Thinking Mathematically Blog
A common trend in education is to give students a diagnostic in order for us to know where to start. While I agree we should be starting where our students are, I think this can look very different in each classroom. Does starting where our students are mean we give a test to determine ability levels, then program based on these differences? Personally, I don’t think so.
Giving out a test or quiz at the beginning of instruction isn’t the ideal way of learning about our students. Seeing the product of someone’s thinking often isn’t helpful in seeing HOW that child thinks (Read, What does “assessment drive instruction mean to you” for more on this). Instead, I offer an alternative- starting with a diagnostic task! Here is an example of a diagnostic task given this week:
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