Unit Assessment

Before designing this unit, I gave students a pre-test to examine what they already

knew about the topic of schema as a strategy for reading comprehension. What I found was

that very few students felt that they could describe the word schema or perform any of the

tasks that I questioned them about relating to schema. Several of them thought that I was

asking them about stamina, which made me wonder how many of the sophisticated words

that Mrs. Vander Boon uses confuse the students. This also prompted me to make a poster

with the definition of the word schema that will hang on the whiteboard all week, and to

come up with visual representations (playdough model) that will help students to have a

more concrete way to remember this vocabulary.

I plan to give the same test at the end of the unit, hoping that students will be able

to rate themselves as either being at a level 3 or 4 for each of the questions/tasks. I will use

students self-assessments to guide my own understanding of how students grasped the

lessons/ideas that I taught about schema. We will spend more time on the post-assessment

than the pre-assessment and I will give them more room to write. Perhaps I will discuss the

questions with students so that they can more easily explain their thinking to me regarding

what they have learned about schema (most students still have a hard time expressing

their ideas in writing and hearing their ideas would give me a more clear understanding of

students understanding).

Throughout the lessons that I give, I will continue to assess students progress day

by day. In the first lesson I will assess students prior knowledge/experience with the idea

of schema by asking students if anyone can define what the word schema means. As a

formative assessment for learning, I will read Up North at the Cabin with students and
model making connections and listen to the connections that students make. As a formative

assessment as learning, I will give students time to read and make their own connections.

These assessments match the goals for the day, which are centered around students

understanding schema and making their own connections between themselves and the

text.

In the second lesson, as a formative assessment for learning, students will create a

list of their schema in the form of a first draft. As a formative assessment as learning

students will revise that list and complete a second and final draft. These assessments

match the goals for the day, as they are centered around students thinking about their own

schema, how they can revise their work, and creating a finished copy of their work.

In the third lesson, as a formative assessment as learning, students will contribute to

the group activity by sharing what they learn about how their schema can grow. As a

summative assessment of learning, student worksheets and sharing time will provide me

with information on how well students grasped the concept of learning new schema from a

text. I will look at whether or not they wrote things down as they read, and see if what they

are sharing shows they understood how we add to our schema while we read. The goals for

today relate to students learning about how schema is created and how it grows.

In the fourth lesson, I will pre-assess students by asking them whether they are

familiar with Venn Diagrams, and asking if anyone can help explain them to the class. If

students are familiar with these diagrams, it will help me know that students have already

spent some time comparing and contrasting. As a formative assessment for learning we will

create a Venn Diagram as a class. As a formative assessment as learning students will have

the choice to challenge themselves to write down their own Venn Diagram as we do they
activity together as a class on the board. As a summative assessment of learning, I will

evaluate if students can transfer the skills taught into their own writing by checking

whether or not they write down text-to-text connections as prompted. The goals for this

day are for students to compare and contrast two stories and to express these similarities

and differences in a Venn Diagram.

In the fifth lesson, as a formative assessment for learning, we will go as a class back

to the story that we read about cheetahs to see where our thinking may have gone wrong.

As a formative assessment as learning, students will work on their own or with a partner to

brainstorm their schema, read, and correct/change their thinking. As a summative

assessment of learning, we will have a sharing time, which provides me with information

on where students struggled with this activity and whether or not they understood how

our schema can be corrected when we find that our thinking was wrong. The goals for

today are for students to have time to practice recognizing misconceptions in their thinking

and amend their thinking.

Continued assessment throughout the unit will keep students on track with their

learning, and keep me on track with my teaching, letting me know where students are

succeeding and what skills need more practice, what needs to be explained differently, etc.

A final assessment at the end of the unit where students assess their own understanding

will provide me with concluding evidence of student learning from this unit.