Math Centers Made Easy: Post 3 {Assessment}

Hey y'all! I am trying to play catch up on my blog. That Back to School Bash had this blog going all kinds of crazy last week. Thank you to all of the sweet teachers who joined in on the fun! 

Now, let's get back to my miniseries: Math Centers Made Easy. If you missed post #1 or #2, check them out below! 

   

Let's get to it. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to talk about assessment. If your like me, that might require some chocolate (my version wine) as well. Fact: I HATE ASSESSMENTS! Gross. But it must be done, so let's make this as painless as possible. 

How do I assess these centers? Check it all out in this Periscope video right here! 

Breaking assessment on down with these centers is actually pretty easy and efficient! {Exactly how I like it!}

Remember my student folders? (See picture below. I talked about these in post #2.) Rather than collecting them all on Friday and spending my entire weekend grading, I simply divided my students into five groups. I would collect 4-5 folders each day, grade the 'must do' side, give new assignments, and have them ready for them the following day. I spent about 10 minutes per day grading! (Find out how in my video above!)

Now we must get those grades into the system. Each week, I would grade one center activity. It will be consistent for the entire class. For example, one week I would choose place value. This would be the center that I would thoroughly grade for every student. They would complete the center at the level they were working on. {What's fair...isn't always equal!} 

I didn't have a special checklist or fancy graphic organizer. I couldn't keep up with all of that y'all! But through these centers I learned two things. 1) A teacher knows where his/her students are academically. I made judgements based on what I graded as well as what I saw in the classroom. 2) Students are perfectly capable of keeping up with their levels, so I didn't have a checklist each week. They knew. Believe me...they knew. 

And that's how easy assessment is...#boom! ;) 

That wraps up this fun little math series. If you missed the previous posts, click below to check them out: