Math Coach’s Corner Blog
The Formative 5: Chapter 4, Hinge Questions
"...the success of a lesson actually hinges on responses to such questions as an indication of whether students understand enough to move on. " The Formative 5, page 85 This post contains affiliate links, which simply means that when you use my link and purchase a...
The Formative 5: Chapter 3, Show Me
"Show Me is interactive in that its use can provide an indication as to the extent to which what has been taught has been learned. " The Formative 5, page 63 This post contains affiliate links, which simply means that when you use my link and purchase a product, I...
Making Sense of Rounding
Have you ever thought that maybe people who think they are not good at math really have just never been taught math in a way that makes sense to them? Personally, I think that's behind a lot of our math problems. Take rounding for example. We teach kids a complicated...
The Formative 5: Chapter 2, Interviews
"A brief one-on-one or small group interview has the potential to yield cues regarding particular mathematical challenges, misconceptions, shallow understanding, and cues for next steps instructionally." The Formative 5, page 47 This post contains affiliate links,...
The Formative 5: Chapter 1, Observations
"...observation, while perhaps the most informal and readily used of the five formative assessment techniques presented, is both taken for granted and, at least to an extent, the least understood of the five techniques." The Formative 5, page 23 This post contains...
Easy 3- and 4-Digit Place Value Game
Looking for an easy, yet powerful, 3- and 4-digit place value game? Well, I've got something for you today! Build the Biggest is my version of a well-known place value game. Players roll a number cube and must decide where to place each digit in their number, or if...
The Formative 5: Why Formative Assessment? Issues and Opportunities
"Included among the understandings that encompass assessment literacy are teacher expectations related to the identification, selection, or creation of assessments designed for monitoring student growth and the diagnosis of specific student needs, which is essentially...
Book Study Monday: The Formative 5
"Fennell, Kobett, and Wray make a strong case that when instruction is optimal, the concepts of planning, instruction, and formative assessment become virtually indistinguishable--they all become components of one seamless process delivering powerful instruction that...
Counting, Composing, and Changing Numbers
A goal of our mathematics instruction should be to help our students develop flexibility with numbers. For that to happen, children need to experience the meaning of numbers with concrete, hands-on experiences. Three keys to developing flexibility are counting,...
Making Sense of Math
Math should make sense. It's a relatively simple statement, yet for many it's the stuff of dreams. I know that as a child growing up, math certainly did not make sense to me. Math was about memorizing procedures and performing tedious calculations. That was then, but...