Detailed ASSISTment Description of Use
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ASSISTment : a teacher uses the internet to collect, share and respond to data from her students.
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(Submitted to NCTM Mathematics Teacher in the Middle School Journal).
Christine O’Connor, 8th grade GK-12 teacher Oak Middle School Shrewsbury, MA
Cristina Heffernan, Professional Development coordinator for ASSISTment
Imagine being able to walk into school in the morning before students arrive and look at a spreadsheet on your computer that shows how well your students did on their homework the night before. Before any student walks through the door you know exactly which homework problems kids understood and what problems were the most difficult as well as their commonly wrong answers. Immediately you know what material to cover in class to clear up students’ misconceptions. This is just one possible use of a new computer website called ASSISTment. In this article we will describe four ways one teacher, Ms. Christine O’Connor, an 8th grade teacher, is using ASSISTment to enhance her teaching.
ASSISTment is an Internet based tool that was developed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester Massachusetts and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, in conjunction with local schools. The program allows teachers to assign over 1,400 problems with tutoring and build their own problems with or without tutoring. The 1400 pre-made problems include released problems from local state exams in 6th, 8th and 10th grade and quizzes that are tied directly with the Connected Mathematics 2 Curriculum (CMP2) used by many local schools (Lappan et al. 2006). Over 4,000 students use ASSISTment each year, mostly in local schools but since this is an Internet based tool there are users as far away as New Mexico. Due to research funding from the federal government teacher accounts are free for cooperating schools.
The name ASSISTment comes from its dual purpose. First, it ASSESSES by immediately logging answers, right or wrong, into a database and creating reports for teachers. Second, it ASSISTS students by telling them immediately if they got the problem right or wrong. If the answer is wrong they are given hints and scaffolding questions to help them work out the problem (Figure 1). The description in this article of how ASSISTment is used in a class will show how teaching is improved by allowing teachers to spend their time analyzing data instead of grading and compiling it. Also, when a student is being assessed they do not have to wait until someone grades their work to know how they are doing or to get help. An added benefit of having the computer grade the work and log results in a database is the ability to share these results instantly with the whole class.
Figure 1. This is an ASSISTment problem including the tutoring questions. Hints are available for all questions, but are only shown in the second question. The original question is number 37 from the 2002 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2002)
Ms. O’Connor works in a school district that encourages teachers to utilize technology and parents set a high standard for the school's use of technology. ASSISTment helps Ms. O’Connor take advantage of much of this technology. She uses the computer lab along with a LCD projector and electronic smart board in the school media center. Her team of teachers also shares a bank of 11 laptops as well as a LCD projector, so she has access to technology in her classroom. Ninety percent of her students have reliable access to a computer with the Internet at home; the other 10% are able to do the online portion of the homework in the morning when they get to school.
ASSISTment is a tool which has many uses in the classroom. The four main ways Ms. O’Connor uses ASSISTment will be described here. They are online homework, public display of student work, formative assessment, and the instant response system.
Online Homework
ASSISTment allows teachers the ability to create customized problem sets for nightly homework assignments. Figure 2 is an example of an assignment that was sent home for students to complete in their notebooks and enter in ASSISTment. This is an assignment from the unit Looking for Pythagoras of the curriculum Connected Mathematics Project (Lappan et al. 2006). All the student sees on the computer is the page and number of the problem they are supposed to solve. They use their book to find the problem, solve it in their notebook and then input the answer into ASSISTment online. This is an example of how computer technology enhances a typical classroom routine. ASSISTment grades each response right or wrong and informs the student right away. Students are encouraged to go back and revisit their work if the problem is wrong. Ms. O’Connor also leaves a message for the students reminding them that they can go to the online class discussion board to ask for help from fellow students. This connection between the class discussion board and the online homework works well since both depend on using a computer connected to the Internet.
Figure 2. This is a print out of the first four problems students saw on the computer for homework along with the messages given to students who get the problem wrong.
The data is logged into the ASSISTment database and immediately shows up on the reports in the teacher’s account. Figure 3 shows the report that goes with investigation 3.1 of the Looking for Pythagoras unit. As every problem in the system is given a number when it is created, students and teachers get used to logging these numbers so they can reference them in the system. Notice for problem #29506 only 36% of the students got a correct answer. The item report showed that 48% of the wrong answers were “13 square inches.” Figure 4 shows the item from the book referred to in item #29506. In response to the data Ms O’Connor did a 10-minute activity the next day in class targeting the skill of drawing a square on a grid and finding its area. Then she had the students fill out an exit card asking them to use dot paper to find the hypotenuse of a triangle by first finding the area of the square. Figure 5 shows the work of a student who did not get item #29506 correct for homework.
The most powerful part of using ASSISTment to log homework answers is the ability for the classroom teacher to know well before class time who did homework, how well it was done, and which problems need to be reviewed. Using the technology of ASSISTment made homework a much stronger learning experience for the students.
Figure 3. Item report the teacher used to study the results of the homework from Figure 2.
Figure 4. Problem from the Connected Mathematics Project Curriculum that is referenced in ASSISTment item #29506 (Lappan et. al, 2006, Looking for Pythagoras page 38).
Figure 5. This is an image of one student’s exit card demonstrating an understanding of how to draw a square off a diagonal line segment and how to find its area.
Making Student Work Public
The technology embedded within ASSISTment allows teachers the opportunity to provide instant and interactive feedback on written student work. The state exam that Ms. O’Connor’s students take each year includes what are called open response questions. These questions ask students to explain their work as well as get an answer. Seeking new ways to involve her students in the grading process for open response questions, Ms O’Connor assigned one particular question, straight from the state exam, involving the concepts of area and perimeter (see Figure 6). Students were asked to complete a written copy and then to record their answers online at home via ASSISTment.
Figure 6. This is the MCAS problem reproduced on ASSISTment for the students to answer online. (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2004 #29)
When students returned to class the next day, Ms. O’Connor had already looked at the results and made the decision to focus on the responses to part C. Only 15% of the students got that question correct where more than 80% were correct on parts A and B. Ms. O’Connor projected a selection of five anonymous student responses on a smart board in the media center. Figure 7 shows two of these responses, one a correct answer of ‘17 units’ and one the incorrect answer of ‘12 units’. Students then logged into ASSISTment and scored each response with a grade from 1 to 4 along with a comment. They used the student number to describe which response they were commenting on. Ms. O’Connor provided instant peer feedback by projecting student comments reported in the ASSISTment report. Figure 8 shows some student responses, and you can see that not everyone agreed on the grade to give. This led to a productive class discussion on scoring rubrics and identified the different requirements to receive a grade of 4, 3, 2, or 1.
Figure 7. Examples of two student responses to question C in the problem from Figure 6.
Figure 8. These are the student’s grades from 1 – 4 on the student responses from Figure 7.
Instant Response System
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics states in its process standards that students should communicate their mathematical understanding with their peers and teachers (NCTM, 2000). One problem with trying to do this in a large group setting is the discussion often involves just a handful of students, leaving out the rest of the class. One way to alleviate this problem is to use an electronic instant response system. Students input their answers into a device and their responses are projected onto a screen in the classroom for the teacher to assess instantly with the whole class. Ms. O’Connor uses ASSISTment as an electronic instant response system. To do this, she loads a problem set with empty open response boxes for the students to write in. Then in preparation she writes a list of questions ready to project in front of the class. As with most plans in teaching, the questions she actually asks are not always the ones planned. She was able to modify the question on the fly using her laptop. Figure 9 shows the list of questions she ended up asking in an introductory discussion to a unit on exponential growth. She wanted students to recall what they knew about linear equations so they could compare linear and exponential functions. A laptop was given to each group of four in her class. Students logged on and pulled up the assignment of empty questions. When the students finish their responses they click ‘submit’ and their writing showes up on the teacher report projected in front of the room. Figure 10 shows the response from one group to question number 6 and 7. Question 6 is "Describe a situation that’s non linear. What is the dependent variable? What is independent variable? What is their relationship?” Question 7 is an example of an added direction she came up with on the spot in response to the students’ work on question 6. This activity allowed students to use written and verbal communication to recall what they knew about linear and non linear equations and everyone was held accountable for participating in the discussion. Ms O’Connor went away with a written record of the students’ understanding of linear relationships at the beginning of the unit on exponential growth.
Figure 9. Questions asked by the teacher and responded to by groups of students on the ASSISTment System.
Figure 10. Student responses to questions 6 and 7 from Figure 9
At her school, Ms. O’Connor has access to two sets of 24 i-Respond Lite clicker devices, but they only report multiple choice and short numerical answers. She chooses to use ASSISTment instead as an electronic instant response system, because with ASSISTment she can include open response answers that allow her students to practice their communication skills.
Formative Assessment
Ms. O’Connor uses the ASSIST portion of ASSISTment when she wants to quickly assess her students while allowing them to get help at the same time. One example of this use is reviewing for the state test given in May. She recognizes that some topics included in the test were covered in 6th and 7th grade and are not covered in her 8th grade curriculum. One such topic is probability. In order to assess how well her students remember probability and to give them needed practice, she assigns problems from previous years. Figure 1 shows an example of one problem from the probability review problem set assigned to students with tutoring.
At the end of class, Ms. O’Connor was able to bring up the item report and start analyzing the data. She did not have to spend any time grading. She also knew that the students who needed help had received it from ASSISTment. She found that only 25% of her students got #2068 correct (see Figure 11) on their first try. She also knew that the answer ‘126’, was the most common wrong answer. She knows students received help on the problems and she knows the deficit in knowledge does not lie in the problems that 90% to 100% of students got right, but in the more complex two-step problems. These problems also include the side skills of reading a histogram, rounding and understanding vocabulary. Using her LCD projector she can quickly share this data with her students and get them thinking about what they need to review leading up to the state exam. The ability to assess students and analyze the data efficiently allows Ms. O’Connor to spend her time preparing lessons and addressing the students’ needs.
Figure 11. The top 5 rows of the item report for item #2068
Conclusion
In the year since Ms. O’Connor started using ASSISTment regularly, her general techniques of teaching have not changed. Homework is given, class discussions are held, and assessments are graded. What has changed, however, is the manner in which Ms. O’Connor accomplishes tasks. Using ASSISTment Ms. O’Connor collects and organizes data on homework quickly and early, allowing her to make plans before students enter the classroom. She shares student responses expeditiously and written explanations anonymously to provoke discussion about what is quality work and what is not. She polls students quickly on any question she wants during a discussion and shares with the class the results of this questioning. Finally, students get immediate assistance as she assesses them. ASSISTment has enabled Ms. O’Connor to inform and improve her instruction and the expected learning outcomes of her students in an efficient, productive manner.
References
Lappan, Glenda, James T. Fey, William M. Fitzgerald, Susan N. Friel and Elizabether Difanis Phillips. Connected Mathematics 2. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (2004). Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Release of Test Items. Accessed in 2006 from [1]
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM 2000.
Razzaq, L., Heffernan, N. T., Koedinger, K. R., Feng, M., Nuzzo-Jones, G., Junker, B. Macasek, M. A., Rasmussen, K. P., Turner, T. E., & Walonoski, J. A. (2007). Blending Assessment and Instructional Assistance. In N. Nedjah, L.deMacedo Mourelle, M. Neto Borges and N. N. Almeida (Eds.). Intelligent Educational Machines within the Intelligent Systems Engineering Book Series. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg.
