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Chapter 5: Building Assessment into Instruction
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or
answers the question.
1) The NCTM Principles and Standards stress two main ideas of integrating assessment into
instruction. Identify the statement below that represents one of key NCTM ideas.
A) Should not be separate from instruction.
B) Valuable tool for making instructional decisions.
C) Represent eight standards of Mathematical practices.
D) Probe student understanding.
2) Three of the statements below are characteristic of formative assessment. What statement
would be true of summative assessment?
A) Identify where learners are.
B) Identify the goal for learners.
C) Identify a path for reaching the goal.
D) Identify the mastery of standards.
3) What statement below denotes a limited point of view about the purpose of assessment?
A) Assessment should enhance student learning.
B) Assessment is hearing student’s communication of their understanding.
C) Assessment is tests and quizzes.
D) Assessment is gathering data to identify strengths and gaps.
4) Assessment should encapsulate conceptual and procedural understanding, strategic
competence, adaptive behaviors and productive dispositions. What question below would capture
strategic competence?
A) What mathematics work did we do today that was easy?
B) If you got stuck today, where in the problem did you get stuck?
C) How would you explain to another student what you learned about decimals today?
D) What was the most interesting mathematical idea you learned this week?
5) Appropriate assessment of students’ mathematical proficiency should reflect a full range of
mathematics concepts. Identify the statement below that aligns to Communication.
A) Perseveres to demonstrate a variety of strategies.
B) Makes conjectures and/or constructs logical progressions of statement based on reasoning.
C) Moves between models.
D) Analyzed the thinking of others.
6) Formative assessment data gathering can be done through observations, interviews and tasks.
What statement below would be an advantage of an interview over a problem-based task?
A) Probe student knowledge and mental strategies.
B) Multiple solutions and use of a variety of tools.
C) Making connections between mathematics and real life.
D) Opportunity to reteach and confront misconceptions.
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7) Utilizing problem-based tasks permit every student in a class to demonstrate their knowledge,
skill or understanding. What tasks below encourages student reasoning and thinking?
A) Leila has six gumdrops and Darlene has 2 more for her. How many altogether?
B) Leila has six gumdrops and she shares half of them with Darlene. How many does she have
left?
C) Leila has six gumdrops and she wants to share them equally with her friend Darlene. How
will she do that?
D) Leila has six gumdrops and she gives some to Darlene and now she has 4 left. How many did
she give away?
8) A translation task is a method used to see how students move between various representations
of a concept. Three of the statements below are methods students could use to demonstrate their
learning. Identify the one that does not fit best with a translation task.
A) Write a word problem that matches the equation.
B) Illustrate the equation with materials, models, or drawings.
C) Explain the process that you used to arrive at the answer.
D) Write whether you agree or disagree with the strategy your group used to solve the problem.
9) A rubric consists of a scale based on predetermined criteria and serves two important
functions. Teachers can see what is central to excellent performance and scoring guidelines
support analysis of students’ work. What performance standard below supports this function?
A) Hearing students’ descriptions of strategies.
B) Observe what mathematical practices the students are demonstrating.
C) Incorporated multiple strategies and representations.
D) Willing to take risks in problem solving.
10) What description below denotes grading?
A) Compare students’ performance with established criteria.
B) Summarizing student performance with scores and data.
C) A scale based on predetermined criteria.
D) Systematic plan for gathering student learning.
11) What do we call descriptive statements of criteria at each level of performance on a task?
A) Rubric levels.
B) Task content.
C) Scores.
D) Performance indicators.
12) When developing performance indicators, what strategy is helpful for teachers?
A) Decide what minimum score you would like to see all students attain.
B) Include in them all the common misconceptions you can think of.
C) Begin by writing out the indicators of “proficient” or “target” performance.
D) Examine your indicators and be sure that most of them focus on the number of correct
answers.
13) What is one advantage of using a Four Point Rubric over a Task Specific Rubric?
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A) Sorting student work into two broad categories.
B) Writing specific performance indicators.
C) Predicting students’ common misconceptions.
D) Communicating specific mathematical concepts.
14) Complete this statement, “Writing in math class…”
A) Can be used for learning and assessment.
B) Can provide cloudy information students’ thought processes.
C) Can be challenging for very young students to communicate.
D) Can be challenging to use with parents when communicating about their students’ progress.
15) Journals in math class are appropriate for learning about the mathematics. All of the
following statements are appropriate EXCEPT:
A) Identifying feelings about math, including areas of confidence and fear.
B) Learning about personal family struggles.
C) Gaining conceptual understanding of a topic.
D) Developing questions and recognizing areas of confusion about a topic.
16) Self-assessment is a tool for students to use in monitoring their own mathematical progress.
What example below would be best used before instruction on a new concept?
A) Open-ended prompt.
B) Questionnaire.
C) Pre-assessment.
D) Exit slip.
17) Tests will always be a part of assessment and evaluation. What is the most important feature
of a test?
A) Identifies only procedural knowledge.
B) Identifies only conceptual knowledge.
C) Matches instructional goals.
D) Matches state and national assessment models.
18) Teachers need to consider three of the statements below when constructing and
administering tests. Identify the one consideration that would defeat the purpose of a test of
procedural knowledge.
A) Permit manipulatives and drawings.
B) Permit calculators.
C) Expect explanation.
D) Expect multiple solutions.
19) Complete this statement, “Student self-
A) Should be the most heavily weighed measure of student progress when determining their
grades.
B) Can be used to tailor instruction to better meet the learning needs of students.
C) Should take on more structured formats, such as questionnaires, because open-ended writing
prompts take too long to read.
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D) Supports students’ movement towards becoming more passive learners.
20) What statement defines a purpose of effective mathematical tests?
A) Should be used to assess low-level skill exercises that are easy to grade.
B) Should be made up of questions that have only one right answer.
C) Should always involve questions that should be answered without the use of a calculator.
D) Should include opportunities for students to explain their reasoning.
21) External summative tests administered in grades 3-8 can pose significant pressure on school
districts and in turn administrators and teachers. What is the best advice for succeeding on high-
stakes tests?
A) Teach the mathematical big-ideas thru a problem-based approach.
B) Teach the mathematical format of summative tests.
C) Teach the mathematics as identified in your local curriculum.
D) Teach the mathematical practices from the Common Core State Standards.
Essay. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
22) Write two examples of open-ended questions that you could use to self-assess student
disposition and knowledge of a mathematical concept.
23) What are four examples of performance indicators that could be used on a rubric to collect
data on a student’ problem solving skills?
