Pre-Assessment

I had my students take Pre-Assessment test on November 1^st. They were given twenty minutes and most of them finished within 18 minutes. 1 point was given when an answer was correct with a circle. ½ point was given when it was partially correct. 0 point was given when it was not wrong. There were 9 questions, and each question was equally valued because I just wanted to know what they knew and what they did not know. I did not give any extra points to the questions from 7 to 9, which required higher order thinking.

The standard that I covered was Oregon Core Standards 6.1.7: Use the relationship between common decimals and fractions to solve problems including problems involving measurement. My Pre-Assessment did not contain estimating fractions, which was my first lesson, because I did not plan to teach when I wrote my Pre-Assessment. I found out that I had to start with estimation of fractions only after I started practicum.

The questions in the assessment align the contents that support the standard 6.1.7.  Students needed to learn the least common multiple (LCM) in question 1 and the least common denominator (LCD) in question 2 to learn how to find sums and differences of fractions in questions from 3 to 6. They were going to learn how to find the perimeter in question 7 using the knowledge of adding and subtracting fractions and the skill to measure in question 9. I also added a question to have them do backward thinking by asking to break up a fraction instead of adding to see if they were ready for higher order thinking.

I asked the questions to find out if they have enough of pre-requisite knowledge and skills to learn how to find sums and differences of mixed numbers. I wanted to make sure which topic I should start from. I arranged questions from easier one to harder one to make the students feel more confident in the beginning of the test and to make feel like challenging harder one. I also asked them to show their work so that I could see their thinking. One student might not be thinking correctly even though his answer was right. Another student might have already known a topic but might have made a simple mistake when he did not answer correctly. I asked the questions to find out if they have enough of previous knowledge and skills to learn how to find sums and differences