Effectiveness of Pre-assessment

While the courses offered at National University are preparing me to become a quality teacher and educator, I value being in the classroom with students just as much. The interaction and observation of the students in your discipline is essential to being prepared. Fortunately, I found a teacher at the local high school who is very experienced and eager to share her knowledge with me. As a result, she is also my student teacher for this fall. I come into the classroom periodically to watch and observe. For this assignment, I conducted a pre-assesment of the direct instruction teaching strategy. My teacher lectured about the different components of the cell, their functions, and their importance. I was sat in the class the day before to observe. My instructor teaches two AP biology courses and three general biology courses. One period in particular performs worse on all tests. This is the class I've been specifically working with because I want to see what can be done to improve their motivation and desire to be successful. When I came into the classroom, I did a quick warm up of what the students learned form the previous day. Most of the students seemed uninterested and bored. Perhaps it's because it's the first class of the day. I'm not really sure. For collaborative learning, I had each group of four students have a white board in the middle of their table. I drew an illustration on the white board that had the different components of the cell. When I numbered a certain area, I asked the students to identify it. The students were allowed thirty seconds to discuss the answer. When they were ready, they raised the white board so I could see them. I find this pre-assesment effective because it allows me to determine the general performance of the class instantaneously before I move forward in the unit. I can reemphasize the information or reteach it if necessary. There are nine groups in this classroom, meaning there are thirty six students altogether. (There was a large enrollment this year. There weren't even enough chairs for the first week so the school district had to provide more). Since there were only nine whiteboards to read, it went smoothly. Most of the groups got the questions right, and if their answer was wrong, it was very close. One group blatantly didn't participate, and another group got most of the answers wrong. This gave me extensive knowledge about the class overall. I realize this doesn't reflect independent performance, but it may be chaotic with that many students. My findings indicated that they did remember the information from the previous lecture after the warm up, and the white board practice reinforced that information further. From my rubric, every right answer received one point. If the answer was wrong, they received no credit. From this data, when students scored a 4, they were considered advanced, a 3 was considered average, a 2 indicated they were confused, mislead, or misunderstanding the information and were given a low performance, and a 1 indicated the necessity for reteaching. Most of the groups received a 4 for their work, and the remaining two groups received a 1 or 2. Overall, I was pleased with these results because that indicated 30 students had successfully grasped the information while the remaining 6 did not. I think my pre-assessment is very effective because it's quick and instantaneous. It also allows them to collaborate and find the answer together. If the student doesn't know the answer but his group member does, it still gives him an opportunity to learn. For the next period, I did the same thing but I had each student do it individually. This period has a high performing class with better classroom management and test scores. They are easier to work with and control, which is why I let them use each white board individually. When I asked the same questions, most of the students got the answers right. There were a few who struggled but it was less than the previous class. Most of the students received a 4 for their responses. The students who received a 2 or lower were written down for further evaluation and aid. My teacher said if the students aren't doing well while the rest of the class is, you have to make sure they are getting it. A side-by-side chat, extra work, or just a discussion can help them improve. Because when the exam comes and they fail it, there's nothing the teacher can do at that point. After performing the same pre-assesment on two different groups, I wouldn't change the rubric because it's pretty indicative of student knowledge and performance. After working with the first class, I would always do the pre-assesment with each student individually so I can monitor their performance as a single performance rather than as a group. Fortunately, white boards were available in this classroom but they aren't always available in different classrooms and different budgets.