Assessment Design

Assessment Design

Year Level:

Kindergarten/ Pre-primary students

Learning Areas:

Mathematics

English

Curriculum Framework Overarching Outcomes:

Outcome 1: Students use language to understand, develop and communicate ideas and information and interact with others. Students think laterally.

Outcome 2: Students select, integrate and apply numerical and spatial concepts and techniques.

Learning Area Outcomes:

Maths Outcome 6

Level One: The student reads, writes and says small whole numbers, using them to say how many things there are, makes collections of a given size, and describes order.

An explanation of how the assessment strategy would be implemented:

The assessment strategy I have developed would be conducted with a small group of six students during the teaching and learning process. (Formative assessment)

�Observations can commence during a single learning experience or throughout daily classroom routines.’ (Wall, D. 1999)

Each student would be seated on the mat, in front of a white board, and the teacher would be seated on a chair in front of them (seated next to the whiteboard). Each child has their maths book in front of them, with a pre-glued template of the word and the number two on it.

The teacher begins the lesson by introducing students to the number two chart (which has been placed on the whiteboard). This chart has a picture of Twoothy the shark, and has the number and word two written on it.

The teacher then models how to draw the number two, by tracing his/her finger over the number on the chart, verbally talking students through the process (starts with a curve, goes all the way around to the bottom, and then straight across). The students are then instructed to trace over the template of the number two in their own books.

The previous steps are repeated with the word two. The teacher demonstrates and talks students through the process, then instructs students to write the word, using the template in their book.

Whilst students are busy writing the number and word two, the teacher is using this time to observe each student and record any observations on the anecdotal checklist.

Once students have attempted to write the word and number two, the teacher explains that the students have 30 seconds to think about the number two. Teacher instructs students to begin thinking and times the 30seconds using the classroom clock.

When 30 seconds is up, students are told that they must each tell the group something about the number two.

The teacher asks each student to contribute and draws a pictorial/visual brainstorm of the student’s ideas on the board. When each child has contributed, the students are asked to make their own brainstorm, in their maths books, similar to the one on the board.

The teacher observes the students as they work on their brainstorms and writes anecdotal notes on the previous group discussion, remembering what each child contributed and how well they were able to understand the number two.

I have chosen to use an anecdotal checklist to assess this learning experience for a number of reasons. Although this activity will provide me with a work sample to assess, this will not help me to assess the students’ thinking processes and understanding. Wiggins (1998, p.32) suggests that students can do well at a task, even though they have little understanding, and limited knowledge of the topics/skill that is being assessed. Therefore, I believe that assessing students on their ability to trace over a template and copy down a brainstorm