Sample+Diagnostic+Assessment

One of the key components that drives math instruction is assessment. My teacher text book offers a formal, beginning of the year assessment to help identify what my students remember from their previous school year. In addition to a beginning of the year assessment, I am constantly assessing students through informal conversations about math. I use some type of formal assessment on all math units I teach. This lets me know my students understand the standards they must know in order to be successful in 4th grade.

The following are two sample diagnostic assessments from my teacher text (enVision Math) I would use prior to teaching this unit. I would use the data from these assessments to ensure my students were familiar with perimeter. I would also be able to add specific intervention and enrichment activities for individuals who needs extra support or more of a challenge. One way to foster support or challenges would be through internet applets, such as ones found on Illuminations. I usually use a combination of pre-made assessments and self-created assessments. Using self-created assessments allows me to be more specific with what it is that I am assessing for. For this particular unit, I used a lot of what we did on Day 1 as my pre-assessment. I found that they already knew what perimeter was, so ended up not using as much perimeter in this unit as I originally planned. I found that they had seen area before, because they remembered shapes with numbers on the outside. After Day 1 and 2 of building their understanding of area, their original ideas about area (shapes with numbers) made more sense.