Michelle Belanger

SEI 513
Spring 2014
Competency Area One: Assessment

In administrating this assessment to my class I found that it was very
cumbersome. I found that taking each child one by one into a separate space to
administer the assessment took a lot longer that I expected. The first couple that I
administered I felt very discombobulated, even after I practiced the assessment
before administering to any child. I feel that I fumbled with the equipment and was
searching for materials. This was the primary reason I feel it took so long.
After a couple of tests, I fell into a grove that made me realize that I could
combine a lot of the questions and materials together. This stopped the fumbling
around and made the tests much quicker. I was able to use some materials for dual
purpose and combine questions. For example, I was able to use the shapes for not
only identifying geometric shapes but also to group and sort. I was able to combine
these questions and activities into one, which made it less, segmented and was flow
a little bit better.
Something that I realized was the fact that this was an assessment that I did
not have to pull the children out to administer one at a time. The questions and
activities are something that I can do in a small group with a few children at a time.
I can also use observation to determine knowledge of some of the questions.
Another difficult part was some of the children who do not speak English and
them not understanding the questions. As their teacher all year I was able to
rephrase questions so they could understand and answer to the best of their
knowledge. For example, instead of having the children tell me what numeral to
identify, I had them show me on a number wheel. Normally I would say, What
number is this? (Point to a number). With my ELL students I would say, Point to
the number 3. This made it possible for me to still determine their knowledge of
the items with the children who dont speak English as their first language.
I have to say that I wasnt really surprised with the results of the assessment.
We have been doing math activities in the classroom all year long but not really
concentrating on them. The thing that was most helpful was getting an
understanding of where the children were. I was able to determine what their
strengths and weaknesses were. I was able to see what concept children needed
more practice with. I noticed that most of my children needed more practice around
sorting items by attributes. Immediately I was able to introduce some sorting
games into centers for the children to be able to get more practice. I also assessed
that some of the children needed more practice recognizing numerals and shapes. I
was able to use this data to plan the curriculum for small group time to get the
children more practice and exposure to activities that would reinforce those skills.