Using Google Forms for Assessment

I don't know that I'll ever use Google Forms for formal assessments, but I'm experimenting with it for formative assessment. Instead of giving my Honors Math III a study guide for Exponential Growth (feel free to take it and see the feedback you get), I created this Google Form (feel free to take it). I used Super Quiz to automatically grade it and email results. I then used Flubaroo to do the same thing. The set up for both is pretty similar.

Super Quiz
Pros:

1. Real-time feedback.
2. Customizable Feedback
3. Customizable Grade (with some tinkering) to reflect SBG level.
4. Lot's of data

Cons:

1. Students didn't know which questions they got wrong.
2. Feedback not so pretty--somewhat convoluted for a student to read.

Flubaroo

Pros:

1. Real-time feedback if autograding is turned on.
2. Feedback is visual and provides the question and response.
3. Customizable points per question.
4. Streamlined data

Cons:

1. Can't create (yet?) customizable SBG level.

Neither will attach the images that went along with the questions. I think, to be more effective, I'll still print them on paper and hand them out, then let them fill in their answers on Google Forms. That way, they can see the questions, answer choices, and their answer. There is also an option for giving them the answer key, but where's the fun in that?

I'm thinking about (long-term) making one of these for each skill. Students can't take the formal assessment until they make Level 2 (3?) on the practice. I also want to be able to write a Google Script that will randomize the values for the questions.

Chromebook Pilot, Week 2, Thursday

2nd Period:
Another assessment today: vertex form
Graded yesterday's assessment on solving by factoring.

I'm hopeful about these grades, but not counting my chickens. This is a skill they had seen before, but it was also the first skill they'd done online. 13/17 had A's or B's. Hoping I can grade today's assessments this afternoon.

Class itself was uneventful. As they finished their assessments, they finished anything unfinished and began on this cool assignment on transformations with complex numbers from . It's due for homework. It was a shortened period.

3rd Period:
I stayed fairly busy and had 17 kids working on 5 different assignments. That is a definite pro about having my website ready to go and access to the Chromebooks.

• A student who had zoned out the last 2 days went back to trying and asked for lots of help. He's a smart kid, but chooses when he wants to try to understand. He started over on Monday's lesson and seemed to have it by the end. I need to call home and see if we can get him to be more consistent.
• A student who had been "out" the last 10 days returned today. He's also a smart kid, but he makes poor decisions. He took this class last year, passed it and the EOC exam, but failed because of absences. Two days before his vacation, I had let him begin working ahead in the text. The idea was that he would let me know when he was ready to assess, and we'd go from there. When he finished our curriculum before everyone else, I was going to begin going over Math II with him.
• Another student had been missing the last 3 days returned. She was working on all sorts of skills that she is behind on. She somehow took Math II as a Freshman and is now taking Math I. So, sometimes she picks things up real quick, but her foundation is really weak. She also has issues with attendance. She has some reassessments to take, which I mentioned to her. She said she took one last week and tried to turn it in to me, but that I said I didn't need it. That's entirely possible. It's hard for me to remember this morning.
• The rest of the class were working on various things from the 3 main skills we'd done this week (including the one we started today--Addition and Subtraction of Polynomials).

4th Period:

Short and uneventful. They finished up Systems of Inequalities and began Addition and Subtraction of Polynomials. I had another student tell me that she understands the format and understands the material from the videos. Yay! Grading their assessments from yesterday now, but I don't expect the success that 2nd block had because we were so jumbled up and they had so much drama with the crying and all. I'll post it anyway.

3rd and 4th grades on Solving Systems of Equations:

	A's	B's	C's	D's	F's	Average:	Median:
3rd Block - Math I	1	5	2	3	2	66.2	70
4th Block - Honors Math I	6	5	0	0	2	78	89

SBG and Power of Words

I should be going to bed, but I was thinking about how I present standards-based grading. One thing has been gnawing on me since one of my admins asked me something. She was asking where I considered proficiency to be within my SBG. She and another science teacher started it last year and she's giving a PD to volunteers next week. I have a 4-point scale. We have a 10-point grading scale. I used a book by Marzano to come up with this scale 2 years ago and I'm happy with it. Do I consider proficient to be level 2? Level 3? Level 4? Does it change per student? Is it universal? I go with level 3. That's mid-B level work. Level 4 is 100%. Level three and a little understanding of application gets them to an A. I'm totally cool with that (though alternate viewpoints are welcome).

But. BUT. BUT!

I don't think I've expressed to my students how much this 4-point scale means to me and how much thought I put into it. Additionally, I use the carrot of "reassessment" waaaay too much (to ease the pressure). My link for them to request even says "Reassess". I think I need to make a major point of expressing how I came up with the 4-point scale and why the scale is important (and not necessarily the grade). I need to have them define what proficient and mastery means to them. I also need to make a change in vocabulary from "reassessment opportunities" to "opportunities to further knowledge" or some such. (It does need to be short enough to make a good bitly.) The reassessment will come as a natural progression. I'm really hoping that these rubric for each skill will eliminate a good portion of reassessments (or at least the mandatory ones for D's and F's) and that it will create a natural path for "opportunities to further knowledge" (or some such).

"Learning Ops"?
"Re-learning Ops"?
"Extra man"?
"Continuing Learning Ops?"
"Do Over"

I need help here. I'm certainly open to suggestions below.

Chromebook Pilot, Week 2, Wednesday

Phew! Today was pretty quiet. I gave each class an assessment at the beginning of class. These are the first assessments since we got the Chromebooks, but they didn't have the rubrics for skills last week. Not really sure what to expect. The assessments follow the note packets, so I expect the go-getters to do great and the middle kids to do middling, and, well, you know. I am more excited to assess on the things we did this week with the Chromebooks AND rubrics (and a few more days doing it under our belts). I will try to grade and post the results broken down so that I can track them.

2nd Period - Honors Math III
We had an assessment. I had a typo on the Level 4 problem. I stopped the test, wrote the correction on the board and told everyone to correct it right then. Of course, I noticed at least two kids who didn't change it. It was factoring, so they were fighting an unwinnable battle.

After the assessment, they worked on Arithmetic with Complex Numbers. When all tests were in, I called over 4 students who have struggled here and there so we could do the video together. I also called over the girl who felt like she wasn't getting enough support. She remained silent the whole class and she left the chocolate I gave the five of them on her desk when she left. Hey, I'm not above bribes...

I liked having the direct instruction with these students. They need it. But, because of time restrictions, I wasn't able to have group discussions about today's lesson. We are continuing it tomorrow, so I'll give a bell ringer to assess where they are, but we also have an assessment and class is cut 15 minutes short for the Powderpuff game. I guess I'm going to keep doing this with them for a week or two until they get comfortable with watching the videos and knowing when and how to ask questions.

I've told two students that I will make a mini-project for them to assess Arc Length and Sector Area. They get it in class and one-on-one, but space out when they assess. Part of my two-year plan is to have one hands-on application per week and one alternative assessment per week. I'm also going to phase in blogging and/or YouTube videos. I might wait till the Spring for that. I have all Math I's and all of this foundation work will be (mostly) complete.

3rd Period - Math I

They had an assessment. It was really brief. I'll be honest. I delayed assessments last week because I didn't want to stress them (and myself) out any more than adding the Chromebooks. Also, my dad is coming in this weekend, so I won't be able to spend the 10-20 hours that I have been on my laptop. I didn't want to give two classes 3 assessments on Graphing, Substitution, and Elimination and another assessment on Friday, so I gave them this. When they were done, they continued Systems of Linear Inequalities from yesterday. We began Ohio Jones (which they usually love). I was able to get with three students for remediation on graphing lines in slope-intercept form.

4th Period - Honors Math I

They had the same assessment as 3rd. Also continued Systems of Linear Inequalities. We jumped into Ohio Jones about 10 minutes after everyone was finished with their tests. I corrected a few misconceptions (have to remember to get pictures!). Towards the end of class, a few began to grumble about homework and it taking too long and Church and Soccer and going to the Movies. I shut them down quick! The bellyaching from that class is really starting to wear on my nerves. I told them I didn't want to spend another day on this skill. I didn't really want to spend two. I asked who needed to practice again tomorrow and they all said they know it. I agreed and gave them the option of finishing their practice problems or finishing Ohio Jones. They also have to complete their Application problems and finish their rubric for Friday's test on Linear Inequalities. At least they ask about homework. I neglected to tell 3rd Period the same...

First Email Exchange

First, a few pics of my inspiration for this. I should mention that I am a minimalist at heart and could deal with this room, as is, forever. I know, though, that the kids can't stand it.

My first reply to Abby:

How's this for a start? I answered in-line in some bluish-purplish color. I am color blind. 

On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 10:48 PM, Abby Roza; wrote:

Hi Ben- The posts are a great place to start and you have a neat idea. 

My initial questions are these:

Do you have a vision for what the final task/ project outcome would look like?

The final task/project would look like a crazily painted room as each group will be given (somewhat) carte blanche for their area. I'll post pictures of what it looks like now on the blog. Speaking of which, do you have any interest in co-blogging this with me? You could start a sister-site or give me stuff to post on mine. Just an idea. Seriously, though, I think you'll get your answer more fully several questions below.

How much time do you want students to spend on the unit?

I was thinking of doing this for several units. Our state (LA) outlined the following units for Algebra I:

1. Solving Single-variable Equations and Inequalities
2. Linear Equations and Inequalities
3. Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities
4. Evaluating Functions
5. Linear and Exponential Functions
6. Arithmetic with Polynomials
7. Solving Quadratic Equations
8. Quadratic Functions
9. Radical Functions
10. Piecewise Functions
11. Bivariate Statistics
12. Univariate Statistics

I can definitely see using this to entirely teach Units 1-3 and maybe even Unit 4, too. I don't foresee there ever being a year where I finish all 12 Units. Honestly, we'll probably only get through Unit 8 this year. I try to touch on some of the other stuff throughout the year. Ideally, I'd love to find projects for the rest, too. I have a pretty good quadratic project, but let's cross one bridge at a time.

My gut feeling, which may be wrong, is that the students (partly because they haven't done PBL before) will need lots of structure to be successful. (Many of these structures were addressed in the webinar - the benchmarks and check ins, the playlists, the small group lessons). Do you think so?

I think that structure is definitely needed. The question is what kind of structure. I would love for the vast majority of skills to be learned via exploration with maybe a few nudges. I don't expect them to figure out how to solve systems of equations algebraically, but I think I can be structure where they can figure out a lot of stuff on their own. That aside, structure is definitely needed (for me!) to keep them on task and moving forward. I think we should come up with a list of "things" we need for each unit and each sub unit. Off of the top of my head:

For each unit:

• Skills lists.
• Rubrics
• Tasks
• Pre-knowledge Assessments
• Review/scaffolding (flipped...?)
• Student (and teacher) checklists

For each sub unit (or skill)

• Practice
• Assessments
• Learning Resources
• Notes
• Videos
• Interactive Websites (Desmos, etc.)
• Opportunities for writing/explaining
• Blogs
• Job quotes
• Emails
• Summaries
• Tutorials
• Discussion Board
• Remediation and Enrichment

 Where are you with thinking what this might look like? 

Ha! I wish it were that easy. That's why I've been trying to find someone to do this with. My vision: From Day 1, they are given the task at hand: painting my room or making a garden or building picnic tables (fund raiser?). There are activities that help them review or explore operations with signed numbers. They need to submit a quote for the job showing all costs for parts and labor. They would have another document for their team showing profit, etc. Parts of these would double as an introduction to writing and solving 1-step equations and be a great segway to 2-step equations. They would research not only prices of materials to buy, but justify why their choices are the best choices. They would create graphs, for example, showing quotes for painting different types and areas (doors, interior, exterior, corners, trim, etc.). We could also incorporate statistics into this for averages, etc. From here, it should be pretty "easy" to provide (or have them provide) certain constraints, creating systems of both equations and inequalities to solve. I think that functions and function notation (Unit 4) could probably be interwoven throughout, leaving just a little (if any) at the end.

Each step along the way would contain practice problems for fluency as well as other application problems. I would want to give paper assessments to make sure that the project knowledge was being translated to other applications as well as the "abstract" algebra.

The last post mentions flipping your classroom. Have you been doing that? How much? 

I am currently flipping the remedial algebra community college course that I teach. It's bare bones right now, and I am about to grade their first assessment, but I like it and can't wait to improve upon it. I need to see how they do and how they feel about it.

Last and most important question - How could I be involved? What would be a role for me that would be helpful for you?

How do you want to be involved? I'll take anything and everything, from getting help to being help. I think that two minds are definitely better than one, so you can help in whatever way you feel comfortable. Our students are different and will need different things. What I want to do is create a framework suitable to many projects. Kind of plug-and-play.

August seems like a good timeline to me. 

Yay!!! Butterflies!!! 

Abby

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 8:28 AM, Benjamin Morris wrote:

Check these three posts out. I've done some more mental processing since then, but this is a good start.

1. http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html

2. http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/2013/12/cementing-details.html

3. http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-am-still-cementing-ideas-for-teaching.html

I started blogging about it, but this is as far as I got. I need someone to keep me progressing. My goal would be to have it ready to go for August...

On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 12:57 AM, Abby Roza wrote:

Hi Benjamin,

I was on the GMD webinar tonight and was intrigued by your note that you have a PBL idea for algebra you'd like to collaborate on. I would very much be interested in hearing more, both about your idea and how you'd like to collaborate. 

I also want to note that I don't have much experience designing or implementing project based learning. (But I'm eager! and hard working!)

I currently teach Adult Basic Education to Adults. The new GED is a goal for many of my students. It is heavy on Algebra and many of my students either did not take or did not understand Algebra in K-12, so I am guessing the math content I teach would mesh well with what you are considering for the project's content. 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Abby

Getting the ball rolling...

I attended the BigMarker webinar "Project-Based Learning for Mathematical Practices" hosted by Zack Miller and Kyle Moye on Tuesday, 2/4/2015. It was great to hear some more ideas on project-based curriculum and instruction and it really got my mind churning. I offered up my email address to anyone who might want to collaborate and was lucky to be approached by Abby Roza. We have decided to start forging through this process. Other volunteers are more than welcome. For the next several posts, I'm going to simply cut and paste our email conversations to show our thought process. Once we start compiling deliverables, etc., I will post those. Check out my previous posts for the intro to this idea.

1. http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html

2. http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/2013/12/cementing-details.html

3. http://benjaminclaymorris.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-am-still-cementing-ideas-for-teaching.html

My Plan - February 12, 2012

This one should be brief. If you don't know about standards-based grading, check out this link. Warning: be prepared to spend HOURS reading through all of the links, and links to those links, and... be sure to read the comments and go to those links, too.

I am already 5 weeks into the semester (block schedule) of Geometry and just started reading about SBG last week (I don't know how it took soooo long!). I don't have a clear enough picture to go into it full-fledged, and our district grading policy doesn't leave room--currently...

Soooo... I'm going to do a hybrid version.

• I'm going to keep teaching the order of the text, which isn't a big deal, because it's a good text. I'm going to, for now, use the chapters as the topics, and break them down into skills. Each student will get a skill list to track their progress and we'll assess what we've learned every other day, and remediate the days in between.

• I think, for now, I'm going to designate every Friday as a remediation/enrichment day. We usually have a vocab and skills quiz on Friday anyway. The remaining time will be used for students to go back and master prior skills. There will be several resources available: our textbook website and video tutors; google; Accelerated Math cards; geogebra; notes/textbook; peer tutoring; me; and anything else I can think of. I'm going to give questionnaires for the first several weeks so students (and I) can pinpoint how they learn best. Then, we'll begin to make individualized plans to meet each student's goals.

• There will be chapter tests (organized by skill) and the students will be able to reassess specific skills. I am going to use the form someone was nice enough to post (I have to start writing down sources!) for reassessment as well as diligently looking for/constructing as many project/activity-based lessons as possible.

I don't know how much I will actually get done. It's going to be an experiment and will definitely be fluid. I am set on taking as much time as needed to plan and to get things organized and am prepared for things to be a little chaotic. My main goal is the organization and communication, though. I want students to see what they need to learn and want to learn it. I'll take what I learned this semester and cement it into a full-fledged plan for the fall. My question is, if the school board doesn't bite on SBG, how do I implement it into an 'averaged' grade-scale? I have some ideas (25% of skills by end of qtr1, 50% by qtr 2, etc.), but those are work arounds that don't achieve what SBG is capable of.

Any thoughts, suggestions, comments, questions, please let me know below.

Here we go again!

I haven't been this excited since my first year teaching! I'm about to redesign my classroom teaching methods from the floor up! For some reason, after 7 years teaching, I didn't hear about standards-based grading (SBG) until Fall '11. And I didn't really read about it until last week. Since then, I've been obsessed.

I'm doing it. I have to. My motivation for teaching has fizzled because nothing I have done has been nearly as successful as I thought it would. I've tried implementing various teaching strategies, but to no avail. My kids, on average, accomplish no more and no less than they had previously. It made me rethink my job choice several times. SBG makes so much sense and is so simple fundamentally, that I'm embarrassed I haven't thought of it before. I want to thank all of the bloggers who have posted soooooo much information on the ins and outs of implementing SBG. It started off with my clicking one link, and opening new tabs to the other links and so-on and so-forth until, probably 20 hours later, I have a feeling I kind of know how I am going to start.

I've decided to blog to share for anyone who cares to read. I'll try to link to all of the places I've been, but I've been to soooo many, that probably won't be possible.

I would like this blog to be an informational overview for parents, students, colleagues, and administration as I work my way to doing a strict SBG approach. I know there will be some mental hurdles as well as administrative hurdles, but I am AMPED!

So, to conclude this post, please bear with me as I try to sort through the seemingly endless ideas in my head. Also, please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Ben Morris, Mathematics and Engineering

Lakeview High School

Campti, LA

Next up: My initial plan!