Wednesday, November 26, 2008



October 5th, 2008.

At the beginning of class, as I had done yesterday, I posed a question. This time it was a closed ended question. I wrote four fraction inequalities on the board where students had to tell me which fraction was greater using the appropriate inequality signs. This, I considered to be a closed ended questions due to the fact that there was only one specific answer. I, once again gave them a cue card where they had to record their answers. After they completed this, I collected the cards. I, again, was surprised. One student out of ten was able to give me the correct answer for all questions. ONE. Ten percent of my class could tell me which fraction was greater and use the appropriate inequality sign. I would be more distraught, but I, instead laughed. I finally seen and understood what the literature was saying. I knew, from the open ended tasks that I posed the day before, that my students had a general understanding of how to compare fractions. If I were to base my judgments (and assessments) on this one closed ended tasks, I would have come to a very different conclusion. I would think that only ten percent of my class could compare fractions. When, in fact, 100% of my class is able to do it. I think, finally, I am getting somewhere.

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