Numbers to 20

Strand: Number
Outcomes: 4, 5, 6

Step 4: Assess Student Learning

Guiding Questions

Look back at what you determined as acceptable evidence in Step 2.
What are the most appropriate methods and activities for assessing student learning?
How will I align my assessment strategies with my teaching strategies?

Sample Assessment Tasks

In addition to ongoing assessment throughout the lessons, consider the following sample activities to evaluate students' learning at key milestones. Suggestions are given for assessing all students as a class or in groups, individual students in need of further evaluation and individual or groups of students in a variety of contexts.

A. Whole Class/Group Assessment

Note: Performance-based assessment tasks are under development.

Tell students, "A classroom has 18 desks. The teacher is trying to arrange them in rows. Can you help her by drawing a picture of how she can arrange the desks? Are there other ways to arrange the desks? How do you know?"
Tell students, "In my bowl, I have apples and bananas. There are 14 pieces of fruit altogether. How many apples are there? Draw a picture of the fruit. Are there other possibilities?"
In groups of four students, give students interlocking cubes. Give a variety of directions that use more or less and have students build towers; e.g.,
- Build a tower that is one more than 11.
- Build a tower that is two less than nine.
- Build a tower that is two more than 18.
- Challenge students by saying, "What number do you think is one less than 15? Let's build a tower and see."

B. One-on-One Assessment

Assessment activities can be used with individual students, especially students who may be having difficulty with the outcome.

Ask individual students, "I was counting objects in our classroom. I counted exactly 18 of the same thing. What could I have been counting? Tell me why. What are some things I could not have been counting? Why could they not be the objects I was counting?"

Fill a plastic foam cup or another container with cubes. The cup should hold almost 20 cubes. Show it to the student and then ask, "How many cubes do you think are in the container?" Have the student count the cubes. Then ask, "Are there more cubes or fewer cubes than you predicted?"

C. Applied Learning

Provide opportunities for students to use their number strategies in a practical situation and notice whether or not the strategies transfer.

Ask students to tell you whether or not statements such as the following are true or false.

There are 18 students in our class.
There are more boys than girls in our class.
Johnny is missing 12 teeth.
When we go out to recess, there are fewer children on the playground than we have in our class.
Our teacher is able to carry 13 books.
My mom can wear 12 pairs of shoes at once.
My mom owns 15 pairs of shoes.
It is more than 12 steps to walk across the classroom.
A hockey stick costs less than $20.
A Barbie doll costs more than $20.

Related Resources

Assessment in the Mathematics