Assessment!

Lost 2

GAINED 12!

Got another email from David. I Lost 2 Pie Pieces :-\ but gained 12 :-$ , so i really have 10. :-)

Woo-Hoo!!

Periodically, and without any warning whatsoever, ALEKS presents an assessment. Once that happens, you cannot do anything else - including looking at the Dictionary or Review items - until you have completed the Assessment.

For the past few assessments, David has gained and lost roughly an equal number of pie pieces (see earlier blogs for more info on ALEKS - http://www.aleks.com). My assessment is that he is not retaining some of what he has learned. Mind now, he has retained a LOT. I hear it when he gets a problem on an assessment and says, "That's easy."

But ALEKS does not give a person as much review on items as a regular classroom might. Which is fine IFF you GET it and REMEMBER it. So I have approached the issue this way. Each week I assign 10 lessons from ALEKS (they are not that long). I select 7-8 from the REVIEW topics, and then 2-3 new topics for David to try. David is reponsible for completing them and recording what he's done. He's also to let me know what gave him problems. On Friday (my regular teaching day), we look at what he's done and spend time on the ones that gave him problems. Then we usually do 1-2 new pie pieces together.

I am assuming this is working! given the fact that, per his assessment, he was up 10 pie pieces for this review period.

HORRAH!