PLANNING PREPARATION INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT Riffle 1

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment

Ronald Riffle
Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2019.

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Introduction

Pre-assessments are effective and necessary to understand the growth of a classroom. In

my second placement, I was put into a 2nd grade classroom at Camelot Elementary in

Chesapeake, Virginia. In the class, students were beginning to be introduced to economics,

following Virginia History SOL 2.8: The student will distinguish between the use of barter and

the use of money in the exchange for goods and services. I ended up designing a 5 question pre-

assessment: 3 multiple-choice questions, one free-response, and one Venn-Diagram question.

You will find the pre-assessment attached at the end of the paper.

Results of the Pre-Assessment

In Mrs. Castro’s class, the demographics are found through a minority majority. Below,

you will find the data of the pre-assessment.

Mrs. Castro’s Class: 19 students

(3 ESL students; 7 boys, 12 girls; 1 white, 2 Hispanic, 1 Asian, 15 African American/mixed)

Class Average: 38.4% Averages of Questions Missed

0% - 20% 5/19 = 26.3% Question 1 15/19 = 79%
21% - 40% 4/19 = 21.1% Question 2 12/19 = 63%
41% - 60% 9/19 = 47.4% Question 3 15/19 = 79%
61% - 80% 1/19 = 5.2% Question 4 3/19 = 16%
81% - 100% 0/19 Question 5 17/19 = 89%

These results show that a majority of students do not know the material already. There is

definitely a lot of room for growth with these students based on this subject material. There were

two students not present during the day of the pre-assessment, but they were there the day after.

During small group time in the morning, they took the pre-assessment, still not skewing the data

by not being exposed to the curriculum being taught.

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Results of the Post-Assessment

Nine days after the assessment the students retook the assessment. Before this, students

were taught 9 different lessons that satisfied auditory, kinesthetic, and visual needs. The class

demographic, nor did the reading levels of students changed between two weeks of teaching.

Below you will see the results of the post-assessment.

Class Average: 63.9% Averages of Questions Missed

0% - 20% 2/19 = 10.53% Question 1 3/19 = 15.79%
21% - 40% 3/19 = 15.79% Question 2 9/19 = 47.37%
41% - 60% 4/19 = 21.05% Question 3 9/19 = 47.37%
61% - 80% 7/19 = 36.84% Question 4 4/19 = 21.05%
81% - 100% 3/19 = 15.79% Question 5 11/19 = 57.89%

When looking at the data, it shows a huge jump in growth for the students in regards to

the class average. Compared to the pre-assessment, more than half the class passed the

assessment with a 60% and up. When looking at the averages of the questions missed, question

number 4 and 5 were still the hardest questions for the class as a collective whole.

Data’s Effect on Instruction

Looking at the data, the teacher should see that many students need to learn about the

importance of bartering, money, differences between consumers and producers, and examples for

all four of those topics. When looking at the needs of the class, some of the accommodations

would be kinesthetic/interactive learning for students. Many of the students show signs of

ADHD, however it can’t be defined due to their personalities still being developed; we also have

to take into our ESL students, two Spanish-speaking and one Vietnamese-speaking. With both of

these types of students in mind, allowing pictures to be accompanying the definitions will assist

both groups of students, and simplified definitions will help as well.

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Lesson Preparation

For the lowest group, pulling them as a small group and reviewing over definitions and

scenarios would be the best. These would be like a sort or a small quiz to work together as a

group with the teacher. For whole group instruction, having the students complete a Venn-

diagram that allows students to visualize definitions and examples for bartering and money

would be good. Verbal repetition of words and the definitions would work with this class, as

many are verbal learners. Ultimately, checking for understanding will be a huge portion of lesson

teaching as what the students know will help pace the lesson.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

Because of the pre-assessment, and being the sole designer of it, my cooperating teacher

allowed me to teach the lessons that followed it all the way to the post-assessment. It was so

much fun! Students worked through 8 different lessons that consisted of sorts, putting notes

inside the interactive notebook, reading from the textbook, and an interactive activity on scarcity.

Because of these lessons, students were able to double the class average in their score, however,

based off of some of the scores, some of the questions were still a little advanced for some of the

students; specifically the open response and writing questions. All of the preparation and

teaching led to the students learning and satisfying the requirements for the state standards.

When designing the lessons, students met the standards of performance “to designate the level of

the knowledge or skill that’s considered acceptable within a particular grade level” (Powell,

2012). These standards help build the lesson, not only set the bare minimum, but where the
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teacher shouldn’t go over. A lot of times when creating these lessons, teachers know more than

what’s required to teach, and need to be pulled back to not confuse the students.

One thing that I noticed with second grade, is the transition in processing information.

Students “become better at distinguishing reasoning from guessing or acting on a hunch”

(Bergin, 2015). This development is heightened when students are able to constructively choose

answers, even if they don’t know the correct answers. They learn process of elimination at this

age, and giving them the tools of knowing what is not correct, makes it even better for students

to learn and test better. When teaching the classes for this specific content, many students began

making connections for “if this is a consumer, that means this is a producer,” or something that

followed along the lines. This lining up of thoughts with course material, showed them preparing

for the upcoming assessment, based off of memorization and interactive learning.

One of the perks of assessing information that students know before learning a topic, is

the opportunity to connect to other experiences. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity “as you

advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you

found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways – in new ways you

could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels” (Lewis, 2009). All education builds upon

previous things students know and do, and slowly gets more and more complex; teaching the

basics is paramount to all future learning. As teachers, documenting growth is imperative to

show not only staff growth, but to also show students their own growth. Showing students their

own growth boosts confidence, and shows them they can succeed.
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References

Bergin, D. A., & Bergin, C. A. (2015). Child and adolescent development in your classroom.

Australia: Wadsworth.

Lewis, C. S. (2009). Mere Christianity: A revised and amplified edition, with a new introduction, of

the three books, Broadcast talks, Christian behaviour, and Beyond personality. New York:

HarperOne.

Powell, S. D. (2012). Your introduction to education: Explorations in teaching. Upper Saddle River,

J: Pearson Education.