What Make a Good Math CFA? 4 Qualities Every Assessment Should Have

When I talk with teachers about math CFAs (common formative assessments), two questions always come up: 

1. How do I know if an assessment is really worth my time? 
2. Will I actually be able to quickly use the data?

I was working with a 5th-grade team at the end of the school year, and they realized they had 5 math assessments to give before school was out. Five.

Why would they need 5 different math assessments at the end of the school year??

Well, each assessment measured something slightly different. And all of them, of course, were district and/or state-mandated. 

Now to be clear-I’m not saying there isn’t any value in those assessments. But here’s what I’ve noticed over the years: if you give an assessment and never do anything with the data, it’s a waste of time. 

Let's dive into what actually makes a CFA valuable.

1. It is aligned to a specific standard-the major work of the grade.

You don’t want to start with any random standard. You want to make sure that you are focusing on standards that are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. That means that if I’m teaching 4th grade, I’m teaching and intervening on equivalent fractions, rather than spending time making sure my students know how to use protractors.

If you’re not sure what the major work of your grade level is, I highly recommend checking out the Coherence Map at Achieve the Core. It’s a great tool that will give you valuable insight into your essential standards.

CFAs should be aligned with one to two priority standards. The more standards you try to assess, the muddier your data can become.

2. It provides more than just a right or wrong answer.

One reason people love math is because there appears to always be one right answer. However, when we are actually diving into student work, we care less about the answer and more about the students’ processes when solving the problems. We are focusing on assessing thinking, not computation.

One way I love to do this is by using a rubric. Rubrics allow us to see how close students are to mastery. They also help determine gaps in a student’s learning. Check out these rubrics for 4th grade math CFAs.  

Notice how there are different areas? That means if a student understands the basic procedure of the addition algorithm, but still needs help with their facts, they still get points for what they understand!

Using rubrics really helps guide your intervention blocks.

3. It actually gives you action steps, instead of just being another thing to grade.

Just because you can grade something doesn’t mean you should. Spending time grading something that you'll never use is a waste of your time-and your time is precious. If you're not sure if something is a good CFA candidate, check out the list below. 

Good CFAs should:

• Be put together or agreed upon by your team (hence the “C” for “common” in CFA)
• Take 10-15 minutes
• Have 3-6 targeted problems
• Be easy to analyze 
• Provide insights into further interventions

If the assessment you're looking at checks all the boxes, you've got a good CFA on your hands!

Want an example of a CFA you could give with your team tomorrow? Check out this one!

(And yes, I know I’m not on your school team. But I’ve always found it easier to start from something instead of having to start from scratch.)

4. We Have Data. Now What?

Let’s be real. CFAs are only worth your time if you use the data. After looking at the data, you can then use it to determine how to adjust instruction and provide intervention. It can really guide your PLC conversations, too. 

This honestly deserves its own post (and it will get it too!). Make sure to check back to see how to do a data dive with your team that will yield powerful results for your students.

Want to Try a Done-For-You Math CFA? 

Want to see what a great CFA looks like in action? Grab this free Addition & Subtraction CFA toolkit with all 4 forms and data trackers. It’s the perfect starting point for you and your team to begin assessing one of the first major standards of the year. And the best thing? It’s ready for you to use tomorrow. 

Math CFAs don’t need to be complicated, but they need to be intentional. And if you're looking for a done-for-your-team PLC/CFA toolkit and you teach 4th grade, I've got you covered. Click here to see more!

You've got this!

Happy Teaching!

Jamie

4 Ways to Use Boom Cards for FREE in Your Upper Elementary Classroom

So you’ve just purchased your first set of Boom Cards. You go to use them when all of a sudden, BOOM! You realize you have to pay for a subscription! Sound familiar? 

As teachers, we often end up paying for a lot of things out of our own pocket, just to help better our students’ education. But I get it. There are bills to pay, people to feed, and life to live. Purchasing another subscription was probably the last thing you wanted to do. After all, you’ve worked hard for your money!

I love using Boom Cards in my classroom. If you are able to purchase the subscription I definitely recommend it, but if it just isn’t for you, don’t worry. You can still use the Boom cards you’ve purchased in a meaningful way in your classroom without having to spend more of your hard-earned money.

Here are 4 ways to use Boom Cards for free:

1. Use Them as a Whole Group

Boom cards are great for whole group instruction and practice. With the free account, you still have access to any decks you have purchased. Throw the Boom cards up on your SmartBoard or Promethean Board, and solve them as a class. I’ve had my students get out whiteboards, and answer math problems on their whiteboards. Then, they show me their answers and I am able to easily assess where they are. I can easily address any misconceptions, or extend their thinking. Plus, students love being able quickly see if their answer was correct or not.

2. Use Them for Tier 2 Instruction

As long as you have some device that connects to the internet (like a laptop, an iPad or a Kindle) you can pull the Boom cards up while you are working in a small group. You can use the same sort of procedure that you do with the whole class. Have your students answer the questions on a whiteboard or a piece of paper, and then you can address those misconceptions in a small group. Boom cards are great for targeting one specific skill that you need students to work on. This is always great during tier 2 intervention.

3. Use Them in a Center 

If you have access to a SmartBoard or a Promethean board, you can put these up and turn them into a math center. You can easily see what your students are working on, while using the Boom cards on their own. This is a great way to solidify their understanding of different concepts. Have your students write down their answers on a piece of paper, and then turn the answers in to you. This allows you to still check for understanding, even if they don’t have their own account.

4. Utilize the Fast Pin

Boom Learning does have a free option that you can utilize with your students called a fast pin. If you want to assign your students to each work on the same deck, you will create what is called a fast pin. You give the students the Boom website and the fast pin, and they can log in and work on it on their own without any subscription required from you. The only downside to this is that you will not see the reports on how your students are doing. However, this is great if you need something quick and easy for your students to work on. 

This is also a wonderful option for sub plans. Your students can still get the practice in for whatever specific skills you want them to practice while you’re gone, and you don’t have to copy off piles of worksheets. And if you’re like me when writing sub plans, the less time you can spend in the copy room, the better. Want to know exactly how to get the Fast Pin? Check out the video below and I’ll walk you through it!

If you are able to purchase a Boom cards subscription, I would highly recommend it. I love getting reports about how my students are doing on various decks, and I can easily assign different decks to different students. However, if it just isn’t in the cards for you, that’s okay! You can still get a lot of value out of using Boom cards for free.

And if you’ve never tried Boom cards, I’ve got a free deck you can try out on comparing multi-digit numbers. Click here to sign up, and I’ll email it right to you! Let me know how you use Boom Cards in your classroom!

Happy Teaching!

Keeping Students Engaged with Valentine's Math Bingo

Error Analysis for the win!

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Last year for our Valentine’s Party, I wanted a fun game for students to play while keeping them engaged in learning. To help my students feel excited about learning while celebrating, I created a multiplication fact bingo game with a Valentine’s theme. My 4th graders loved it! It was a good review for them, and they got to celebrate the holiday together. This year, however, we are completely online. (Thank you Covid.) Because of this, I didn’t have a way to play my Valentine's math bingo game with my students.

Transitioning to Online Games

As a teacher, I love being able to incorporate learning into our holiday activities. Unfortunately, all of the fun games that I have done in the past required the physical presence of my students in my classroom. I have had to revamp many of my plans and make everything digital.

I have felt overwhelmed with all of the expectations that are placed upon me when it comes to distance learning. I felt sad because it would be harder to celebrate holidays with my students the way I was used to. My students also realized that celebrating holidays as a class would be more difficult since we weren’t together.

Using Valentine's Math Bingo in My Classroom

In order to help us have some semblance of our holiday activities, I created a digital Valentine’s math bingo game. Each student gets a digital bingo card that already has counters on it. All they have to do is drag and drop each counter onto the correct space. I share the calling cards with them through the screen share feature on Zoom. 

This ended up being such a fun experience for my students. It broke up the day a little bit (we don’t play bingo games every day, so it was something new).  They were also engaged in practicing their multiplication facts, which we still need in fourth grade.

Even though school looks totally different these days, I love that I have a digital version of a fun game that I was used to playing with my classes in years past. Digital games are great too because I don’t have to worry about printing, laminating, and then trying to keep track of bingo cards and counters! Even when we’re back in the classroom, I think I’m going to keep using the digital Valentine's math bingo game to celebrate together.  

Want to see what my Valentine's math bingo game looks like? Check out the video below, or click HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers.