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Pre & Post-Assessments
During my internship, I created a unit in third grade on energy sources. Every third grade class was required to administer the same test at the end of the unit as outlined by the school. Therefore, the plan to creating my pre-assessment was to examine the post-test to highlight key vocabulary and content that students would need to understand at the end of our instructional time. The vocabulary included terms such as thermal, electrical, geothermal, and mechanical energy, solar power, containment, fossil fuels, nonrenewable and renewable resources, hydropower, and conservation. With these words and topics in mind, I created a pre-assessment containing 10 multiple-choice questions, similar to the ones students would see on the test. I made sure to include some of the vocabulary I highlighted in the pre-test to expose students early on to the type of language they would see at the end of the unit. I administered the pre-assessment on the very first day of the lesson before I began instruction. I informed students that this assessment was not going to be graded, but rather it was a way for me to see what they already knew about energy sources. I instructed them to try their best and if they reached a question they didn’t understand, to try and answer it to the best of their ability.
In order to test understanding across the grade level, the grade-level team created the post assessment for this science content area. Each of the six- third grade classes in the primary school administered the same end of the unit test. This test consisted of 22 multiple-choice questions. Some of the questions provided a picture to the students who then had identify what source of energy was being used in the picture. I believe exposing my students to the format of the post assessment early on in the unit helped them prepare for what was to come. |
Other Assessments
I used a variety of other formative and summative assessments over the course of my internship and coursework. During my unit, I used whole-group discussions, quick-checks, quizzes, and interactive notebooks to gauge student understanding. The summative assessment for my unit was in the form of a end of the unit exam.
During other experiences in my internship and practicum experience, I have used or seen assessments including unit projects, running records, benchmarks, and presentations. |