Assessments / Proficiency's / Tests

As always I let students re-take proficiency's as many times as needed or wanted.  The requirement is that they come in and study with me and I give them similar problems to those they missed. (We have an hour long lunch with no duties so this is the time we use) Sometimes if I know the student can find and correct mistakes I let them. This process had been pretty vague just re-work them on another sheet.

 A large standard in 6th grade is 6.NS.1 dividing fractions.  Within this unit test students also had review on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.  I decided to dedicate a class to letting all students try to find their mistakes. Fractions are one of the most difficult topics to teach well! I believe I could teach an entire year on just fractions. We reviewed common rules (Rules aren't my favorite, but time is limited and they'd also been exposed to the content conceptually).

 Each student was then given the cover sheet attached at left.  As you can see they had to state the problem, make a correction, and explain their errors.

While this wasn't my favorite cover sheet it was the first I found on the internet, I have one I like better in a file somewhere.  (I'll see if I can dig it out and attach it)

Overall this was a very positive experience for my students. As you can see the explanations here are basic, but not bad for a 6th grader. I did have a handful of I don't know what I did wrong answers, but I believe students had to go back and think.  This was evident by many working for almost 40 minutes straight with no distractions.

My special ed. kids also participated except they did it in their resource room classroom and many could use a calculator to correct their errors.   I believe I will make this sheet standard in my classroom as it is very direct and straight forward.  I still will require re-takes on certain problems if I have to help them a lot to fill out the form, but as evident by the 6th grade work they were beginning to become on the right track.