prompted her to color in less than eleven by saying “I want to see what other numbers you can

make, this time can we make a number different from eleven?” My purpose in this prompting

was to be able to see how her addition was including blocks that were not colored in. I have seen

before that some children would still try to count the blocks that they had not colored in and I

wanted to see if this was something she would do. But when I asked her to do this she complied

and she counted the blocks as she saw them. Throughout the activity, Emma was easily able to

separate her different colored blocks and count them and then put them together to get the total

amount. At times, she was confused because of the pattern she had made and she chose to

change her picture to less of a pattern so that it was easier for her to count each color

individually. This was good to see her correcting her own work in order for her to understand it

more clearly in her own head.


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Name: Hank

Objective 3 2 1



Hank was in the advanced group in the classroom and he was the last student that I assessed in

this activity. Since Hank was in the higher group, he completed a different activity from the other

three groups. Hank and his group worked on adding different shapes instead of different colors.

When I told them they would be doing something different I scaffolded them by telling them “I

have a challenge for you! We’re going to be adding shape stickers instead of just adding blocks”.

I also modeled for them what they would do by rolling the dice and showing them what shapes I

would pick and where I would place the different shapes. The students, including Hank, were

extremely eager to start this activity. When Hank began, he rolled the dice and started putting his

shapes into the boxes on the paper. When I looked over to see how I could help him, I noticed

that he had placed in the first box; a red trapezoid and two blue diamonds, and in the second box;


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two red trapezoids and one blue diamond. When he looked at them himself and started to count

he got a bit confused and didn’t separate them by shapes, but by where they were on the paper. I

wanted to see if he could separate them initially into two separate parts and then put them back

together to make a final product so I prompted him by saying “hmm I see you’re having some

trouble, maybe we could try putting all the same shapes together in one box and all the other

shapes in the other box?” This helped him to move the shapes and then Hank was easily able to

count the shapes separately and add them together to find his final product. On the second

problem, Hank did not use different shapes; he simply put a certain amount of orange squares

into one box and another amount of squares into the other box. This time I chose to sit back and

watch to see if he would still be able to separately count the two groups and then put them

together in the end. Hank used the lines of the boxes to dictate which squares were in what box.

Then he wrote the numbers underneath and created his own addition number sentence without

being prompted. I found this very intriguing as none of the other students had thought of doing

this.


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Data Team Assessment

After looking at the compiled data of our data team mathematical assessment, we

organized the students into three tiers based on their level of skill development in the rubric and

in the anecdotal records. We placed students in Tier 1 indicating that they had worked through

our math activities in developmentally appropriate ways and had shown clear understanding of

addition in the anecdotal records. In this group, we agreed on placing the students M, Emma,

Hank, E, Isaac, J, Brooke, Kristie, and Oliver. These students would not need much instruction,

but a good teaching strategy would be to model whole group instruction in a way where the

students can see what is expected of them and how to do each step of the activity. This way,

these students are challenged to do what they know, but still have the notable option of coming

to the teacher to ask for help on things they may not fully understand. Another good teaching

strategy would also be to give subtle instruction and watch for struggling areas for students. This

way, these students would not be getting complete intervention in their work but as teachers we

would be supporting them in their struggles so that they do not feel like giving up.

We placed students in Tier 2 indicating that they had worked through the activities at a

level where they may need some assistance and had shown much understanding but looked for

assistance or confirmation in their anecdotal records. In this group, we placed the students A, H,

and Ava. These students would benefit from subtle check-ins, some subtle scaffolding as

everyone would receive, and little instruction. A good teaching strategy for this group would be

to check in on these students every once in a while and offer assistance if needed. This would

give the students something to fall back on without spending too much time instructing them

fully.


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We placed students in Tier 3 indicating that they had worked through the activities at a

level where they were unable to accomplish the activity without assistance and needed much

noted help, guidance, and redirection in their anecdotal records. In this group, we placed the

students Serena (Mine), Serena (Alex), Olivia, Esabella, N, and Jenna. These students would

benefit from direct observation, modeling of the activity, and available assistance for areas of

struggle. One teaching strategy I would seriously consider is giving a fundamental model for

these students to follow. What I mean by fundamental is to go through one of the problems as the

students would be expected to and go through all the steps so that the students can see how the

worksheet works for them. It would be good to have either a para or another teacher in the

classroom provide this observation and modeling. This would help to eliminate the struggle of

not knowing “what do we need to do now?” and would give the students more time to

concentrate on the work they are doing so that they learn and practice their addition correctly.

Another good teaching strategy would be to stand by for assistance and any reminders the

students may need in order to aid in their completion of the activity. This would allow the

students to get through their activity with little distraction and with assistance as needed.

We also discussed that the students in our entire data team seemed to need a bit more

engagement in the activity as well as a bit less in the amount of problems they needed to

complete. We decided that, in order to engage the students more and to create more

randomization, we would have the students use spinners to get the numbers they would add

together. We decided that we would have students in Tier 1 and 2 using a spinner that goes from

numbers 1-5 and students in Tier 3 would use a spinner that goes from numbers 1-4. With my

particular students, I would create a spinner that has the numbers respectively written on it, along

with a single representation of the shape that the students should draw for that number. As an


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example, when a student uses the spinner and lands on the number 4, they would see the number

4 and a single triangle so that they would have the model and know to draw 4 triangles and write

the number 4. This would be expected of the students for each problem and teachers would be

available for assistance.

Documents

ECE 415, DBDM Math Assessment · Web viewdefinitely help them to develop their addition skills. I adapted my worksheet to include a ten-stick so that the students could color in an