Jordan Watson

10/16/14
Elementary Curriculum
Mrs. Wright
Assessment Inventory
On my first visit to my mentor teachers class, she gave her students an assessment on
Generators and motors. This was the part of the topic that she was teaching. She had the class
period designed to where she would lead up to the quiz. Ms. Young led a class discussion on
Heat Transfer, and what type of energy is used to transfer heat. After the discussion, the class
watched a video reiterating what was discussed. She gave them a question and answer session.
Once no more questions were asked, she pulled up a six question assessment on the overhead for
the entire class. She told me that she was using this as a formative assessment, to see if she
could move forward with the next standard or if she needed to expand this topic some more.
The next assessment that I viewed was a pre-assessment that Ms. Young gave to the class
on Simple Machines. She introduced the topic and before she started teaching, she asked the
students to pull out a sheet of paper. She told them to list the Six Simple Machines and what
each machine was used for. This assessment was used to see how she needed to prepare her next
lesson for the topic. Ms. Young said that this will help her see what the students know and what
see needs to cover to make sure they understand the material. I believe that every new topic
should be given a pre-assessment just to see what he students already know and what needs to be
covered. This is beneficial to the students as well as the teachers.

The last assessment that I saw was another formative assessment on the Six Simple
Machines.

This assessment was creative to me. On the board, Ms. Young had a table drawn

about the Six Machines. The students had to copy the table on the sheet of paper. She gave
them the work load already written in a column. They had to decide what machine would be
best for the load and how the machine would be used to get the work done. This assessment told
her what machines she needed to go back over and what machines was understood. I liked this
assessment because it allowed the students to really think about the machines. They were using
real life situations to come up with their answers. They were giving examples using everyday
items.