Evaluation
To measure the success of my Dream It Project, I need to know if any of the transformations that I am looking for took place in my students. The transformations that I am looking for in my students are that they begin to see math as an important tool, and that they see the importance of accuracy in math. To evaluate these transformations, I will first look at the blogs that my students will be keeping. Ideally, throughout this process students will be discussing various ways that math is involved in their lives. Students will be writing these blogs in groups, allowing them the opportunity to discuss their ideas together, and to come up with various ways that math is used in their lives. Also at the end of the project students will be reflecting back on their experience of scaling and building their bridge. This reflection should give me insight into whether or not my students were able to see the importance of accuracy in math. As a follow up to the project I will have students complete a survey. This survey will ask students about what they thought of math prior to the project, whether they thought math was a part of their lives, and what they thought about the importance of accuracy in math. Finally, the survey will look at how their ideas changed. The survey will be mostly open-ended, allowing students to explain their ideas, and hopefully the transition that occurred in their thinking.
In addition to this, as part of our schools improvement program, students will be given pre and post tests as a part of each unit. To check students' understanding of the material I will be able to compare these scores to the other 7th grade math teachers. Ideally I will see that my students preformed just as well as, if not better than, the other students. The transformations that I am looking for in my students will hopefully allow them to be successful on the test, but even more importantly, it will hopefully change the way my students look at math.
In addition to this, as part of our schools improvement program, students will be given pre and post tests as a part of each unit. To check students' understanding of the material I will be able to compare these scores to the other 7th grade math teachers. Ideally I will see that my students preformed just as well as, if not better than, the other students. The transformations that I am looking for in my students will hopefully allow them to be successful on the test, but even more importantly, it will hopefully change the way my students look at math.