Oregon Association for Comprehensive Education Seaside, Oregon January 25, 2013 Mark Freed Mathematics Education Specialist Oregon Department of Education Authentic Problem Solving

Remember: Two sets of standards! Content AND Practices Transition will require more than content alignment, it will require instructional alignment – Instructional Shifts Mathematics English/Language Arts – Smarter Balanced Claims 2

Smarter Balanced Assessment First full administration Smarter Balanced Mathematics Claims – Claim #1: Content & Procedures (~40-50% total score) – Claim #2: Problem Solving – Claim #3: Communicating Reasoning – Claim #4: Modeling & Data Analysis Item Types – Selected Response – Extended Response – Technology Enhanced Items – Performance Task 3

Smarter Balanced Performance task example: Tulips Is this a good task for 4 th grade children to engage with? Describe the role of the teacher in the task What skills does a student need to solve the problem? 4

Problem Solving: What makes a good problem? What are characteristics of a quality problem? Are there different types of problem solving? What makes a problem solving task more “authentic”? 5

Problem Solving Considerations Task Selection – Structured vs. unstructured problems Role of the Teacher – How is the problem set up? – What information is given to students? Role of the Student – What are student responsibilities? – How much “freedom” do they receive? 6

Analyzing structured problems Work through one of the problems carefully List all the decisions being made for the students Revise the problem so that some of the decisions are handed back to the students – This will make the problem less “structured” 7

Compare structured and unstructured problems Compare the less structured problems with the structured versions What decisions have been made by the students? What instructional issues will arise when you start using more unstructured problems? 8

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Questions? Mark Freed Mathematics Education Specialist Oregon Department of Education Phone: