Hello, and happy Thursday! Fall has FINALLY arrived in Missouri – I saw an extremely accurate meme on Facebook yesterday that said, “Missouri weather just went from 90 to 55 like it saw a State Trooper,” and that description could not be more accurate! At our daughter’s soccer tournament the week before last, my husband, younger daughter, and I were in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. At our tournament on Sunday, I was wearing a hoodie, long pants, gloves, and was wrapped up in a fleece blanket. Missouri weather is just so great – ugh. Last week, my Accelerated Government class began our Federalism and Missouri Constitution unit and, in keeping with my goal to use pre/post-assessments for every unit, we started off with a pre-assessment. Instead of using Google Forms like I typically do, we used a Padlet wall. Here’s why …
Students Visualizing Learning
I’ve really appreciated the feedback and data from student pre/post-assessments this year. It’s been awesome! I see what standards my students already know based on the data I collect in a nice, neat Google Sheet, and can plan my instruction based on that. While I was able to view this information clearly, my students weren’t. I had originally intended to provide my students with graphing or computer paper that they could use to graph their pre-test and their post-test scores in relation to learning targets in order to actually see their growth over the course of the unit. What actually happened was this — students took the post-test and I talked briefly with them individually about “where” they started the unit and “where” they ended. The facial expressions were priceless! However, I’m looking for something that is more accessible to them, not just me.
Teacher-Brain
Please tell me I’m not the only one who suffers from severe teacher-brain (perhaps coupled with mom-brain) from time to time? You know the feeling – when you have a great idea, or a plan that you just know is going to be awesome and, in your completely overwhelmed mind, you know that you have plenty of time to create it or make it happen. Well … that’s exactly what happened with the Missouri Constitution/Federalism pre-test. I just KNEW that I had SO much time to create the form when in actuality … I DIDN’T. Padlet came in clutch for me, as it has so many times!
Padlet for Pre-Tests
I created and shared a Padlet wall with my students and required them to respond to or identify questions/individuals that we would be learning about throughout the course of this unit. At the end of the unit, the students will be able to go back to the Padlet and comment on their original post with what they’ve learned. This will allow them (and me) to see their individual progress over the course of our unit.
I’ll report back soon with their feedback! How do you use pre and post-assessments in your classroom?
Thanks for reading 🙂
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