Assessment of Student’s Academic Growth

It is vital that teachers are able to assess their students learning and growth. Teachers need to be able to analyze data about their students in order to modify his/her lessons. By assessing students, the teacher has the ability to see what students excelled on, and what needs to be re-taught. It shows if certain techniques worked for a particular group of students and how well they understood the information presented. While administering the pre-test, I told the students to do their best, but this test was not going in the grade book. This released some anxiety from the students, and they relaxed as they took the test. Some of the students were overwhelmed by the test, and continuously complained about how they didn't know about the information on the test. I reassured the students that the test was only for practice to see how much they knew about science instruments, magnets, and the planets. On the pre-test, the students performed poorly. The students were not familiar with the science instruments listed on the test. The post-test was a great success! A majority of my students passed the test with an A or B, and only a few made a C or below. I would be sure to have a blank for the planet Pluto on the test. Some students didn't like the fact that Pluto was left off the test even though we have discussed that Pluto is no longer a planet. I feel it is important to reiterate the importance of Science and how it is ever changing. When administering the test, the students took about 10 to 20 minutes to complete the test. The classroom was very quiet, and each student had a guard up around their desk so there would be no cheating. On the pre-test, out of 24 students 2 scored B's, 5 scored C's, 16 scored D's, and 1 scored an F. On the post-test, out of 24 students, 17 scored A's, 5 scored B's and 2 scored C's. I was very impressed with the scores from pre-test to post-test. The students were engaged in the lessons being taught for the week, and it really showed with the post-test results. The students know that every skill learned is a part of the MS Science Frameworks because the objectives are listed on the board each week. It is important for students to know that what we teach is required and important for them to survive in our world.

The chart above represents the scores on the pre/ post tests. Clearly, there was a dramatic improvement. The same test was administered for both the pre and posts test. Two out of twenty-one passed the pre-test, where as eighteen of twenty-one passed the post-test. That is an increase of 76.2%. I chose to give different tests, but they were somewhat alike. On the pre-test, the students had a picture for each Science tool and were instructed to use the word bank to choose the correct name for each tool. On the post-test, the students were given either a definition or a picture, and they had to identify the object. The post test ensured me that they not only knew the picture, but knew the function of each object. I felt it was important for the students to have different tests, but with the same materials. By doing this, it ensured me that the students actually understood and could apply their knowledge from one source to the other. The only questions that seemed to confuse a few of the students were pictures of the barometer and hygrometer. The two instruments looked similar to one another so some of the students were confused. If I were to give this test again, I would give the definition of one of the two instruments and the picture of the other. Also when teaching the lesson, I would try to have the actual instruments in the classroom so the students can see the actual item and not the picture. I would also try to incorporate time outside to perform experiments using the various science instruments. This would have also gave the students the opportunity to work with the objects, which would have helped them retain the function of each of the instruments. The framework taught was 4. Develop an understanding of the properties of Earth materials, objects in the sky, and changes in Earth and sky.
c. Investigate, record, analyze and predict weather by observing, measuring with simple weather instruments (thermometer, anemometer, wind vane, rain gauge, barometer and hygrometer), recording weather data (temperature, precipitation, sky conditions, and weather events), and using past patterns to predict future patterns. (DOK 2) The students showed some interest while teaching this lesson, but I feel if we could have actually experimented with these objects would have raised their interest level. While teaching the science instruments, I asked the students where they have seen the instruments. This made the students actually think about how all these instruments are around us every day, and how we seldom think about its function and how we or our family uses it. Personally, I feel that enough time was spent on this topic. The students understood the function and identified the science instruments well. While teaching this skill, I performed an oral quiz at the end of the lesson with the entire class. It was not for a grade; it was for me to see if the students understood what I had presented to them. Throughout the lesson, I performed informal assessment such as oral questioning.