Currently, I am working on a unit on decimals. I know that I will be teaching sixth-graders how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals. Since these are my teaching objectives, I now must develop ways to test my students during and at the end of this unit.
I can give my students an assessment that doesn’t count for much (if any) of their grade, just to see if they are understanding how to apply basic arithmetic operations to decimals. Such an assessment is known as a formative assessment. An example of a formative assessment for multiplication of decimals is a multiple choice quiz that only focuses on placing the decimal in the right place in the answer. If I make the assessment reflect a real-world activity that involves the addition and multiplication of decimals then it would qualify as a performance-based formative assessment. I think it would be fun to assign my sixth-graders the task of pricing three gift items for a baby shower, a birthday party, or Mother’s/Father’s Day. Students would take photos of the items and their prices, total the prices, and then multiply the sum by the decimal .07 to calculate the sales tax. Students would make a poster, powerpoint or document showing the photos, the sum of the prices, the sales tax, and the final total.
Again, this assessment is only formative since it only involves addition and multiplication rather than all four operations. It cannot be used as a unit test. Tests that assess the mastery of math skills and count toward the student’s grade would be classified as a summative assessment. An example of a 20 problem summative test for this unit includes five problems for each operation involving multi-digit decimals. Now that I have these assessments, I am better prepared to develop lessons on decimals.
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