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Measuring Up Prototypes for Mathematics Assessment (1993) / Chapter Skim
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The Prototypes
Pages 9-11

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From page 9...
... Finally, of course, the ultimate audience for these new assessment tasks and the ideas that underlie them is the elementary school children for whom the tasks were designed. The tasks provide good examples of challenging mathematical problems and situations that effective teachers can use even now as part of their instructional strategies.
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From page 10...
... Although other forms of organization are certainly possible, these prototypes provide sufficient imposed structure to her p the mathematical ly less sophisticated student get started and show what he or she can do, while allowing plenty of openended space at the top to challenge the more advanced student. Even though the questions within a task often grow in difficulty, many of the tasks involve problem solving, reasoning, and communication right from the beginning.
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From page 11...
... All of the prototypes call for responses that go well beyond simple numerical answers, and most require the student to explain underlying patterns, relationships, or reasoning. As a result, the same activities can be useful to an individual teacher as she or he tries to discern more deeply how students are progressing mathematically, and to a district to discern the effectiveness of its instruction.
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