April Davis

FRIT 7236 - Fall 2020

Technology Assessment Plan & Data Analysis

Objectives and Multiple-Choice Questions

Grade 6 - Math Standard: MGSE6.EE.3 - Apply the properties of operations to generate

equivalent expressions.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to generate equivalent expressions by using
properties of operations to combine like terms.

1. Which of these is equivalent to the expression 5y + 7x - 2y + 3x?

A. 13yx
B. 3y + 10x
C. 3y + 4x
D. 10x - 7y

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

Grade 6 - Math Standard: MGSE6.EE.2b - Identify parts of an expression using

mathematical terms (sum, term, product, factor, quotient, coefficient); view one or more parts
of an expression as a single entity.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify mathematical terms in expressions and
identify each part of the term.

2. Find all of the terms in the following expression:

A.
B.
C. 3
D.

Level and Type: Remember Factual Knowledge

3. What do you call the 5 in the expression 5x + 3y?

A. coefficient
B. factor
C. term
D. variable
Level and Type: Remember Factual Knowledge

Link to Google Form Assessment:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQq-
C451xVMcxoIjQrf_cbGwB1oy2KakZIXGD3KxgT74mO9w/viewform

Objectives and Short Answer/Essay Questions

Short Answer Questions:

Grade 6 - Math Standard: MGSE6.EE.2c - Evaluate expressions at specific values for their
variables. Include expressions that arise from formulas in real-world problems. Perform
arithmetic operations, including those involving whole-number exponents, in the conventional
order when there are no parentheses to specify a particular order (Order of Operations).
Learning Objective: Students will be able to substitute variables with specific values in
expressions and identify the order to evaluate expressions.

1. Which is the first step of simplifying the following expression? How do you know?

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

2. What is the value of the expression when d=10? Show your

work.

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

3. Given the expression , what is the correct order of operations?

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

Essay Questions:
Grade 6 - Math Standard: MGSE6.EE.2c - Evaluate expressions at specific values for their
variables. Include expressions that arise from formulas in real-world problems. Perform
arithmetic operations, including those involving whole-number exponents, in the conventional
order when there are no parentheses to specify a particular order (Order of Operations).
Learning Objective: Students will be able to use mathematical terms and apply their
knowledge of variables and order of operations to explain evaluating expressions.

1. Why is paying attention to the order of operations important when evaluating

expressions? What happens if you do not use the correct order of operations?
 2. What do variables represent in an expression?
3. If a variable appears more than once in an expression, what do we have to do when
replacing it with a number? Why is this important?

Level and Type: Understand Conceptual Knowledge

Link to Google Form Assessments:

Short Answer:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfOdVUfFmhoWMFxIWQcK1bwZaVCIxPNOI3x4
fS77mGk2oqOXQ/viewform
Essay:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSee-
cye01DXl8BqQXXepswlnU8V3Z6zC2qCbW_XXAKSwdJj4g/viewform

Objectives and HOT Questions

HOT Questions:
Grade 6 - Math Standard: MGSE6.EE.3 Apply the properties of operations to generate
equivalent expressions. For example, apply the distributive property to the expression 3(2 + 𝑥) to
produce the equivalent expression 6 + 3𝑥; apply the distributive property to the expression 24𝑥 +
18𝑦 to produce the equivalent expression 6(4𝑥 + 3𝑦); apply properties of operations to 𝑦 + 𝑦 + 𝑦
to produce the equivalent expression 3𝑦.
MGSE6.EE.7 Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving equations of
the form 𝑥 + 𝑝 = 𝑞 and 𝑝𝑥 = 𝑞 for cases in which p, q and x are all nonnegative rational numbers.
Learning Objective Questions 1 and 3: Students will be able to write and identify expressions
that are equivalent and explain how those expressions are equal.
Learning Objective Question 2: Students will be able to write and solve equations.

Ms. Davis gave each of her students a bag of candies and asked them to count how many candies
were in the bag. Then the teacher had each student write an expression to represent the number
of candies in the bag. The table shows the expression that four students wrote to represent the
total number of candies in their bag, where x represents the number of blue candies in the bag.
 1. If the numbers of blue candies are equal in each bag, identify which students have the
same number of candies in their bag. Show your work and explain your answer.

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

2. Alex has 48 candies in her bag. Using the table, write an equation that shows how to use
x to find the number of blue candies in Alex's bag. Solve for x. Show your work.

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

3. Write three expressions that are equal to Randye's expression, 4 + 2x. Explain how your
answers are all equivalent.

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

Link to Google Form Assessment:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIoo713Z3kJaCI1meQoCl6-
L7A1yz8tAgwDAKXFmHAX4-gRA/viewform

Performance Questions:
Grade 6 - Math Standard: MGSE6.EE.3 Apply the properties of operations to generate
equivalent expressions. For example, apply the distributive property to the expression 3(2 + 𝑥) to
produce the equivalent expression 6 + 3𝑥; apply the distributive property to the expression 24𝑥 +
18𝑦 to produce the equivalent expression 6(4𝑥 + 3𝑦); apply properties of operations to 𝑦 + 𝑦 + 𝑦
to produce the equivalent expression 3𝑦.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to write and identify expressions that are equivalent
and explain how those expressions are equal.

1. The US military uses codes to communicate in order to keep secrets away from their
enemies. Codebreaking is the act of deciphering these codes so that they are readable by
normal humans. You have intercepted a set of codes from a rival country. Apparently,
they have recently begun using mathematical equations as their code system. In order to
 try and break their codes, you want to identify equivalent expressions that may help you
identify patterns within their code system.

Code Expression Equivalent Expression (Write at least two)

7(x + 4)

8 - 4x + 2 + 5

16x + 32

12x - 2 x 5 x 8

5(3x + 4) - 9

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

2. Mathematical equations are often used to calculate the amount of energy that is produced
by a power plant. Plant Mitchell has six separate hydroelectric turbines. The engineers
want to make sure each turbine is producing the same amount of energy per hour. Each of
the expressions below represents the output of one of the turbines over time with the
variable x representing the number of hours. Determine which turbines, if any, are
producing the exact same amount of energy over time.

Turbines Output of the turbines

Turbine #1 5(x + 4) − 13 + 2x
Turbine #2 3(2x + 6) − 25
Turbine #3 (2x + 2x + 2x) + (2 + 2 + 2) + (x + 1)

Turbine #4 8(2x + 4) − 9x − 25
Turbine #5 4(3x - 5) + 6 - 5x

Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

3. Heather and Tyler went to the movies with their friends on Friday night. Heather said
she used the expression x + 2y + x + 2 to pay for her ticket, drink and goodies at the
snack stand. Tyler said he used the expression 2(x + y + 1) to pay for his ticket, drink
and goodies at the snack stand. Did Heather and Tyler pay the same amount for their trip
to the movies? How do you know? Can you write another expression that is equivalent
to Heather and Tyler’s expression? Show your work.
Level and Type: Apply Conceptual Knowledge

Link to Google Doc Assessment:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nwByE6dLnreV6Iyazmriw4QuXDUKiuxTTPUhvKnwzu
E/edit

Assessment Plan:

Improving item reliability:

Reliability is the “degree to which students’ results remain consistent over replications of
an assessment procedure. Reliability is a necessary but not sufficient piece of evidence to
support the validity of test score interpretations and the quality of educational decisions based on
them” (Bookhart & Nitko, 2019, p.66). To improve item reliability I need to make sure that my
assessment is sufficient in length, the students have the same amount of time to take the
assessment and provide practice to make sure they are familiar with how to take the assessment.
● Multiple-Choice: Students will be assessed using different forms of assessment
throughout the unit such as TOD’s, quizzes, and unit tests with each objective having a
certain number of questions to increase the reliability. Another way to increase the
reliability is to do an item analysis to identify poorly performing questions.
● Short Answer: My questions are focused and clear which should improve the reliability.
Students will answer the questions using information they learned during instruction and
practice. Make sure students have an appropriate amount of time to complete.
● Essay: Essay responses can be more difficult to score and I need to include a scoring
rubric that should improve the reliability. This also reduces the time I spend on grading
to give my students timely and needed feedback. Make sure students have an appropriate
amount of time to complete.
● Higher Order Thinking: Just as with the essay type questions a scoring rubric can be
used to improve the reliability and insure grading consistency. My questions are focused
and clear which should improve the reliability. Students will answer the questions using
information they learned during instruction and practice. Make sure students have an
appropriate amount of time to complete.
● Performance: A clear high-quality scoring rubric needs to be created that will allow for
the multiple ways the students might accomplish the tasks . My questions are focused
and clear which should improve the reliability. These concepts have been discussed and
practiced many times during the lessons. These tasks allow students the use of their
higher-order thinking skills.

Improving item validity:

Validity is the “soundness of your interpretations and uses of students’ assessment
results” (Bookhart & Nitko, 2019, p.37). I need to make sure that my assessment matches what
is being measured by making sure that the assessment is aligned with the standards/curriculum
being taught for 6th grade Math.
● Multiple-Choice: The multiple-choice questions are valid because I have based them on
the standards being taught in 6th grade Math. I could also have a “test blueprint” that
would outline the content covered and how that relates to the number of questions in the
assessment to ensure content validity.
● Short Answer: My questions are focused and clear which should improve the validity.
Students will answer the questions using information they learned during instruction and
practice. Make sure students have an appropriate amount of time to complete.
● Essay: Essay responses can be more difficult to score and I need to include a scoring
rubric that should improve the validity. This also reduces the time I spend on grading to
give my students timely and needed feedback. Make sure students have an appropriate
amount of time to complete.
● Higher Order Thinking: The students will have to write and explain their answers using
mathematical terminology, therefore the use of a scoring rubric will help with the validity
of the scores. A word bank could be given to students in order to help students use
correct terminology when writing their explanations to improve validity.
● Performance: The tasks are valid because they are aligned with the performance
standards and objectives. As with reliability, using a clear high-quality scoring rubric to
grade the items will help to improve the validity of scores by clarifying the standards of
achievement I want to evaluate.

Differentiation of Instruction:
According to the text, “Differentiation refers to instructional practices that are altered to
meet the needs, abilities, interests and motivations of students” (Bookhart & Nitko, 2019, p.127).
Differentiation is the process of using a variety of techniques for instruction to be responsive to
students’ needs so that they are meeting and learning the objectives and goals of the standards
being taught. I can enhance my students’ learning by offering support based on their needs
because all students do not learn the same way. For differentiation to be successful I need to be
able to deliver instruction to each style of learner: auditory, visual, kinesthetic and through
words. Students also need to be able to assess through these different styles to show evidence of
their learning.
● Multiple-Choice: The assessments given will be paper/pencil and in digital format.
Students will also have access to read aloud if needed and are struggling readers. Answer
choices can be reduced for those students who need interventions and more challenging
answer choices for those students who are accelerated.
● Short Answer and Essay: Students with disabilities will be able to have the test questions
read aloud either by the teacher or computer assisted. Depending on students’ needs they
can use the computer to type their answers or can orally explain their answers. There are
new technology platforms that we are using in class that can be used to record their
 answers. Students can also be given a mnemonic device for remembering the order of
operations.
● Higher Order Thinking: Answer choices could be provided to students to choose the best
answer. Students that need accommodations can have the questions read aloud and can
give their answers orally. If needed students can complete questions on the computer.
● Performance: Answer choices could be provided to students. For task 1 and 3, I could
give students answer choices to select from that would help them to successfully meet the
objectives and standards of the task. Students that need accommodations can have the
questions read aloud and can give their answers orally. If needed students can complete
questions on the computer. I could also give them a choice of working individually, with
a partner or in a small group to complete the tasks.

Improving student learning:

Improving student learning can be achieved through multiple means. Beginning a unit
with a pretest to find out what students already know about an objective and standard gives a
teacher information to develop and guide lessons. Differentiated instruction and appropriate
assessments will also lead to student learning improvement.
● Multiple-Choice: With the use of multiple-choice questions and their quick results,
students will receive immediate feedback. Through the feedback and reviewing
questions that are mostly missed by the students, student misconceptions or bad question
wording can be corrected and lead to improved student learning of objectives and
standards.
● Short Answer and Essay: I can use the results of these assessment items to adjust and
improve my instruction.
● Higher Order Thinking: Using a checklist to monitor student behavior will help me
monitor if students are using critical thinking skills and applying them. The checklist and
a rating scale can help access those higher order thinking skills in students and improve
instruction and student learning.
● Performance: Using a checklist to monitor student behavior will help me monitor if
students are using critical thinking skills and applying them. The checklist and a rating
scale can help access those higher order thinking skills in students and improve
instruction and student learning.

Improving future assessments:

The use of a “test blueprint” would ensure improvement of future assessments by making
sure the content is covered. Data analysis of student responses can help to adjust and improve
assessment questions.