EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

1. Describe Your School Context I will be teaching a high school algebra course. My classroom will consist of 25 students. Twenty five percent of my students are considered under-achievers. My students show potential but need motivation. I have two students who struggle with reading and have an IEP that allows them to have extended time for taking tests. My school is in a high needs district with a majority of the community being on free or reduced lunch. There is a strong community bond and parents are active within the school. 2. Unit of Study The title of this unit is Solving Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities and is for grade level 9. This unit was planned with the Glencoe Algebra I Illinois Edition book as a reference. The essential questions for this unit include: Which method of solving a system of equations is most efficient and when?, What is the meaning behind the graph of a system of equations and what does it tell us about its solution set?, and How can systems of linear equations be used to model real-world situations? The learning objectives will be: Learning Objective 1: Given a system of equations, students will explain why the system has 0, 1, or infinitely many solutions clearly. Cognitive Process: Understanding. Students grasp the meaning of the information given by the system of equations by interpreting and translating what they have learned in class. They have to classify what type of system they are given and then explain how they know how many solutions it has. Learning Objective 2: Given a graph of a system of equations, students will determine the solution without errors.

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

Cognitive Process: Analyzing. Students must analyze the graph and break the information learned so far in the class into parts to best understand the information. By doing this, students will be able to find the solution(s) of the system of equations. Learning Objective 3: Given a system of equations, students will solve the system by graphing the equations and determining the solution with only minor mistakes in the scaling. Cognitive Process: Applying. Students use their previous knowledge about graphing equations and what the graphs of systems of equations mean and apply it to solve a new system of equations. To lead up to the assessment activity, we will first review what we know about equations of lines. As a warm up, students will graph two or three lines given in slope-intercept form. For some of these equations, they will need to simplify before graphing. We will then discuss our answers as a class to check understanding and review any misconceptions that come up about graphing lines. After the warm up, I will do a short lecture that defines a system of equations as a set of two equations and that a solution of a system of equations is an ordered pair of numbers that satisfies both equations. I will also use this time to define some key vocabulary terms such as consistent, inconsistent, independent and dependent. At this point, I will give a show three different systems of equations along with their graphs. We will have an open class discussion about the class thinks the graphs can tell us. I will ask the following questions to push the class in the right direction: What do you think it means if the lines intersect at one point?, If these lines are the same, what does that tell us about the solution?, and These lines have the same slope. What does that tell us? Do they ever intersect? What does that mean?

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

After reviewing these three kinds of solutions as a class, I will split the class into groups of 2-4 to work on a worksheet together. The worksheet will include several systems of equations with their graphs. They will be asked to determine the number of solutions as well as give the solution. I will be circling around the room to check on student understanding as well as ask questions to individual students. If any students ask intriguing questions, I may bring it up to the entire class to discuss. 3. Assessment During Instruction Activity A. Prepare the assessment a. b. See attachment Question 1 is linked to the second learning objective. They are given different

systems of equations and their graphs and have to determine which system has no solutions based off of the corresponding graph. This question requires students to use the Analyzing level of cognitive complexity. Question 2 is linked to the first learning objective. Although they are not given a system of equations, they have to describe when a system would have infinitely many solutions and then create their own example of a system like this. This question requires the Understanding and Creating levels of cognitive complexity. Question 3 is linked to the third learning objective. Students have to graph a given system of equations to determine and state the solution. This question requires the Applying level of cognitive complexity. Question 4 is linked to the first learning objective. Students have to state how many solutions a system of equations has and explain how they were able to determine this. This question required the Understanding level of cognitive complexity.

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

Question 5 is linked to the second learning objective. Instead of graph a system of equations to determine the solution, the students are given a solution and have to create and graph a system of equations that has that solution. This question is linked to the Applying and Creating level of cognitive complexity. c. d. See attachment Evidence that this assessment is reliable is that it will provide consistent outcomes

if applied to other algebra classes. I could also prove reliability by having students retake this assessment on a separate occasion and see that student get the same score (with the exception of students remembering their answers from before). This assessment is valid because it assess the content and skills that were taught during that days lesson. Each question is directly linked to the learning objectives stated above. Students will be able to use the feedback from this test to check on their understanding and provide me as the teacher with direction on where to go next. A piece of evidence that this assessment is fair is that at the beginning of class we reviewed equations of lines and graphs during the warm up so all students have the same prior knowledge. Allowing students to work in groups in class gives everyone an equal opportunity to discuss with their partners and ask me for help when needed. Having the classroom discussion prior to the assessment gives everyone an opportunity to learn and ask questions instead of me lecturing and not checking on understanding before handing out the worksheet. This assessment also has a variety of question types which will avoid bias in assessment tasks. Students will be allowed to work on the worksheet at home as homework which will provide my students who struggle with reading enough time to finish their work.

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

This assessment is a dependable source of information that can be used to make inference about my students because each question is directly linked to the learning objectives for these lessons. The assessment has questions that can point out misconceptions. For example, in the first question, I am able to determine if students understand that a system of equations has no solutions only when the lines are parallel and have the same slope because I provide incorrect answers that have a solution at (0,0) and one that doesnt intersect in the view scene on the graph but has different slopes. I also ask students to explain their answers for several questions which gives me a chance to check that students actually understand the concepts. This assessment provides equal opportunity to complete and achieve because students are allowed to work in groups and talk with each other as well as ask me questions. Students will also be able to work on it at home so they will have enough time. B. Administer the assessment This assessment activity will take place at the end of the lecture and classroom discussion. Students will have until the end of the period as well as being able to take it home to complete the assessment. Students will work in groups and are allowed to discuss with each other and ask questions. I will also be available to answer questions. I will evaluate student work during class by walking around and checking on students answers as well as asking questions about what students did to find the answer. I will then collect the worksheet the next day to grade their answers. All questions will be graded. I have two students who struggle with reading. For the reading that is involved, I am allowing all students to work with partners. I will place these students with a partner that I know like to help others. This will allow these students to have assistance with reading the questions without singling them out in front of the class. After grading the assessment, I will give it back to my students so they can get feedback on how they are doing in the class. I will also allow them to correct their mistakes so they see the material again instead of

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

just shoving it into their notebook. This assessment will only be graded as Complete or Not Complete. This worksheet is simply for students to check up on their own understanding and communicate with their classmates about the material. I do want students to work on it and complete it so I will mark if they have done it or not. C. Performance Criteria The performance criteria and evidence of understanding in this assessment will be the number of questions a student gets correct as well as their ability to explain their reasoning in their answers. For the first question, students who understand that systems of equations with no solutions are a set of parallel lines may struggle with option b and c but upon looking at the actual equations instead of the graphs, should be able to determine the answer is b. If a student chooses c, I know that they probably understand the concept of it being parallel lines but need to be more careful in examining the problem. If a student chooses d, I will be able to determine that they have a misconception on what no solutions means. If they choose a, then I know they really dont understand the problem. For question 2, I will be able to determine if a student understands that a system has infinitely many solutions only when the lines are the same. Students are required to describe when a system has infinitely many solutions and then give an example. This questions allows me to check on their own understanding and wording of a system like this. It is possible that a student might confuse this solution with no solutions and parallel lines. If I see this, I know that I need to readdress this misconception. For question 3, I am given a chance to check on students understanding of how to graph a system and that the intersection of the lines is the solution. If students give an incorrect answer because they graphed the lines incorrectly, I know that we need to review how to graph equations of lines. If students graph it correctly and label the intersection as the solution, I know they understand this learning objective. Question 4 gives me another chance to check on students understanding of the first learning objective as well as

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

checking that they remember how to simplify equations into slope-intercept form. If a student misses the problem because there was an error in simplifying, I know that we need to review this process. If a student simplifies correctly, they will see that the lines have the same slope but different y-intercepts. They should know that parallel lines have no solutions. Question 5 gives my students a chance to create their own system of equations. They are given a solution and must make equations the intersect at this point. Answering this correctly shows that they understand the material. Possible errors may be that they arent sure how to write the equation of the lines they make. This could be because they forget how to do this or because they made lines that are difficult to label. I expect students who fully understand the concepts to only miss one or two points due to minor errors in calculations but not for conceptual issues. Students who partly understand the material should only miss a couple conceptual questions. Students who are struggling will miss a majority of points which will indicate to me that I need to go over the material with them. As a whole, I expect a class that understands the material to miss an average of only 1-2 points mostly due to calculation errors. If the class partial gets it, I expect them to miss an average of 2-5 points with some of them being calculation errors. If the class doesnt get it, they will struggle during the group work and miss an average of 5-10 points. D. Next Steps If most or all of my students do well on this worksheet, I will feel confident that they understand and have met the learning objectives. At this point, I will move on to the next learning objective in my unit which will deal with using substitution to solve the systems of equations. If I feel a majority of my students are struggling with the concepts and learning objectives, instead of moving on, I will take half or all of the next day to review the concepts. I may determine that they are struggling if several of them miss a lot of the questions or if a majority of them all miss the

EPSY 485

Assessment Project

Nick Koberstein

same question. This will be a signal that something else needs to happen before moving on. During this review, I will lead a classroom discussion and bring up key errors I noticed. I will invite a variety of students to come to the board to show how they get the answers. This will allow students to see a different perspective and way of explaining the method that I may not have been able to get across. 4. Self-Reflection This assignment taught me a lot about the different kinds of assessment questions and how to make them most beneficial to myself and the students. I had heard of all the question types prior to this class but never learned how to get the most out of the question. I believe that learning about the different question types and the different steps in making an assessment is important and effective in helping students learn, however, I do not think that it is always necessary every time you make an assessment. Each of these steps would take a lot of time to develop a manual for the assessment. If we had unlimited time in our class, then I think it would be great. Since we do not have this unlimited time, I think that it may be good for heavily weighted assessments like exams and tests but not as necessary for worksheets and homework. I do think that we should think about these different methods but not always write them down. If I had had more time, I would have loved to have done this assignment while we were in our observations. Then I could have actually tried it out on my students. I would have been able to describe a more accurate classroom and tested my assessment on students been able to see how students do and what mistakes they make. This was probably the biggest obstacle for me. It was difficult to imagine how students would answer some of these problems and what things would be signals that students do or do not understand the material. I think with more experience, I will be able to imagine these outcomes even without a real classroom.