Behrman-Noticing Blog

             Earlier in the week, I noticed just how crucial it is to not only utilize formative assessments (regardless of content area), but also take this information into consideration and use it to modify one's previously planned unit. My math unit focuses on subtraction and the first two lessons focused on fact families and breaking down numbers. Fact families is a 1st grade standard, so I assumed that this would be a review for students and serve as a jumping off point for the new material in this grade. However, based on students' homework from Friday and their in-class work on Monday, I realized that my students had either forgotten how to do this or never truly learned this concept. Instead of plugging along with my daily unit plans, I had to add an extra day of instruction to meet the needs of my students based on what I had observed thus far. I spent a day reteaching fact families and giving them in-class practice, as well as homework. By the end of the day students seemed to have a much better grasp on the concept and I felt that we could resume with the unit's progression. Had I continued without this intervention, I'm sure my students would have not only felt frustrated as they struggled with the rest of the unit, but they would not conceptually grasp the material. Formative assessments are vital tools for being a reflective teacher.