Setting the Foundation for Success with Beginning of Year Math Assessments

As educators, we know that a strong foundation is the key to success in any subject. When it comes to math, building upon the essential concepts from the previous grade level is crucial for students to thrive in their current grade level standards. That's why I'm so excited to present to you these Beginning of Year Math Assessments for Grades 2, 3, and 4.

These assessments not only provide teachers with an immediate baseline of their students' abilities but also serve as a valuable tool to reinforce essential skills while establishing rules, routines.

In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of using these assessments and shed light on the importance of focusing on foundational concepts and classroom dynamics at the start of the year.

Baseline Assessment:

Understanding where your students stand at the beginning of the year is vital for effective planning and instruction. These Beginning of Year Math Assessments serve as a comprehensive tool to evaluate your students' grasp of the previous grade level's Common Core Math Standards. By identifying areas of strength and weakness, you gain valuable insights into your students' needs, allowing you to tailor your teaching strategies accordingly.

Strengthening Foundational Concepts:

These Beginning of Year Assessments for Grades 2, 3, and 4 specifically target the essential skills and knowledge from the previous grade level. By revisiting and reinforcing the concepts that students struggle with, you can solidify your students' foundation in mathematics and make learning current grade level standards go quickly and smoothly. In my classroom, I like to use the first few weeks to review previous grade level content I know students need extra support with, build strong number sense, and strengthen classroom procedures and routines.
After administering the assessment, you're provided with Small Group Planning sheets that specifically target what extra support your students need based off the questions answered incorrectly. This is a great way to begin small group instruction in your classroom and building those routines and expectations.

Establishing Rules, Routines, and Procedures:

The beginning of the school year is an opportune time to establish a positive classroom environment and set clear expectations for your students. Focusing on rules, routines, and procedures lays the groundwork for a productive learning atmosphere for the rest of the year. Our Beginning of Year Math Assessments can be seamlessly integrated into your classroom routines, allowing you to incorporate essential review activities while emphasizing the importance of structure and discipline. By dedicating time to these foundational elements, you create a solid framework that will support your students' progress throughout the year.
Want to read more about routines and procedures? Check out this blog post.

Parent Collaboration:

Effective communication with parents is vital for student success. With our Beginning of Year Math Assessments, you can engage in proactive discussions with parents, providing insights into their child's strengths and areas that may require additional support. By sharing assessment results and highlighting specific skill areas, you enable parents to be active partners in their child's education. This collaborative approach fosters a strong home-school connection, setting the stage for continued support and growth throughout the academic year.

These Beginning of Year Math Assessments offer teachers a valuable resource to assess student abilities, reinforce foundational concepts, and establish a positive classroom environment. By utilizing these assessments, you can gain valuable insights into your students' needs, develop targeted instruction plans, and collaborate effectively with parents. Remember, a strong foundation sets the stage for success in mathematics and beyond. Start the year right with our comprehensive assessments and unlock your students' full potential.

If you'd like to start your school year off on the right foot, you can purchase your Beginning of Year Assessments here OR save this post to come back later.

Aloha,

12 Ways to Quickly Check for Student Understanding

Teachers around the world are picking up the pieces and filling in learning gaps caused by school closures, distance learning, and concurrent teaching. Students haven’t had a normal school year in 3 years. Sadly, this means a loss of learning time for many and teachers are having to fill in those gaps and address those needs. 

Despite planning stellar lessons to teach your grade-level standards we must not forget about checking for student understanding. This simple act of checking up on learning throughout your teaching will make a huge difference in your students getting it. Let me say it now...Do NOT worry about your pacing. Instead, worry about making sure that your students understand what you are teaching. It’ll all pay off in the end, I promise. 

Let’s dive into different ways on HOW to check for student understanding.

Turn and Talk - Turn and talks are so powerful because they can be used with any subject in so many different ways. You can pose a question to students such as "share with your partner what you think the main idea of this paragraph is and why". You can have them solve a problem independently then share with their partner how they solved it and why. You can have them explain a concept that was just taught.

As students are sharing with their peers, you can walk around the room to listen to their conversations. You may pop into some of them to ask follow-up or clarifying questions. Depending on how students respond, this gives you an idea of their level of understanding.

While walking around, be sure to jot down quick notes about what you're observing!

Click here to get this observation sheet.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down- Teach students to put their heads down for this one (to avoid them looking around and copying others) OR have them place their thumbs by their heart so only you can see them. Pose different questions to your kids and have them give you thumbs up or down.

You could also use this one to get a gauge of student understanding after introducing new concepts. Thumbs up if this is making sense and you feel confident. Thumbs sideways if it kind of makes sense and you need a little extra practice. Thumbs down if you are confused and need more help.

*This of course will take talking to your students beforehand. Let your students know that it is OKAY if they don't understand and give you a thumbs down. If they aren't honest with you (and themselves) you won't be able to help them. Let them know that nobody else knows what they're showing you. Teach your kiddos to keep their thumbs showing until you tell them (to give you enough time to write down who needs extra help).

Whiteboard Checks- Whiteboard checks are great to use for math. Have students solve problems (teach them to hold their boards down while they write), then have them hold it towards their chest with the back of the board facing out. This is your cue that they are done. When most of your students have their answers completed, you can have them flip their boards and hold it above their heads. You can do a quick scan to see who got the answer correct and who didn't.

Jot down notes about how students are doing. Again, you can use a checklist like the one shown for student observations to mark how kids are doing with the concept. You can choose to make 5-6 kids at a time for each problem.

Whiteboard checks also pair well with task cards. This helps you to not have to think up of the problems. It can also be utilized well with multiple choice questions for longer answers like ELA.

Pinch Cards- Pinch cards are great to get quick snapshots of student learning. You can use double-sided pinch cards so that you have a variety of question types that you can use. True/False, ABCD, Yes/NO, Agree/Disagree.

If you're interested in the pinch cards shown above, click here.

Quick Checks/Exit Passes- Assign quick exit passes to your students to check for understanding of the day's lesson. Use these quick checks to determine what you will cover in tomorrow's lesson and/or to determine your small groups.

Utilizing Exit Passes like this will truly help you to avoid serious intervention issues later on. Your pacing may get slowed down, but it's better than keeping up with pacing and then later finding out that half your class do not understand what was taught in the last month!

I am currently in the process of creating these Quick Check Assessments for every single Grade 3 Math Standard. You can pick up what I have completed so far here.

Be sure that you are following me on Instagram and TPT so that you can be notified when I post new resources (and Quick Checks). Any time I post something new, I will ALWAYS mark it down 50% off for the first 24 hours!

Graphic Organizers- Graphic Organizers are a great way to assess reading comprehension! It's a quick snapshot to see if students are understanding the various comprehension strategies.

I have a ton of Comprehension Graphic Organizers readily available for you. The best thing about them is that there are both printable and digital options available.

Frayer Model- Yes, I know. Technically the Frayer model is a graphic organizer, but I felt this one needed to be a stand alone option. This is great because you can have students show their understanding in a variety of ways. You can truly see the understanding or lack of understanding through the various ways of representing something.

DLIQ- This is another great Exit Pass. This comes in the form of a Graphic Organizer. Students fill out each section below:

To get a copy of this DLIQ sheet, click here.

Whip Around- Whip Around and Pass works well for anything that can be answered with a quick response. You can decide if you want to allow students the opportunity to pass or not.

This works great with math facts, phonics practice, reading of sight words, etc. You can have a list on display, whip around the room and point to a different word, problem, or sound. Students must quickly respond then it's on to the next student.

This is a fun one that students often feel like it's a game. I used to time how long it would take us, and they would set goals to beat their previous records!

Hashtag it- Hand out sticky notes to students have them come up with hashtags for certain concepts. For example, you might ask them to hashtag multiplication. They might come up with #equalgroups #repeatedaddition #arrays #rowsandcolumns

As they exit the room, they can submit their sticky note (be sure to include names) so that you can quickly and easily see if they understand the concept.

Observations- Similar to the turn and talks, you would want to have some type of checklist to use while observing students. You could conduct observations while students are working independently (watch how their solving problems), listen in on conversations, observe them working on the computer, etc and take notes of what you notice.

Share Out- Have students share their thinking! This gives you so much insight into their own understanding of certain concepts. You can ask follow up questions to really dig deeper at student understanding. This is so much more powerful than a paper pencil test because you can truly see conceptual understanding through students sharing aloud their thinking and reasonings.

Regardless of how you choose to formatively assess your students, make sure you are doing it on a daily basis! In addition, make sure it's quick and easy so that you're actually able to check those assignments and use it to inform instruction for the following day. 
If you use any of these ideas, freebies or resources offered in this post, I would LOVE for you to share it and tag me on Instagram @teachinginparadise .. It would truly make my day :) 

Save for Later!

Don't want to forget about these tips? Pin the image below to save for later. 

Until Next Time...Aloha!

How to Teach Rounding to 3rd Graders

Hey, there fellow 3rd Grade Teacher Friend!!

Whether you're new to the grade level or just need some extra tips on teaching Gr.3 Math, I'm here to support you with tips, ideas, and resources to best address your Math Standards!

Did you know that most of the math content taught in 3rd grade is brand new concepts for your students? For the first time ever, many students tend to struggle with math because they're learning everything for the first time! I'll be updating this blog frequently to share some tips with you on teaching these tricky math standards!

Before we begin though, I did want to share this important resource with you. Use this as a guide to know what your critical math content is and where you should spend the most of your time and focus on in instruction.

Let’s jump in and talk Rounding: 3.NBT.1.

 

First things first, Rounding is NOT a critical skill for 3rd Grade. I would not spend any longer than 1 week (max) focusing on this skill. Students WILL need to know and understand how to round in the 4th grade (they will round to larger place values).

Now, I want you to forget about all prior ways of teaching rounding you may have used in the past. 

• Rounding Mountain

• The Roller Coaster

• Any cute songs or poems about “5 or more raise the score…” or “underling the digit you’re rounding to, look next door”

ALL OF IT! 

What is Rounding?

Engage in discussion with students about what it means to round. They must understand that rounding means estimating a number's value by finding the nearest ten or hundred.

Then, you'll want to talk about instances when a student might use rounding.

Before Teaching:

Before teaching, make sure that students can skip count by 10s. Continue to skip count well into the hundreds so that students can see/hear the patterns (110, 120, 130, 140…..210, 220, 230, 240, etc). 

The Simplest Way to Teach Rounding:

Number lines are the best way for students to visually see and understand what a number will round to. 

I’ve created this number line that can be used for Rounding to the Nearest 10 and 100. Before teaching, all you need to do is print a double-sided copy for each student and place them in a sheet protector. Each child will have their own to work from. They can simply use an expo marker to practice and then erase.

1. Ask students what two 10s the number is in between. Label it on the number line.

2. Ask students what the halfway point between those two 10s is. 

3. Ask students where the number they are rounding falls on the number line? Is it before or after the midway point? Plot it.

4. Students can then visually see which 10 the number is closest to. 

You would follow this same procedure for rounding to the nearest 100. 

This method is so simple, yet so effective! Have kids hold their “boards” up so that you can do a quick scan around the room to check for accuracy. The best thing about this strategy is that eventually, students will begin to visualize that number line in their heads and will no longer need to draw it out! 

Guided Practice

Rounding is so easy because you can literally throw out ANY number for students to practice with. BUT, if you want something consistent and all the answers figured out for you, I’ve got a set of Rounding Task Cards for you available in print form OR a Digital Google Form (best thing about this is that it self grades for you!) If you want to save 10%, you can pick up both items in this bundle.

I also have these Quick Check Formative Assessments in my store for use with ALL of your Grade 3 NBT Standards.

For more tips, tricks, ideas and FREEBIES specifically geared towards 3rd Grade - be sure to subscribe to my exclusive 3rd Grade Teacher Email List! 

Unit next time! Aloha,

Grade 3 End of Year Math Assessment Pack and an INSTA-GIVEAWAY!

Hi Everyone!

Just a quick post to pop in and share something that I've been working on. Since the year is slowly coming to a close, I decided to create an assessment that I could use to see where my 3rd graders were and find out what they do and do not know based off of CCSS. 

I created this assessment pack with the intent to assess my kids on each domain. Each test presents the children with several opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge for each standard. All Grade 3 CCSS standards are included in this pack…

Head to my TPT store to check it out- I also have a preview file that you can download if you'd like to see a sampling of what's included. 

I'm currently giving away a FREE copy on my instagram! Head on over to enter. I will be choosing a winner on Wednesday 3/12 at 8 PM Hawaii Time. 

Grade 3 Math Pre Assessment aligned to Grade 2 CCSS

This post is for all of you grade 3 readers out there..I guess it could also be used by 2nd grade teachers as well. While I was sick, I created a pre-assessment to give my students that contains *most of the grade 2 CCSS. I left out the measurement standards because I mainly wanted to check up on their basic skills. In the past, I have found that my students are so weak in their basic addition/subtraction facts and place value. Many don't know how to subtract with borrowing. Is this just me or do you all see this in your new third graders?? In the past, we've always given a pre assessment that contained all of the standards the kiddos needed to learn for their third grade year. This was just a huge, overwhelming test! Instead,I'd like to give them the opportunity for them to show me what they DO know. Plus, this will really help me in the first few weeks of teaching as I'm getting to know them as mathematicians.
2nd grade teachers could also use this to see what their kids know coming in..and can use the same test as a post-test. This test is available in my tpt store. First one to comment this post wins a free copy!!
The test covers the following:
Place Value
Standard/expanded form
Time and Money
Word Problems
Adding and subtracting within 1000
Mentally adding and subtracting 10 or 100 to a given number
comparing numbers
basic fractions
number patterns/skip counting
even and odd