Assessment Archives - MARILYN BURNS MATH

Addition Assessment General Interest Interviews One-on-One Listening to Learn Mental Math Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning

What Were Meeyah & Rocco Thinking?

During a Listening to Learn interview, when asked to figure out mentally the missing number in the problem 90 – ___ = 75, Meeyah and Rocco explained their reasoning in different ways. Listen to how they thought and how I used these two videos for a class lesson.

adminMarch 12, 2023

Addition Assessment General Interest Interviews One-on-One Listening to Learn Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Subtraction Videos

What Was Rebecca Thinking?

Rebecca solved 7 – 3 by adding, demonstrating the important numerical reasoning strategy of applying the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. Read about what happened when I used the video clip of Rebecca in a class lesson.

Marilyn BurnsApril 10, 2022

Assessment General Interest Interviews One-on-One Listening to Learn Mental Math Numerical Reasoning

Nine Ways to Have Deeper Conversations with Students about Math

David Brooks wrote an opinion column in The New York Times on November 19, 2020, “Nine Nonobvious Ways to Have Deeper Conversations.” K–5 math wasn’t his focus or even hinted at in his message, but his suggestions jumped out at me as useful and important for connecting with students.

Marilyn BurnsJune 8, 2021

Assessment Division General Interest Interviews One-on-One Mental Math Numerical Reasoning Videos

What Was Jonah Thinking?

I’m often surprised by what I learn when I interview students. Watch this 46-second video clip of Jonah solving 100 ÷ 3. Then read how I used the clip in a lesson with a class of fifth graders, and also read the letters the students wrote to Jonah.

Marilyn BurnsFebruary 18, 2020

Assessment Books by Marilyn Division General Interest Math and Literature Multiplication Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Problem Solving Word Problems

One Lesson, Three Grades, Three Twists

The children's book 17 Kings and 42 Elephants by Margaret Mahy is one of my long-time favorites. In this post I describe a division lesson that I’ve taught to third graders but recently revisited with fourth- and fifth-grade classes. With the older students, we tried extensions that differentiated the experience and put students in charge of deciding on problems for themselves. It was exciting to me to expand a lesson I've taught many times into a multi-day investigation.

Marilyn BurnsJanuary 30, 2017

Assessment Data General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Real-World Problems

Beans and Scoops

Lessons using beans and scoops have long been part of my teaching repertoire. I’ve used beans, scoops, and jars to engage students in all grade levels with a variety of mathematical ideas. In this post, I write about how I recently taught a lesson to give students experience with estimation, averages, multiplication, and more. Read about how I planned the lesson, how it unfolded, and suggestions for extensions and other lessons.

Marilyn BurnsNovember 1, 2016

Assessment General Interest Interviews One-on-One Number and Operations Place Value Videos

Place Value: How to Assess Students’ Understanding

Place value is one of the most important foundational concepts about our number system. Watch my assessment interviews of second graders and learn how you can find out what your students understand about place value.

Marilyn BurnsJanuary 18, 2016

Assessment General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Videos

A Mental Math Lesson

I asked a class of fourth graders to figure out the answer to 99 + 17 in their heads. In this post, I describe why I chose that problem, include a video of how the lesson unfolded, describe a teaching error I made in a subsequent lesson, and more.

Marilyn BurnsJune 2, 2015

Assessment General Interest Interviews One-on-One Numerical Reasoning Videos

We Ask, We Listen, We Learn

How much is 12.6 × 10? This is a question from the Math Reasoning Inventory (MRI) decimal assessment. What do you think were the most common incorrect answers given by the more than 7,800 students who figured out the answer in their heads? And what about the boy who answered, “One hundred twenty and thirty-fifths?”

Marilyn BurnsJanuary 5, 2015

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