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Mention the word "assessment" to a teacher and he or she will tell you that they're never ending! You may also get mixed reactions, followed by some of the buzz words below...
And yes, sometimes your brain feels like this when confronted by the topic of "assessment!" So...why do it?
Well, let's focus on pre-assessment. If we take a look at the diagram above, we know that pre-assessment activates students' prior knowledge to expose misconceptions and reveal knowledge gaps. So...again...why do it? Well, the simple, one worded answer is: differentiation. If the learning experience/s can be tailored to the individual's needs, then we have a more successful model of learning since the individual is presented with specific opportunities, enabling them to acquire new knowledge and skills by way of various systems and/or environments.
Let's say I wanted to teach to this content descriptor for Year 5: "Identify and describe multiples of whole numbers and use them to solve problems (Australian Curriculum)." I would then use a basic pre-assessment (such as the one below) to gauge their understanding and fluency of multiples first. The data would then be analysed and for those who struggled with the pre-assessment, an emphasis on understanding and fluency would be a priority. For those students who passed the pre-assessment, the activities would be designed to focus on problem solving and reasoning. Since these skills are classed as higher-order thinking, your gifted and talented students will be catered for (especially if the activities are open-ended)!
Well, let's focus on pre-assessment. If we take a look at the diagram above, we know that pre-assessment activates students' prior knowledge to expose misconceptions and reveal knowledge gaps. So...again...why do it? Well, the simple, one worded answer is: differentiation. If the learning experience/s can be tailored to the individual's needs, then we have a more successful model of learning since the individual is presented with specific opportunities, enabling them to acquire new knowledge and skills by way of various systems and/or environments.
Let's say I wanted to teach to this content descriptor for Year 5: "Identify and describe multiples of whole numbers and use them to solve problems (Australian Curriculum)." I would then use a basic pre-assessment (such as the one below) to gauge their understanding and fluency of multiples first. The data would then be analysed and for those who struggled with the pre-assessment, an emphasis on understanding and fluency would be a priority. For those students who passed the pre-assessment, the activities would be designed to focus on problem solving and reasoning. Since these skills are classed as higher-order thinking, your gifted and talented students will be catered for (especially if the activities are open-ended)!
For more on differentiation please visit: http://syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au/support-materials/differentiated-programming/
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