Frequent Assessments Guide Teaching: Part Two

Last week, we posted an article called Frequent Assessments Guide Teaching: Part One where I discussed some different ways to check in with your kids and their learning. One of the ideas suggests using pre-assessments to make teaching time more valuable. Recently, I’ve started using a pre-assessment at the beginning of a class of my sixth-grade reading class to really differentiate the day’s material for my learners. While the options are limitless, this is how it typically works in my classroom.

Step One: Discuss the Day’s Objectives

To start, we talk about the day’s objectives and how we’re going to reach them by reviewing the agenda. My class knows what they’ll be doing in each group, when we’ll be meeting back together as a class, and how they’ll show their learning by the end of the class period.

Step Two: Take the Pre-Assessment

Next, everyone takes a pre-assessment to determine which group they’ll be working in today. One of the reasons that I love this type of lesson structure is because it shows kids that they can change levels and grow within just one day. They might start the day off as a practitioner, but with some focused practice, they could end up mastering the standard!

Step Three: Trade and Grade

To collect scores quickly and efficiently, I have my class trade and grade with the person sitting next to them. Although false scoring can be an issue at times, we discuss using integrity to really make sure all of our class members get the appropriate practice they need. In addition, the kids know that this particular grade does not enter the grade book, so there is less reason to falsify scores.

Step Four: Break Out

After trading and grading the pre-assessment, I’ll capture everyone’s scores to place kids into groups and see if the day’s mastery check shows improvement. I have two working groups (the practitioners and the masters), but you could have more if you spend more time differentiating the material.

Step Five: Independent Work Time (10-15 minutes)

As the masters get right down to business independently, the practitioners come sit near me. If it’s just a handful of kids, we’ll sit on the floor. If it’s half of the class, we’ll set a timer and have kids make the switch to their appropriate side of the room in 20 seconds.

During this first break out session, I’ll review the pre-assessment with the practitioners. We’ll reread it together, annotate the short text, and practice eliminating answer choices (since we know the correct answers after trading and grading). This allows learners the opportunity to ask questions, to see where they might have made a mistake, and to review what tools and strategies to use during an assessment.

Step Six: Brain Break

Both groups are working hard, and they need a break! I see much higher work quality when I give my class a short break than if I skip it for the day. Get them up and moving to reset their minds. For a list of brain breaks you can use in your classroom, check out this past post.

Step Seven: Independent Work Part Two (15-20 minutes)

At this point, practitioners know exactly how to start their independent practice, and I can jump back to the masters to do a quick check for understanding. If we’re discussing the main ides of a reading, for example, I might stop them and give a quick multiple-choice question asking them to identify the topic of the passage. Then, we’ll review the answer by having the learners who answered the question correctly explain how they knew their answer was the correct answer. Since I have the masters’ attention at this point, I’ll make any clarifications or clear up any misconceptions.

For the remaining time, I’ll pop between masters and practitioners, checking in with a variety of kids in each group to see what things we’re getting and what things are getting missed. Something I also do is tape answer keys or exemplar answers around the room so that individuals can check in with their work as needed.

Step Eight: Mastery Check (5-8 minutes)

Now that some intense practice has been happening, I like to progress monitor by including a brief mastery check. For the sake of consistency and ease, I’ll make the mastery check with the same amount of questions as the prior pre-assessment. During this time, my learners know that they need to do their best work independently. I won’t define words, give hints, or help them read the passage. Just like on a more formalized test, I ask them to use the skills and strategies we practice to help them make sense of the test and eliminate answer choices that don’t make sense.

Step Nine: Score Mastery Checks

If there’s time that day in class (or even the next day), I prefer to trade and grade for two reasons. First, I love celebrating growth, and kids love feeling that sense of accomplishment. Taking a minute or two after grading the assessment to recognize high achievers and/or growers is really valuable for class morale. Second, it’s important to review commonly missed questions as a class when the information and the reading passage are still fresh in their minds.

This lesson structure takes a lot of planning and practice in the execution, but the growth seen makes it a weekly staple. How do you use pre-assessments in your class? What aspects of the structure do you like? Are there any concerns you have? Let the Lesson Planet community help you adapt a new strategy and tailor it to your personal classroom by recording any comments or questions below!