Formative Assessment Using Technology in the Math Classroom
Monique Chatman
University of St. Thomas
Research Professor: Sonia Vasan, Ph. D.
September, 2012
Chapter 1
Introduction
Today’s school system is in transition. Some of the changes are due to economic pressures and a need for graduates who can function in society as good citizens (Franklin & Peat, 2002). The demand for students to perform well on standardized tests is another reason for the shift. Technology has been used in many classrooms to administer formative and summative assessments. According to Franklin & Peat, formative assessments are assessments that happen during the teaching and learning cycle, and are used primarily to help teachers monitor student …show more content…
I believe the teachers at my school would be more willing to try formative assessment if they viewed it as something that was easy for them to incorporate, that is where the technology comes in. There are many software products out that lend themselves to collecting data for assessments through cell phone responses or by logging on to websites such as www.socrative.com, www.polleverywhere.com or www.explorelearning.com, which I learned about in professional development this summer. Teachers would just have to be trained on the software so they could view this software as something that is easy to utilize. I plan to use the students in my class to collect data to show that using technology to implement formative assessment presents better results than formative assessment without technology. These data should get more teachers to try to use technology when doing formative …show more content…
I will use formative assessment with two of my Algebra I classes, one with 27 students and the other with 35 students. In one class, for three weeks, I will use technology to do the formative assessments and in the other class, I will not use technology to do the formative assessments. At the end of three weeks, I will give the classes the same summative assessment. I will compare the summative assessment results of the two classes.
Significance
This study is significant to me a number of reasons. First, as a math specialist, I must support the district initiative to utilize formative assessment in the math classroom more. The district provided each campus with a book on practical ways to implement formative assessment in the math classroom. I attended a professional development workshop this summer where some of the strategies from this book were highlighted. Although these strategies were easy to use and gave teachers valuable feedback; teachers still had take time to go through each student’s paper to gather the feedback. By using technology to perform formative assessment, teachers can save time and still get valuable feedback quickly. The 21st Century student was born using technology to do many things. Technology holds students’ attention and allows them to utilize a means they know to communicate with their teacher. Ideally, the information obtained from this study will encourage
Monique Chatman
University of St. Thomas
Research Professor: Sonia Vasan, Ph. D.
September, 2012
Chapter 1
Introduction
Today’s school system is in transition. Some of the changes are due to economic pressures and a need for graduates who can function in society as good citizens (Franklin & Peat, 2002). The demand for students to perform well on standardized tests is another reason for the shift. Technology has been used in many classrooms to administer formative and summative assessments. According to Franklin & Peat, formative assessments are assessments that happen during the teaching and learning cycle, and are used primarily to help teachers monitor student …show more content…
I believe the teachers at my school would be more willing to try formative assessment if they viewed it as something that was easy for them to incorporate, that is where the technology comes in. There are many software products out that lend themselves to collecting data for assessments through cell phone responses or by logging on to websites such as www.socrative.com, www.polleverywhere.com or www.explorelearning.com, which I learned about in professional development this summer. Teachers would just have to be trained on the software so they could view this software as something that is easy to utilize. I plan to use the students in my class to collect data to show that using technology to implement formative assessment presents better results than formative assessment without technology. These data should get more teachers to try to use technology when doing formative …show more content…
I will use formative assessment with two of my Algebra I classes, one with 27 students and the other with 35 students. In one class, for three weeks, I will use technology to do the formative assessments and in the other class, I will not use technology to do the formative assessments. At the end of three weeks, I will give the classes the same summative assessment. I will compare the summative assessment results of the two classes.
Significance
This study is significant to me a number of reasons. First, as a math specialist, I must support the district initiative to utilize formative assessment in the math classroom more. The district provided each campus with a book on practical ways to implement formative assessment in the math classroom. I attended a professional development workshop this summer where some of the strategies from this book were highlighted. Although these strategies were easy to use and gave teachers valuable feedback; teachers still had take time to go through each student’s paper to gather the feedback. By using technology to perform formative assessment, teachers can save time and still get valuable feedback quickly. The 21st Century student was born using technology to do many things. Technology holds students’ attention and allows them to utilize a means they know to communicate with their teacher. Ideally, the information obtained from this study will encourage