One of the teaching strategies I used often in high school math classes was the quiz. I often used it to review basic skills, number facts, formulas, and the meanings of various geometric and other mathematical terminologies. He often made a written record of the questions he asked to use again in the future.
Often, he gave the same questionnaire more than once, but kept records of the students’ results and encouraged them to do so as well. I tell them that the test will be repeated but not when.
The idea of the records is to encourage the student to work to improve. The improvement is then recognized by you, the teacher, and by the students themselves.
Another way to keep records is to record questionnaire questions that are poorly asked. Reteach the concepts associated with these, and later invent a new quiz to review these tasks again and see if your teaching has been effective. If you do this multiple times with your various tests of each type or topic, you will end up with some very good final tests. Then they could be used as pseudo diagnostic tests with future classes as well.
These records can be used to help you with your student progress report, particularly mid-semester reports. The record of results also helps the teacher to quickly know his class. The student’s face-to-face contact reporting their results and their recording of those results helps prevent silent students from “hiding in plain sight.” The teacher can put a face on a name and then really get to know the student who is arguing with the parents in a complaint situation.
