Mod 5 Discussion: Formal and Informal Assessments

In the past, I've used reflection questions before moving into a new topic of learning in order to assess what students have retained with the previous lesson.  I found that while it was a really simple assessment, it was extremely successful in allowing me to see in real time where the students were in their understanding.  Not only did I get to assess understanding based on the answers to my questions, but also in the amount of students ready to answer those questions.  I found that if the majority of students were raising their hands to answer, typically they had retained some understanding of what we had been discussing previously. If not many students wanted to answer, we would review that portion of the lesson in order to strengthen student understanding.

I liked the backwards book walk strategy because it takes away the stress of needing to read the text to understand.  Using it is a great way to teach students to use everything available to them in the text, not just the writing, to facilitate understanding.  Being able to hear what a student predicts they will be learning about using pictures and charts followed by what the text was about once they've completed the reading can help me assess where my students may have any disconnects in their literacy.