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Pre-Assessment for Differentiation

Introduction

Pre-assessment, sometimes referred to as diagnostic assessments, assesses a

student’s strengths, weakness, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction. If used correctly, pre assessments can be a great tool to help the teachers identify the student needs.

Importance of Pre-Assessment

1. Pre-assessments allows the teachers to see if what is being covered in the lesson or unit is already mastered. If all of the students have a topic or skill mastered then the teachers can skip that lesson. If only a couple of students have a problem, then teachers can individualize their instruction to bring them up to speed. If the majority of students are struggling with the information then the teachers can continue with their lessons.

2. Pre-assessments help measure true learning. By comparing pre-assessments and summative assessments, the teachers are able to see what students actually learned from the lessons that we developed. Now that teachers have given a pre-assessment, after they given the summative assessment at the end of the unit, they can compare the scores to get an measure of student growth.

3. Pre-assessments give the students a preview of what will be expected of them. Setting clear expectations helps students begin to focus on the key topics that will be covered throughout the lesson. This also gives the students the opportunity to set educational goals for the coming weeks.

4. Pre-assessments provide ideas for future lessons. After a pre-test is given, teachers may find knowledge gaps that they did not expect. With this information, they can make changes to future lessons or even create new lessons to include further instruction and review.

What Is Differentiation?

In order for differentiation to be effective, assessment must be an ongoing part of teaching and learning. Preassessment is especially critical to be able to determine the student's level of readiness to proceed with the new unit of study. These three questions should guide every lesson:

  • Planning: What do I want students to know and/or to be able to do?

  • Preassessment: Who already knows the information and/or can do it?

  • Differentiation: What can I do for them so they can make continuous progress and extend their learning?

Planning: What Do I Want Students to Know and/or to Be Able to Do? Those educators following best practice must plan their instructional objectives carefully. These objectives reflect national and state standards, the Core Content, Program of Studies, and Learning Goals. If a teacher has not assessed what she is doing in a unit, then she can certainly not guide her students to those outcomes. He is like the captain who doesn't chart his course and doesn't know his destination.

Preassessment; Who Already Knows the Information and/or Can Do It? Once those objectives are created, the teacher must then ascertain who already knows the information or can already perform the skill. There are myriad ways to preassess. Teachers match the preassessment with their content, their students, and their own teaching styles. Some will use the final assessment as the preassessment. If a child already knows 80% of the material, then there is no need for him to "learn" it all over. He's already mastered it.

The form of the preassessment isn't nearly as important as its utilization. Not only do educators need to preassess, but they must also use those results in teaching the unit. That's where differentiation comes in.

Differentiation: What Can I Do for Them So They Can Make Continuous Progress and Extend Their Learning? Now that a teacher has a strong understanding of who knows or can do what, she plans. He will differentiate the content, process, or product to better meet the needs, abilities, and interests of all kids.

Pre-Assessment in Art

Before starting a unit in Art, I would give a pre-assessment quiz to the students. The quiz includes questions to mesuare students' knowledge about the elements of Art, focused on shapes and lines. Here is the quiz.

Then, based on pre-assessment quiz results, I would divide the students into three groups to differentiate instruction.

First group, students who answered most, including the most difficult, of the pre-assessment questions.

For these students I would give the game box or online games to entaile a lot of intense reading and decision making that engaged and enrich students who are already comfortable with the material. More details for these differentiating strategies in my mind map and a link for my mind map I will leave end of my blog.

Second group, students who have some knowledge about the topic, but need to develop higher order thinking skills.

The students in this group who missed some questions on the quiz, they will need reinforcement of a few simple concepts to fully grasp the material fo the day.

Differentiating strategies for this group I would use ,Think - Ink - Pair - Share strategy. Think-Ink-Pair- Share strategy is a way to get students to reveal what they know or believe about a topic is to begin by having them commit their thoughts to writing. To assess what the group knows, have students discuss their ideas in pairs, and then to share them with the large group. The student in this group will work in pairs and will review the part of the materials that they are weak.

Third group, students who appear to have limited knowledge about the topic.

This group of students struggle with understanding the concept and they need to improve their vocabulary. For this goup of students I would use Yes/No Flash Cards.

Yes/No Flash Cards – Students make a card with Yes on one side, No on the opposite side. Teachers ask an introductory or review question. Students who know the answer hold up the Yes card, if they don’t know the answer they hold the No card. This is very effective to use when introducing vocabulary words that students need as a knowledge base for a specific unit of study.

Practicing with these cards will help these students get familiar with new terms and will help them understand the concept better.

Here is a link for my mind map:

References:

URLhttp://www.naiku.net/naiku-coach/importance-of-pre-assessment/

Website TitleNaiku

Article TitleImportance of Pre-Assessment

Date AccessedFebruary 03, 2017

URLhttp://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/entry/A10331

Website TitleDifferentiation tips for teachers: Practical strategies for the classroom

Article TitleSearch Database

Date AccessedFebruary 03, 2017

URLhttps://sites.google.com/site/lrtsas/differentiation/5-preassessment-ideas

Website TitleGoogle Sites

Article Title5. Pre-assessment Ideas - Differentiation & LR Information for SAS Teachers

Date AccessedFebruary 03, 2017


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