Preassessment of Individual Student Readiness

Describe and refer to appendices as needed. Explain when the preassessment would be administered in
relation to the lesson e.g., at the end of the previous lesson; structured observations collected over the
previous week, etc. Remember that this should be a preassessment of readiness specifically related to the
tiered lesson, and not a preassessment for the whole unit.

KWL Charts K what does the student know? W what does the student want and need
to know? L what did the students learn? K (Pre-assessment). W (Pre-assessment of
student interests and learning preferences). L (On-going assessment)

Students are encouraged to fill out a fourth column, which they

can use to write down how they are feeling about the learning
and any questions they might have. This can be
used as a quick, informal assessment. (See Appendix 1)

Students are then grouped according to what they have recorded in the first two columns
prior knowledge and understanding of atoms, and interests.

This pre-assessment would be administered at the beginning of the lesson, with students
encouraged to continually add to it as the lesson and their understanding progresses. The
educator can continually check these charts to quickly and informally assess where the students
are at. (See appendix 1 for modified template useable for any learning area).

Appendix 2 is a KWL chart specifically adapted to focus on students current knowledge and
understanding of atoms. This could be used in the following lesson to determine how much
content students have retained, or even in the initial lesson if the educator gets the feeling some
students might already have a sound pre-knowledge pertaining to the topic.

This pre-assessment will be used as a pre-cursor for flexible grouping. Its difficult to predict the
variety of learner readiness the classroom will contain, but 3 4 groups of around 6-8 students
per group is ideal for these differentiated tasks.

Lesson Plan
Duration Lesson Sequence
30 Min Introduction/Vocabulary Front Loading
Topic (Atoms) introduced
through PowerPoint (Appendix
6)
Students are given pre-
assessment task (Appendix 1/2)
Teacher collects pre-assessment
Students are introduced to
learning objectives, which they
are encouraged to write down
Explanatory notes
(Why have you made the decisions you
have in your planning? How are aspects of
your lesson designed to cater for readiness
differences? You can include brief notes
here and then a fuller explanation in a
paragraph at the end of your assignment.)
Being the first lesson of the unit
plan sequence, the initial pre-
assessment task is designed to get
a gauge of each students current
 Students then brainstorm/share
ideas from what they wrote
down in the pre-assessment
Through this brainstorming/idea
sharing, students take control of
their own learning and decide
which terminology they will add
to A Glossary of Atomic Terms
(Appendix 3/4/5), to be used and
referred to throughout the unit
Teacher uses this time to group
students based on pre-
assessment and hand out the
terminology task sheet (1, 2 or 3)
according to group
Students then complete the task
sheet
40 min
Middle - Student activity
Students watch atoms ABC video
and record notes
Students answer the tiered
questions using their notes from
the video (PowerPoint -
Appendix 6)
Students share their answers
with the class
Students are introduced to four
different models of the atom,
developed by different scientists,
using scootle pathways
Students explore the website
and note the differences
between models and each group
is given one model research
(Dates, scientists, significant
differences to other models) (All
questions in Appendix 6)
Students then investigate how
science might have progressed
to make this possible
level of understanding of atoms,
whilst also exploring their interests
in the relative field
If it appears that certain students
already have a sound
understanding of content, they can
be given Appendix 2 instead as a
pre-assessment
This key terminology activity will
be used as a way of front loading
vocabulary
The terminology task sheets are
tiered to access three different
levels of readiness
NB: Students are encouraged to
add questions or comments to
their KWL chart at times, whilst
keeping it visible so the educator
can continuously assess progress.
After observing the ABC video on
atom structure and composition,
each group are required to record
their answers to questions which
are tailored to the level of
understanding for that group.
Example:
The tier of students that showed a
considerable level of
understanding of atoms and how
they work in the pre-assessment
task, explore questions which are
more open ended and require
more higher order thinking. The
questions the students who
showed lower levels of readiness,
investigate more basic questions
looking at the structure of the
atom, in terms of protons,
neutrons and electrons. Its
important that students share
their answers afterwards, so that
they are not missing out on
important content.
20 min Conclusion
Findings are presented and
discussed, learning objectives are
readdressed
Students fill out the last two
columns of their KWL chart and
hand it up to the teacher
(See PowerPoint)
Groups are given particular models
to research, based on how recent
the discoveries are, how much
information is available on that
model and how difficult it might be
to research. Extension questions
are added for students who are
comfortably moving through
content. The formats of
presentation are also
differentiated according to how
time consuming they are and their
relative challenge levels.

Lesson Closure/ Check for Understanding

How will you know whether students have achieved your lesson objectives?

Being the first lesson of the unit, no summative assessment is required. The educator can use the
questions in the PowerPoint to assess whether students have achieved the learning intentions.
The final columns on the KWLF chart will predominately be used for student reflection and to
check for understanding at the end of the lesson. This will tell the educator what the student has
learnt and what he or she has any questions about. The vocabulary differentiation task will also be
collected. Students who struggled may require another front-loading session in small groups in
the next lesson. Students might also be encouraged to hand up their findings from the research
task at the end of the lesson. For a more proactive approach, the educator may wander around
and observe any updated KWL charts during the lesson. The following lesson will include a pre-
assessment on this lessons objectives, checking on understanding of definitions and the
application of knowledge in context.