Comments on: Tasks and Assessments

By: How To Play the Better Assessments Game | Better Assessments

How To Play the Better Assessments Game | Better Assessments — Thu, 30 May 2013 17:09:19 +0000

[…] you haven’t read this, this, and this, then stop. Go. […]

By: An Overdue Beginning | Better Assessments

An Overdue Beginning | Better Assessments — Thu, 30 May 2013 16:50:01 +0000

[…] late March, I wrote Tasks and Assessments and A Further Call To Arms (over on Reason and Wonder). My goal with these posts was to stir up a […]

By: Better Assessments: It’s Time to Begin | Reason and Wonder

Better Assessments: It’s Time to Begin | Reason and Wonder — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:58:16 +0000

[…] background, go here and […]

By: A Further Call to Arms | Reason and Wonder

A Further Call to Arms | Reason and Wonder — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:47:42 +0000

[…] Thursdays ago I jumped in the middle of an ongoing discussion about assessment by posting this. It was essentially a call to arms, a request to join forces in strengthening the quality of our […]

By: Reni Whitcombe

Reni Whitcombe — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:51:46 +0000

My district has been working towards implanting the CC math standards fully by next year. It has been a long process and fortunately we were able to get a grant for grades 6-12 to collaboratively work. There are a lot of ideas and materials out there, but I have found teacher blogs to be some of the best resources. We have also been trying to move from just the procedural to the conceptual assessments and its been a tough process. Even though we’ve been heading that direction for over 3 years, we still have a long way to go. We started writing common formative and summarize assessments before common core was adopted by our state (Illinois), and I feel that we are constantly rewriting finally moving towards more conceptual (justifying and explaining). I love the idea of sharing parts or all of the assessments. I’m not a blogger and have limit technology experience outside of Smartboard and word documents. I teach 8th grade math and a section of Algebra. Let me know if something gets set up and I would be more than happy to share some of the ones we created…

By: Creating Assessments: Three Types of Standards | Mathy McMatherson

Creating Assessments: Three Types of Standards | Mathy McMatherson — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 06:30:44 +0000

[…] proud to be on the ground-floor of a possible ‘better assessments’ movement here on the math Blogotwittersphere. I’m excited to see people talking about their […]

By: Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:31:35 +0000

Paul, thanks for the comment. (You may be the first person I *know* who I’ve connected with on blogs and Twitter.)

Someone pointed me to opusmath.com earlier today. It looks like an impressive site. I look forward to taking a closer look this weekend and next week. (Spring break!)

After my initial glance at the site, I don’t know if it currently provides a space for the kind of reflective conversation I want to have regarding my own and other teachers’ assessments. The thumbs up/down is a great feature, but I want a space where we can not only share and rate and borrow and use assessments, but where we can share what we’ve made in order for others to help us make it better. (Though the sharing/stealing/using is high on the list as well.)

I’m not sure if that makes a lot of sense, or if opusmath.com does (or could one day) provide that, or if teachers are really interested in that part of this whole process. One of my issues is that I haven’t worked out entirely in my head what I want to exist, so it’s hard to know if it already does exist, or if it would even be possible to create.

Thanks again for your comments!

By: Paul Reimer

Paul Reimer — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:13:06 +0000

Hey Michael,

Great idea. Have you checked out opusmath.com? It’s currently a bank of items aligned to common core 7-8, but promising to grow. They’ve pulled items from Illustrative math, MAP, and Exeter and allow for uploads from users. They also track downloads and votes on each problem and use that number to resort the problems on the page. Users can select items they want to use and export an assignment to google docs. Most of these would probably be considered tasks, depending on your distinction between “task” and “assessment.” For me, that distinction is not always clear.

By: Tina C.

Tina C. — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:41:00 +0000

I love the idea of a searchable database. I’m in!

By: John Burk

John Burk — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:58:10 +0000

Hi Michael, One thing a few teachers built last year was a Phsyics Problem Database. The idea was that you'd be able to upload problems, tag and comment about them, and then be able to search the problems by tag, author etc. You'd then be able to add the problem you choose to a "cart" and then, output the problems in a format of your choosing. We've got a working model at database2.globalphysicsdept.org/public, but we haven't really put it all that many problems, partly because the school year hit and we got to busy to really market it. We also had plans to do a lot more with the database, like being able to upload images of student solutions, and support commentary on those solutions, etc. We also talked about how there isn't any reason we couldn't add math problems to this database. I'd be happy to talk with you further if you are interested.