My girls started school yesterday. Fourth and second grade. No idea how that happened! 
Today, on the second day of school, each kid had her first day of math, which she spent taking a math test. By their descriptions, the tests were typical, elementary school, beginning-of-year-diagnostics: lots of questions, a whole random collection of content, multiple choice. Each child was told:
- There will be no talking.
- You may not work together.
- I can not help you.
I’m sure the district or school requires this test be given. I’m sure the curriculum starts out with this beginning-of-year-assessment. I’m not criticizing the individual teachers here.
But I don’t get this tradition. NOT ONE BIT.
Teachers have two different dominant needs at the start of a school year:
- Teachers need to set a tone and a climate for mathematics. They need to build community and trust and relationships and an atmosphere conducive to collaboration and risk taking and inquiry and learning. They need to establish routines and expectations.
- Teachers need to begin gathering useful formative assessment about their new students so they can plan effectively.
The stock beginning-of-year-assessments fail on both counts. I think the ways they fail the first one are obvious. The key word in the second point is useful. On day one, I really don’t care if my students know the vocabulary word for a five-sided polygon, can tell time to the half hour, and can calculate perimeter accurately. I’d much rather know how they attack a worthy problem, how they work with one another, and how they feel about the subject of mathematics. I am much more interested in the mathematical practice standards than the content standards in the fall.
There are many wonderful ways to kick off math. I’ll say it again to give room for a second collection: there are many wonderful ways to kick off math. You can do math autobiographies. You can do Talking Points and tackle some math myths. You can establish essential routines as efficiently as possible and then launch into a great problem. You can teach expectations in a mathy way. You can get kids counting or solving or working or playing a game or talking about math and observe how they work together and how they think. You can ask questions and listen in. You can get to know them.
Above all else, you can make it clear what math class will feel like this year. And please tell me it won’t feel like this:
- There will be no talking.
- You may not work together.
- I can not help you.