Planning Preparation Instruction and Assessment

Haylee Caldwell

Regent University
 Introduction

When planning instruction for elementary students, it is important to begin with the goals

for the particular subject based on the state or school issued learning ojectives. I took over math

at the beginning of a unit where the goal was for students to be able to add and subtract decimals.

In order to guide my intial instruction with the students I gave them an exit ticket where they

added and subtracted decimals, this was a preassessment. Following the preassessment I was

able to see where students were in their understanding and I was able to guide the instruction

based on the preassessment. Following instruction, I also gave a worksheet to gather some

formative data and determine what I would need to focus on in small group instruction.

Following the the instruction I gave the post assessment.

Rationale

I chose the worksheet from this math unit as my first artifact. I used this worksheet to

assess the Student’s understanding after I taught a whole group lesson to the class. During my

lesson I emphaized students must always use a place holder and to align their decimals. During

the lesson I used base ten blocks to give students a visual of how decimals represent parts of a

whole. I also drew various representations of decimals using base ten models on the white board.

Following the lesson I gave the worksheet. As the students worked on the worksheet I offered

help to those who needed it and encouraged those who were doing well. The data I collected

shows that as time and teaching progressed the students made progress in their understanding of

adding and subtracting decimals and many of them were able to do well on the final assessment.

The second artifact I chose is the final assessment which I gave to the students. After

instructing the students in whole group lessons. I also instructed students in small groups where I
continually emphasized the importance of placeholders and using base ten blocks to give the

students visual representations of decimals. In the small group instruction I had the students

solve problems on white boards so that I could see what they were doing step by step to

determine their understanding. After I determined with my cooperating teacher that many of the

students were ready to take the final assessment I gave it to them. Based on the results for the

summative assessment twenty of my twenty one students passed the test and sixteen of the

students passed with a P which was the highest grade available on the test.

Reflection

Instructional decisions should be based on learning goals. As a teacher, it is important to

know where you want your students to be before the end of the unit before you even begin

instruction. When discussing how teachers love designing their learning Wiggins and McTighe

state, “ without clarifying the desired results of our teaching, how will we ever know whether our

designs are appropriate or arbitrary[CITATION Wig052 \p 14 \l 1033 ].” This shows the importance

of establishing goals to guide instruction. The goal for adding and subtracting lessons was based

on the standard of learning stating, “The student will add and subtract decimals[ CITATION Vir5 \l

1033 ].” Once I established this as my goal I was able to decide on a preassessment that would

help me understand what my students already knew.

After assessing my students I was able to base my instructional decisions on the data I

collected. I not only checked the preassessments to see if the students got the correct answers but

also to see where they were going wrong and what they were misunderstanding. In my planning I

was able to take time to carefully plan in scaffolding into my lessons to build a fully supportive

learning environment[ CITATION Nor \l 1033 ]. I found that many of the students were not adding a
placeholder and therefore arriving at the incorrect answer. I then was able to make various

teaching points out of the common mistakes I saw in the preassessments.

As I worked in small groups and extended the meaning of decimals in to the students’

lives, I felt like I was able to create a meaningful learning experience. This is something I value

grately as a teacher. In my classroom I intend on creating meaningful learning experiences for

my students by conecting real life to learning across the curriculm. By discussing money and

using manipulatives I was able to make these meaningful connections for my students.

The summative assessment allowed me to see how much progress the students made

during the unit. I was able to compare the results of the preassessment to the results of the

summative assessment. In a guide from the National Evaluation and Technical Assistance

Center for the Education of Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent, and At-Risk the

authors suggest many things when selecting an assessment. These things include, trying to have

the same conditions for the pre-assessment and the post-assessment and making sure both

assessments measure what you want it to measure[CITATION Nat4 \l 1033 ]. These things are

definitely things that I considered when giving the students the pre and post assessment.

Table and Data from Preassessment, Formative Assessment and Post Assessment
AP = Above Proficient

P = Proficient

DP = Developing Proficiency

N = Needs improvement

*I did not arrange the students in the table based on their number
Post Assessment
Formative Assessment
 References

National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth

who are Neglected, Delinquent, and At-Risk. (n.d.). A brief guide to selecting and using

pre-post assessments. The American Institutes for Research with funding from the

Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs.

Northern Illinois University. (n.d.). Instructional scaffolding to improve learning. Faculty

Development and Instructional Design Center. Retrieved from

https://www.niu.edu/facdev/_pdf/guide/strategies/instructional_scaffolding_to_improve_l

earning.pdf

Virginia Beach Standard of Learning. (n.d.).

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, Virginia: Association

for Supervision and Curriculum Development .