Formative Assessment: Why Ask Why?
Math Solutions' award-winning resources offer teachers practical tools for implementing formative assessment in the classroom. Created with the help of experts, research and the best teachers, our resources help students and teachers build a strong mathematical foundation throughout the formative years.
The Math Solutions Approach
Formative assessment helps teachers determine a student's comprehension of mathematical concepts, identify gaps in knowledge and guide and direct instruction accordingly to ensure understanding.
A thoughtful collection of strategies, the Math Solutions approach to formative assessment:
- Provides teachers and students with insight into students' understanding
- Reveals students' misconceptions
- Occurs as a part of daily instruction
- Guides instruction to improve student learning
- Involves listening carefully to students; focusing on student responses to questions and examining written work with an understanding of their thinking
Formative Assessment Supports Common Core State Standards
Supporting Common Core State Standards by encouraging teachers to explore students' levels of mathematics understanding—formative assessment provides teachers with a deeper look into each student's knowledge.
Helping teachers decide "what's next," formative assessment guides teachers in providing feedback to students and allows educators to individualize and align instruction to ensure students gain the necessary skills and knowledge needed to achieve mathematical fluency.
The result is engaged students, the achievement of higher standards and teachers who find work more professionally fulfilling.