My kids can : making math accessible to all learners, K–5

• What questions does he ask?


• What statements does he make?


• What does he ask the students to do?

Using assessment to inform decisions about teaching is an essential part of help-
ing students who are struggling in mathematics. Looking at students’ work on for-
mal assessments can be useful, but observing students and asking them questions
as they do activities that have not been labeled as assessments can be even more
informative. The more specifically a teacher can figure out what aspects of math-
ematics concepts or skills a student is struggling with, the better the teacher can
decide what to focus on with the student and the class, how to support the stu-
dent’s participation in whole-group discussions as well as individual work, and
how to perhaps modify an activity to fit a student’s needs while still addressing the
important mathematics in the activity.

Examining the Video Footage

At the beginning of the video, Michael Flynn plays a demonstration round of the
Get to 100 game with the whole class. As they play, some ideas are highlighted
that might be useful to students as they begin to play the game in pairs. For ex-
ample, Michael asks a student how she knows that jumping down 2 rows on the

LINKINGASSESSMENT ANDTEACHING

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11

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31

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91

2

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

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72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

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92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

345678910 Lisa

5 + 10 + 15 + 10

15 10

Jonathan

20 + 10 + 15 + 10

Figure 12–1.