A large portion of teaching is being able to analyze an assessment and make appropriate adjustments to instruction. This is all apart of being a reflective practitioner and an effective educator. The assessment I chose to use during the first lesson of the connected lesson was one that the students would be using the next day in their lesson. I figured it would be most appropriate to do so because then I would truly be able to see where students were at in order to adjust their learning experience the next day. The assessment had four shapes on it: a circle, a square, a rectangle, and I’m still deciding on the last shape. Even though we would be going over the shapes during class the formative exit ticket allows me to see which students recognize and have the ability to pair shapes with objects. This assessment has a line above the shape and says “I found a [shape name]. It was a _______” where the students would write in an object they see that is in that shape. The entire assessment would give me the necessary information in order to pair which students together in the following lesson.

The first pre-assessment I am going to have the students do is a matching worksheet. This will have various real world items pictured and I will have the students sort them in their proper shapes. The images will be things seen throughout the real world. The shapes that I will use on the assessment are triangle, square, rectangle, circle, and possibly other main 2-d shapes that they could see. This assessment will show me what shapes the students are familiar with and what they are not familiar with. Since this is going beyond just being able to recognize a drawn shape, it is allowing me to really see if the students see that there are items in the real world that can be defined as shapes. Additionally, since this is what my lesson will be about, it will give me the necessary information to provide any scaffolding that may be necessary. It will also tell me if students already all know a certain shape then instead of focusing on that shape, I can do another shape instead, thus expanding their knowledge rather than just teaching them what they already know.

The assessment I chose to use after my day one lesson is the exact one that they would be using other shape hunt. I chose this as the formative assessment so that I would be able to see who was competent in the assessment and needed enrichment the next day and who would need extra support with a partner the next day as well. Additionally, I would be able to see if I needed to make changes to the assessment during the shape hunt. The data I am collecting is whether or not students are able to identify and match objects with their shape. I am also able to see which students are competent in their writing skills.

The matching pre-assessment will be administered during the morning when the students arrive to class. Depending on what time the students arrive they will begin working on it and will have until when school starts. Since they arrive at different times each student will just complete the assessment in the amount of time that it takes them, rather than having a set time for all the students to start and end at. Additionally, some students take a longer time to cut and paste than other students so giving them the appropriate time they need is also a variable. If I had to guess the approximate time a student will take on this assessment it would be 10 minutes. These students are still in the developmental stage where cutting does take a good amount of time, therefore it will take them longer to do this assessment because of that. This assessment won’t take long to grade, since it only requires students to match real world objects with their shape, it will only take me about 5 minutes to review. I will be able to create a list of objects that explicitly need to be taught and ones that just need reviewed.

Since the other assessment is an exit ticket, and it is only requiring the students to write one word, the assessment should only take 5-7 minutes. Many of the students are still developing their writing skills, so that’s why it varies in time and will take them longer than 1-2 minutes. The time it takes to grade, is simply going through the pages and making notes about who already met standards and needs enrichment and who will need extra support in the following lesson. Going through the assessment will approximately take me 15-20 minutes. It takes me this long because I am including the time it takes to give students appropriate accommodations in the next lesson such as partners or enrichment opportunities.

The challenge in the pre-assessment that I anticipate is that the students will misinterpret a circle for a oval or vice versa. The same with the rectangle. Even though this is a challenge, it is a misconception that some students may have and that’s all apart of doing pre-assessments: so that you are able to accommodate according to student needs. Another challenge that I anticipate is that some students may cut a little too much and so that will limit the ability for me to really see what the student knows. The whole morning time is another problem that could potentially be an issue. Since some students don’t come in until the last few minutes before school starts, they will have a limited amount of time to complete this. My CT may let my students complete this assessment while she is doing morning meeting so that I am able to have their pre-assessment information for my lesson. If she does not, then I will have to take every issue as a grain of rice, continue to be flexible and work with the data that I am given.

The challenge I anticipate for the first day’s assessment is that even though students may be able to identify objects as shapes, since they can’t write words they won’t be able to show their understanding. Another problem I anticipate is that students will simply take and copy words in the chart and write them into their assessment. However, even though they might copy the word, they are still able to recognize that those objects are under the word circle/square/rectangle/etc. Additionally, my next problem, plays into a misconception. The students may not be able to differentiate between a rectangle and a square. In order to prepare for these challenges, I will be keeping the chart on the board up so students can reference them if necessary. However, I will not point out the fact that its still up because I want to see if the students are able to use the things around them to reason and problem solve. Even though the misconception is a challenge, this isn’t really something I would avoid in the assessment, because this is part of making appropriate adjustments in the following lesson since the first lesson wasn’t suffice in explanation.