Documente Academic
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Documente Cultură
Niyoria McKinnis
Regent University
RUNNING HEAD: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT
Introduction
are a great way for teachers to see where students are, so they can plan accordingly and see what
students need to work on. This will help teachers figure out where they need to focus their
lessons and which areas they need to focus less on. After the pre- assessment is done, teachers
always have to think where they want their students to be in the end and go from there. Teachers
should always look to see what the post test will focus on and then teach from there. Creating
lessons with the end in mind will boost student achievement in the end and students will benefit
more from it. When pre-assessing my students I took the information that was given from the test
and went from there. As I taught the unit, I kept track of each students success daily.
The first artifact that I chose to share includes what I used for a pre-assessment of a unit
in math. The unit we focused on was on SOL 2.22- The student will demonstrate an
quantities and the symbol indicates that quantities are not equivalent (VDOE). The pre-
assessment given gave me information of what the students know and dont know about equality.
Taking the information provided I was able to see where I need to focus my lessons the most.
After examining the pre-assessments I came up with different ideas to differentiate my lessons,
so all students would be able to learn and grasp the concept of equality. Taking pre-assessments I
feel is a vital part to teaching because it lets you know where your students stand before you
actually teach a unit. Teachers are able to teach what the students need to practice on rather than
The second artifact I chose to share was my lesson plan on equality after students took
the assessment. After looking at the assessments I decided to think of ways to differentiate my
lessons. So for the instruction part of this unit I used different strategies to help students learn
what it means to be equal and not equal. To begin this lesson I used a manipulative which was
pretzels. I first began the lesson by going over what the two symbols mean the symbol = in an
equation indicates equivalent quantities and the symbol indicates that quantities are not
equivalent. I did a few easy practice questions with the students that didnt include equations just
to get a little practice in. After practicing about two equation problems I talked with the students
about how we would use pretzel sticks to show if the equation is equivalent and not equivalent.
As I presented different problems to the class on the document camera using my white board the
students had to either say if the equation presented was equal or not equal using their pretzel
sticks to show the different signs. The students really enjoyed this activity. They were all focused
and engaged. The students were also able to use the balance beam for different problems to see if
they balance out. The students really enjoyed making their own problems and seeing if they are
balanced by using the balance beam. With this activity, the students were able to grasp more onto
the concept of what makes an equation equal and not equal. The following day I had the students
write down equal or not equal on their white boards for different equations I presented. We did
many different practices throughout the week so the students can fully understand the concept
being learned.
The third artifact is the post assessment I used for equality. To prepare the students for
this post-test I evaluated the test to see what students should know in the end and taught from
there. So my lessons were taught with the end result in mind. Letting students explore on their
own with the balance beam helped many students in many ways. In the end all students were
RUNNING HEAD: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT
able to tell me why they chose equal or not equal for certain equations using their own words. In
the end, I compared the pre and post-test together to see how much students learned overtime. I
also looked at grades in between to see the progress in students. I was happy to see that all
students in the end progressed. Differentiation in my lessons really helped my students achieve
Pre-assessing students plays a huge role in how teachers plan to differentiate their
lessons. In my lesson on equality I was able to plan accordingly depending on what my students
mostly needed help on. After students take their test teachers are able to see what students know
and understand and also what they need work on. With this information teachers are able to plan
activities based on need. Assessment is the key to drive instruction in the classroom and it occurs
from the beginning of the unit till the very end of the unit (Tomlinson, 2000). So first teachers
find out what students know, then teachers keep track and check up on student progress then
teachers make sure students understand in the end. So this is a continuous process throughout
learning. The question teachers have to ask is how do we assess the gap between what we know
about students and what performance is expected of them for the final assessment of the unit
(Gregory, 2004).
RUNNING HEAD: PLANNING, PREPARATION, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT
Works Cited
Gregory, G.H. and Kuzmich, L. (2004). Data driven differentiation in the standards-based
Tomlinson, C. (2000). Differentiating Instruction for Academic Diversity. San Antonio, TX:
ASCD