Back in January, I was wracking my brain about how to make assessments go better in my classes; there was too much stress, too much concentration on the wrong things: it felt too much like a big bad test that everyone should be stressed out about. So I thought to myself, what if they could take a break, take a walk, talk about the test, get rid of misconceptions and jitters, etc. 
And that's what we did. 

Evolution:
Phase 1
I didn't really have a good idea about how to do this the first time, so I was kind of loose with everything.
"Work on the test for 10 minutes, then we'll take a walk. Come back, work for another 30, we'll do it again. then 20 minutes to finish."
The idea here was to have some time to get into it, then ask questions that might have come up, then some more work, then final questions.
I didn't talk or answer any questions. I let students take notebooks and pencils with them, and bring them back into the room.

Student Feedback
After each class's first test walk, I asked for some feedback about the process:

Ok, nothing really shocking there. I used the "cheating" results to have some conversations about why I write assessment questions the way I do, why I ask for so much from one question, why my assessments are only 1-2 questions.

The next few questions on the survey gave me some more interesting feedback (summarizing and cherry-picking some results here).

Did anything bother you about taking a break during the test?

1. lots of "no"s, "it was too cold", "it was too noisy", "more time"  --meh
2. Sometimes it got even more confusing because you would mix what the other person was saying to you with what you already thought.​ / The break lead me to panic and question myself about whether I got the concept.​ --I get this and was surprised that there weren't more like these. I'm hoping that they get more confident as they go on, or learn to ignore others or have productive discussions if they're pretty sure of themselves.
3. if we would have been allowed to take our test around or have been able to view it during our break, it would have been even more helpful. But I understand why you won't do that, it is a test after all. --Glad they understand :)
4. Not really, except people screaming. --Hmm, discussions too heated? I must have missed this :)
5. everyone either crowded around one person and I couldn't help but feel bad for the person in the middle. / I think we should have groups while walking outside. Otherwise everyone gets on one person. --This was something I should have worked harder to address. It was a big problem in one class (which I'll discuss later), but not so much in the others.
6. Stopping in the middle of a problem. --a couple of different variations of this one. I think Phase 3 takes care of it.

 Is there anything you really liked about taking a break during the test? 

1. If you had any confusions they could be cleared out / seeing different methods / noticing mistakes  --alot of this
2. Stress relief / helped me cool down / feeling of comfort that you could still get help / fresh air --and this
3. I couldn't understand what to do in the test and my classmates explained the question for me. --and this
4. I think this was the first test I actually took happily and didn't panic or anything and just overall it was very different but I believe this would overall as a class improve and help everyone understand better
5. It acted as a type of kickstart to get me started on completing the test on my own
6. Yes, it felt a lot less stressful and it felt like the teacher understood where students were coming from.
7. It was good to see that a lot of people didn't understand what was happening just like you didn't. --umm, ok? I think? Maybe not ok?

Describe any suggestions you have for how we can make tests less stressful.

1. more time / more breaks --Eh, I put a lot of thought into time limits, and I think there are always going to be people who ask for more. Part of "Proficient" for me means efficient, confident, and prepared enough to show some solid understanding on a single problem in 20 minutes or so.
2. extra credit / MCQs / more questions but easier questions  / traditional math tests / grading scale gripes (summative assessments are worth at least 85% in my class) / only one topic at a time / fewer tests  -- Meh! spent all first semester discussing these things. Not gonna happen.
3. We can practice the types of questions on the test so it's not a surprise and much harder on the test. / More time and review the topics in the the class before the test. / Maybe more practice questions similar to the ones on the test. Like with the same type of wording and format.-- I did start doing this more, maybe to a further degree than I'm really comfortable with as I reflect here. Part of "Proficient" for me also means being able to apply math you know in unfamiliar situations.
4. We can take tests in pairs? --Couple of these. I'm interested in this idea, but not with these students, at least not yet. Academic dishonesty has been too much of an issue this year.
5. We could not call them tests but rather anything else.  --I'm trying, man! "Summative Assessment" is just so many damn syllables, it's never gonna catch on!
6. The rubric is quite confusing and vague, it would be nice to have examples of what a 1:4, and so on look like specifically for the topic we are doing -- Yup, that would be nice. Working on it.

Phase 2:
Teachers with more foresight than me probably know exactly what went wrong with this: some students used the breaks, especially the last one, to just copy each others work. Of course they did!

The process with the rest of the classes in this first round of tests allowed us to have some great discussions about how to show your understanding (and how to show that it's YOUR understanding).

​I pretty quickly stopped letting students take notes or any paper with them, instead sending a basket of whiteboards and markers with them that got erased before they came back into class. I also got rid of the second break: work 10 minutes, 10 minutes to discuss, 40 minutes for the rest of the test.

Results?
I don't have really good data on this. Visual modeling increased, but also paragraphs of writing where some good algebra steps would do just fine. "Less tell, more show!" became my most often used comment on assessments.
I think it "felt" better, at least to me. At least most of the time. It also gave me some more freedom (along with some more directed test-prep on my part) to ask more open-ended questions: "Make up your own triangle and solve it to show me you understand trigonometry". 

Then there was
The oblique asymptote incident:
So, one of my precal sections, my "difficult" class, last period of the day, test over rational expressions and functions, Illustrative Math question about fuel efficiency...

In this class, I have one student who's way ahead of everyone, a transfer this year from another school where his algebra 2 class covered most of what I have to cover to meet the needs of the students here. He's the "go to guy" during test walks, the one the other students crowd around. He and I had had a discussion about a similar problem, and and how to tie the idea of an oblique asymptote to the context and the solution. It wasn't something that most of the students were ready for, but he was. Here's some of the nonsense I got back on this test:

I threw these and a few others into a presentation (yes, along with some positive things, too) and used it to have a very pointed discussion about cheating. I also found ways to remove this student from the conversation during walks (by having my own conversation with him) so that the others wouldn't get distracted by things they're not ready for.

Phase 3:
I settled on a 3 minute reading period (look over the test and strategize: no talking, no writing, no calculators) followed by a 10 minute walk before each test, with whiteboards if students want to use them. Some students still try to memorize the entire problem and get classmates to give them the "answer" (whatever that means), but this is where I think I can feel comfortable. This is what I did for the rest of the year.

Reflection: Why do this?
Test walks are a pain in my ass, mostly because they cause me to spend so much time thinking about and watching for academic dishonesty. I'm not sure if they really help with assessment results because I'm too lazy to do a real look into the scores, and my records aren't good enough to call this useful data yet. I still have assessments where the majority of students miss the mark completely and/or give nonsense answers to questions. 

I do this, and I'm going to continue to do this, because of the mathematical discourse it produces. The "pressure" of these discussions produces the best mathematical discussions I ever get to witness, even from the students who are the most disengaged in the classroom. Students argue their case, critique the reasoning of their classmates, ask questions, and don't stop asking until they get it. On one of the last walks this year I tried to capture this in a video. It's kind of hard to hear what they're saying, but you could probably get the idea with the sound off.

So, the question I'm working on now is: How do I get this kind of engagement as a normal part of my classroom... without having to give a test every day!

​I had a really rough class last week with my 8th graders. They'd been using a Chinese word pretty regularly in class that I suspected was a swear word. So I decided to call them out on it. When I heard a student using the word, I'd ask them what they said. And what did they do? As you can probably imagine, they totally lied to me. Then their classmates backed them up. 
I left that class pretty furious and went directly to the Mandarin teacher to confirm my suspicions (it's like the worst word you can say in Mandarin). Then I started stewing... Losing sleep... Plotting my revenge...
Because of the schedule, it turned out that I didn't see this class again for a week, which was probably a good thing. I asked a colleague for five minutes with them at the end of her class the next day, and I let them know that I knew what they were saying, and I was really disappointed with them. I tried to make sure they understood that it wasn't the profanity that really bugged me (I use profanity, although I don't throw it around in public), it was the dishonesty. Also, that this was an indicator of a bigger problem with this class: the lack of academic language in our daily discourse. 
Silence... Blank stares... Some guilty looks... Some grins...
So then we all had a week to think about it. I spent a lot of mental energy on it, although I doubt they did. I got an email from one of the students involved apologizing for the profanity, but didn't hear anything else.
The next time I had them in class, I started out by making sure they understood the problems:

1. Dishonesty- I can't teach this class the way I want to if I can't trust you.
2. Academic Language- The language we use in class directly affects our ability to respond to directions and show our understanding using the language of the classroom, regardless of our home language.
3. Responsibility- All of us need to take responsibility for the language we use in this class. It's not always enough for YOU to do the right thing; sometimes you need to take the time to encourage those around you to do the right thing. It's your learning, so take charge!

And then I went on strike. "I can't teach you until we figure this out. I've tried everything I know how to do, and it's not working. You fix it. I'll be at my desk when you've got a solution."
I sat at my desk in the corner and left them to have a conversation. Slow start... leaders emerge... They ended up having a pretty decent conversation for 8th grade students. 

• Punishment! - But punishment doesn't work.
• Only English in class! - But sometimes you need things translated that you don't understand
• Why should I care? - I care!

They ended up passing around a whiteboard and each writing some personal agreements on it about how they would contribute to a solution​. Also came up with some norms/rules addressing when/why mother tongue is needed (I was actually impressed with this: it's pretty close to what I would have had them do if this was teacher-led). 

After about 45 minutes, I stepped in and gave a little direction to solidify and wrap things up, and then led them through some roleplaying scenarios (1 plays teacher and 2 play students).

• Teacher is teaching and you have no idea what he's talking about. What do you do?
  • Raise my hand, ask to have it translated, partner translates.
• Partner is speaking about math in non-academic language
  • Ask partner to repeat in AL, help her if she needs it.
• Partner is speaking in English, about math, but using incorrect terminology
  • Correct partner by paraphrasing using AL
• ​Partner is speaking in any language about something not related to math class
  • "We're in math class. Let's stick to the material."

Then I actually got to finish up class by teaching a little math!

The school trip is coming up, so again, we have a long period of time until our next class. I feel like they did some good work today, and I hope it sticks. At least it got them talking and thinking about this.
Take-aways, Lessons Learned:

• I need to be more intentional about classroom management
• I need to remember to involve students in formulating classroom norms
• I need to do more of this in the beginning of the year (while responding to a problem can be a powerful way to learn and grow, it might be better not to have the problem in the first place)
• I need to remember to give myself and my students space to reflect when things go poorly