Quiz Conversations: Turning Assessments Into Heated Math Discussions

Kyle DeBoer is an AP Calculus teacher at Rockford High School in Michigan, where he has been using Math Medic materials for the past three years. Over the course of his career, Kyle has taught a wide range of courses from Algebra 1 through AP Calculus, including several years teaching in Alabama before returning to Michigan. Kyle is deeply committed to creating a classroom environment where students feel supported, challenged, and engaged. Outside the classroom, he enjoys paddle boarding, playing pickleball and softball, and rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals.

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The best mathematical conversations in my classroom take place on quiz days. That may be hard to believe, but it’s true. A few years ago I tried something in my classroom on a quiz day, and the results far exceeded my expectations. Now all of my quizzes are “quiz conversations,” and I’ll never go back.

The Problems that Quiz Conversations Solve

Like many secondary math teachers, I’ve wrestled with a few tensions:

1. I want quizzes to help students learn, not just identify where they currently are.
2. I want students engaging with rigorous questions, but I worry about grading them on mastery too soon after their first exposure to the content.
3. Ungraded formative assessments are good, but it’s hard to motivate full effort on assessments that aren’t graded, particularly when the questions require serious critical thinking.
4. I know students learn best when they talk through ideas — but they’re not always motivated to defend their ideas or challenge each other’s thinking when they work together.

Quiz conversations strike a balance between the productive value of formative assessments and the graded motivation of summative assessments.

How It Works

The structure is simple:

Phase 1: Individual Work (Pencil)
Students take the quiz individually, using only a pencil. There is a clear time limit. During this time, it’s quiet. They take it seriously because they know it counts.

Phase 2: Collaborative Revision (Pen/Marker)
At the end of the designated time, I announce: “Put your pencils away and grab a marker.”

Students put away their pencils and take out a pen or marker (I provide felt tip markers). For the next 10 minutes, they may talk to anyone in the room. I walk around to make sure pencils are put away, but I almost never interfere with the conversations.

They can revise 2–3 answers (depending on quiz length — roughly one-fifth of the assessment). For any questions they choose to revise, what they write in pen is what counts. For revised multiple choice questions, they must show their setup or explain their reasoning, not just circle a different answer.

What Actually Happens

When the time for revision starts, students immediately turn to each other and talk about questions they are unsure of. “Wait — how did you get that?” “Did you distribute the negative?” “I set mine up like this. Does that make sense?”

They defend their reasoning. They challenge each other. They revise misconceptions. They collectively recall definitions, theorems, and formulas. They argue about structure and precision.

In other words, they naturally exhibit some of the Standards for Mathematical Practice. They communicate with precision because they care about the accuracy of their reasoning and answer. They aren’t just copying, they’re evaluating arguments.

Students often start by talking to the classmates they know best, but it doesn’t take long before they move to another group to hear what others are saying.

Quiz Conversations Work Because They… 

1. Preserve Individual Accountability

Students must first wrestle with the problems alone. They can’t rely on someone else’s thinking to get started.

2. Build in Immediate Feedback

Instead of waiting days to find out they misunderstood something, students confront misconceptions within minutes.

And because they talk through revisions, the feedback sticks.

3. Make Quizzes Instructional

The collaborative phase transforms a traditional quiz into a learning experience. Those 10 minutes are often the most focused math conversations of the week.

I don’t interrupt much. I listen because it helps me understand how students are thinking about the questions without my input.

4. Maintain Rigor

I use Math Medic’s quizzes, and the questions always lead to good thinking. There are often questions that stretch students, but it no longer bothers me to have those questions on quizzes because the struggle becomes part of the learning, not just the grading. A student’s grade in my class is based exclusively on their tests and quizzes, so I like the way quiz conversations challenge them early without discouraging them with a low grade.

What I’ve Noticed Over Time

Do students do better on quizzes when they can revise 2-3 questions? Of course they do. Does that assurance keep them from studying? Absolutely not! They still take quizzes seriously. Because only a small number of answers can be revised, students still prepare. Perhaps surprisingly, quiz conversations have increased effort, not decreased it.

I mentioned that the best mathematical conversations in my classroom take place on quiz days. Want to know what else happens on quiz days? Laughter. So much laughter. I don’t fully know why, but when students have tried a difficult problem alone, and then they get to talk about it with the opportunity to correct it, they end up laughing together. They also laugh at their own silly mistakes. It’s so good for them!

At times I’ve worried that some students would have trouble with the free-for-all feel of the revision period. I’ve worried that one or two students might not feel comfortable talking to their classmates. It is a little bit chaotic at times, but everyone ends up talking to their classmates every single time. I actually think my students are more comfortable around each other because of it.

Final Thoughts

In addition to using quiz conversations throughout the year with new content, I bring them back when reviewing for AP exams. The practice multiple choice sets at the end of each unit in the Math Medic AP Review Course are perfect for quiz conversations to increase confidence with older material, and my students always feel more confident after the quizzes.

Quiz conversations are structured, intentional, and bounded by clear expectations. They capture what we already know to be true about how students learn math:

Understanding deepens when we explain our thinking.
Confidence grows when we defend our thinking.
Clarity emerges when we revise our thinking.

Because sometimes, the most powerful math instruction doesn’t happen during the lesson. It happens when the pencils get put away, the markers come out, and the room starts buzzing.

 

If you have any additional questions about quiz conversations, feel free to reach out to deboer.kyle@gmail.com.