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November 4, 2018
Methodical Math Mania!
In room 209, we have been working hard on a variety of different math skills. In our current unit, which we’ll be assessing this week, students have learned about factors, multiples, the order of operations, patterns, problem solving, and more. I hope that the videos I’ve posted are helpful to you, both in keeping you up to date on what skills we’re covering and in better equipping you to support your fourth grader. Students have been working very hard in math.
Our first math unit focused on place value, addition, and subtraction. You may be wondering about the unit 1 assessment scores. When I review student assessment results, I look to see what strengths emerged and which areas were challenging for students. When I see that a few students have struggled with a particular area, I pull groups to review the difficult skills. When the number of students struggling with a skill is larger, it shows me that I need to do some reteaching for the whole class. On the unit 1 assessment, I saw that the majority of students continued to need practice with rounding and with a few other place value skills. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reviewing various skills with small and large groups of students, and we’re going to continue this work to ensure that students have a solid foundation for our upcoming units. So while these assessments haven’t gone home yet, I look forward to reviewing them with you in person at our upcoming parent conference so we can discuss your fourth grader’s progress.
We’re also working on improving students’ addition and subtraction facts. Students are making progress in these skills, but this may also be a good focus for home practice. This may come as a surprise for you, as the big focus in third grade was multiplication. Fear not, we’ll soon return to multiplication facts as we dive into the multiplication units of study. But I often find that students’ addition and subtraction fact mastery tends to slip when they shift their focus to multiplication. So by taking the first marking period to work on addition and subtraction facts, I’m again hoping that students will have a solid basis for the skills in the upcoming units of study.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 23, 2017
Let’s add up what we’ve learned in math!
Our first math unit focused on place value, addition, and subtraction. Throughout the unit, you may have noticed several tutorial videos that I posted on our class website. I make these as a way of extending my instruction to the home setting, and to also help you to best help your fourth grader. I’ve been posting these on our class website, but starting now, I’ll instead post them in our Google Classroom account. This makes it easier for students to access them, and it allows me to catalog them by subject.
Today, students are bringing home their first math assessment. I have a practice of not returning corrected assessments until all the students have completed them, and that only recently happened. I found a wide range of student performance on the assessment. Let me tell you a bit more:
- Question 21 was challenging for many students. If you find your student’s grade was lower than you would like, take a look to see that problem. It was worth 6 points, and since the whole test was worth 35 points, it had a big effect on students’ overall grades. We’re going to review that problem type in depth on Thursday this week.
- In Targeted Instruction, students work on skills that are right for them. Based on their performance on the math assessment, many students are reviewing place value skills in general or rounding skills in specific during the TI block. So while you’re just now receiving these assessments, please know that students in either of these groups are entering their second week of focused, small group practice with these skills. Your child can tell you if he or she is in one of these groups.
- We’ll continue to improve students’ understanding of place value throughout the year as we progress through other units.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. We’re wrapping up the second math unit this week, and I expect to be giving the unit 2 assessment either on Friday or early next week.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
October 14, 2015
Reviewing Math Skills
In late September, students completed the first math assessment. Normally, we strive to score these and promptly send them home for you to review, sign, and return to us. This time, however, we have intentionally held off on doing so. We found that there were several items on the assessment that were challenging to students, and we wanted to review many of these with the class. For the past few weeks, we’ve been reviewing skills with the whole class that were challenging for a large group of students. Mr. Walmer and I have also been pulling students to address skills that are best taught by repeated practice in small groups, such as rounding, multi-digit subtraction with regrouping, and standard form/word form/expanded form. As you receive and review the assessments, please rest assured that we are working with your fourth grader on any areas that he or she struggled with.
The final question on the assessment was a particularly challenging problem, in part, because it was not written in the most clear way. Many students lost points on this one question, and because it accounted for 9 points on the 36 point assessment. So you can see how struggling on this one question could dramatically impact students’ individual scores. For that reason, we strongly encourage you to look at your son or daughter’s performance on individual questions, rather than focusing on the percentage score (which, in all candor, tended to be lackluster for students throughout the class). Additionally, Mr. Walmer taught a great lesson yesterday that reviewed that challenging final question. After practicing the skill in class, students completed a similar problem, and we are so pleased that ALL students improved on their score from the assessment. Those reteaching worksheets are stapled to the end of the students’ assessments.
We ask that you take time this week to review your child’s performance on the math assessment, sign it, and PLEASE SEND IT BACK TO SCHOOL. Once again, we encourage you to examine how your child did on individual problem-sets (in rows, with the row score on the left side of the page) in order to look for strengths and weaknesses. Please don’t dwell on the percentage score, which was (for many students) pulled down by one challenging question at the end of the assessment.
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss
September 25, 2015
Checking Your Child’s Spelling Assessment Results
Our first online spelling assessment went perfectly! Kids were able to complete the assessment at their own pace, and students seemed to enjoy the process of practicing their words online over the week. Because the assessments were completed online, there are not hard copies for me to send home. To check your child’s assessment results each week, have him or her log into Spelling City. On the top-right corner of the screen, click on My Records. Then, locate the spelling list for which you want to check the results, or the activity, or the date. Click on the activity name to see the results of the assessment. Please feel free to email me with any questions! Enjoy your weekend!
Posted in Class Updates|By Jon Moss