Assessments
Each unit includes a variety of assessments. These assessments are designed for students to show what they know and can do as they engage in the process of learning new concepts and skills.
Readiness Checks / Pre-Unit Checks are an informal assessment to help teachers see which concepts and skills from previous grades need to be bolstered in order for students to be successful.
Quizzes and End-of-Unit Assessments are more formal measures of what students know and can do.
Problems on assessments vary in form and depth of knowledge. Some problems mirror lesson problems, while others ask students to apply their knowledge to new situations.
Students are often asked to explain their thinking or decide and defend an opinion. When possible, problems are designed so that students can approach them from multiple angles and with different strategies.
This approach is intended to assess students’ conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and application as described in the grade-level standards.
Quizzes and End-of-Unit Assessments each have an accompanying rubric. The purpose of the rubric is to support teachers in recognizing what students might understand, especially when their answers do not match the correct responses. For each question, the rubrics show possible responses for four levels of understanding: beginning, developing, approaching, and meeting/exceeding. They also connect each problem to a content standard. Rubrics are aligned to the 4-point grading scale embedded in the assessment grading tool.
Types of Assessment
Formal Assessment
This curriculum includes two types of formal assessments: quizzes and end-of-unit assessments.
Quizzes are typically five problems and assess what students know and can do in part of a unit. End-of-Unit Assessments are summative assessments that are typically seven or eight problems and include concepts and skills from the entire unit.
These include multiple-choice, select all, short answer, and extended response prompts to give students differing opportunities to show what they know and to mirror the types of questions on many current standardized tests.
Informal Assessment
There are several formative assessment tools for teachers and students to use to make adjustments within a unit.
The teacher dashboard paints a picture of the class’s understanding as a whole and highlights opportunities to check in with students individually during or after a lesson. Teachers can also provide feedback with the written feedback tool.
In addition, each lesson includes a cool-down / exit ticket at the end, an opportunity for students to show what they individually understood about the main idea of the lesson. Teachers often use these results, along with the guidance in the teacher tips for each cool-down / exit ticket to plan upcoming lessons.
Before and After Assessments
Practice Days
Each unit includes one or more practice days, a structured opportunity for students to practice what they’ve learned so far in a unit.
These practice days are designed to support collaboration and positive interdependence. There are often multiple ways to facilitate a practice day and we encourage teachers to find ways that work best for their students and their needs.
Opportunities for Reflection
Many teachers use different strategies to encourage students to reflect on what an assessment shows about what they know and can do. These might include allowing revisions and retakes or reviewing assessment in pairs or groups.
Each End-of-Unit Assessment invites students to reflect on the unit, including sharing something they are proud of. Additionally, there is an optional set of reflection and synthesis activities that teachers can choose to do with their students to help them summarize their learning after completing a unit.
Teachers Talk About Assessments
I use the questions on [the readiness checks] early in the unit as a warm-up.
–Keri Miles, Methow Valley School District, Twisp, WA
I use the quiz as a formative assessment that I allow 100% corrections to be made. I use the end assessment as a unit test and only allow 50% corrections to those scoring below 85%—our school's lowest B. Scores can only be brought up to 85%. These are 4 points per problem as graded by the rubric (which I love!)
–Lynne Leutenberg Yulish, Sts. Joseph & John School, Strongsville, OH
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you prescribe a way to grade assessments?
No. Every teacher, school, and district has different ways that they feel are best for assessing what their students know and can do. For those who use standards-based grading, each end–unit assessment includes a rubric that folks may use if they wish.
How do I know what standards each assessment aligns to?
Each assessment includes a summary (available as a PDF or Google Doc) listing the standard(s) each question on the assessment addresses. In addition, the summary for each end–unit assessment includes a grading rubric.
