Identify Assessments Assignment

“Formative assessment, then, is a collection of strategies teachers employ to get clarity on what

they will be teaching and to assess how well students have learned what they are teaching. The

understanding teachers gain from formative assessment then serves as the foundation for

teachers to make adjustments to the way they teach so students will learn what is being taught.

Formative assessment is also a way for teachers and students to monitor students’ progress

toward mastery” (Knight, pg. 55).

I chose the Think, Pair, Share method to check for understanding because it gives students a

chance to explain their thinking to someone else. As a teacher you are able to then walk around

the room and listen to conversations and able to hear what students are sharing if they are on

the correct topic. Students then after a certain period of time are then able to share with the

class what they talked about in that group. The idea behind Think, Pair, Share is “teachers give

students a task to do on their own and then have them share their work with one other person

to identify similarities and differences. Sometimes teachers prompt students to consider

revising their answers based on what they’ve learned from their partner. After this, teachers

ask the partners to share their answers with the class” (Knight, pg. 66). This method can be

used in any grade level, but I would say it is more beneficial in third and above. I like doing this

is my class because it can easily be adjusted to any grade level. I have done this a lot when I was

student teaching in a third grade classroom. We don’t call it the Think, Pair, Share in preschool

right now but we have done something like this. We have had the kids turn to a neighbor and
 share something they learned from a story or short video and then we call on each of the kids

to check for understanding. We chose easy topics like a certain type of dinosaur that we are

learning about and then create a list of things as a class that the students share.

I chose Gallery Walk for the second method. A Gallery Walk is “students create a poster on

chart paper that they can display in the room. The poster should demonstrate the students’

knowledge of content covered. After this part of the activity, put students into other groups so

that each new group includes a member from the group that created a poster. Have the groups

rotate around the room, stopping at each poster. Whoever created the poster explains it to the

rest of their new group” (Knight, pg. 67). I like the idea of this but have also modified it for my

classroom. I first learned this idea when I was student teaching in a third grade classroom. I like

this idea as it can be used in so many different ways to get students up and moving. I have

modified this as it can be used for many different things, sharing class projects, group projects

or even just art work. Students put their work on top of their desk and then as a class we zig zag

between the desks and walk around and look at each students’ art or project. I have done this

with my preschool class when they create something with model magic or even playdough. The

kids get so excited to walk around and look at each others creations. Even with preschoolers we

went through the directions that a gallery walk is that we are walking and looking at each

others work on top of the desks but that we do not touch one another work. We pretend were

in a fancy museum and that we look with our eyes and not our hands.