Clinical Field Experience C : Social Studies Mini-Lesson Plan

Social Studies Pre-Assessment

Yvonne R Smith

Grand Canyon University: ELM 550-0500

March 24, 2021

Introduction

Pre-assessment is a crucial tool that teachers use to assess student's knowledge about a certain lesson unit before being taught. At a K-8 class level, it is used in social studies to make instructional decisions on pupils' needs and strengths, determine patterns that are flexible for grouping, highlight which learners are ready for advanced instructions, and help them are below standard achievement.

Assessment usually works much better in small groups as it provides enough time for a tutor to work and allows all the students to participate fully. Selecting a group of five students is appropriate for a pre-assessment field task. The criteria for selecting my student team will be based on a mixture of the students above, at, and below standard achievement. One of the students will be above the standard achievement who answered questions precisely and right in the previous classroom observation. Two of the other students will be the ones at standard achievement who participated well in the classroom, and two of the rest will be the ones below the standard achievement and need couching and tutoring to be able to achieve the required standards before the teacher can start teaching the social studies lesson. Mixing the students' strengths to work together will provide a way to help them learn from each other. The brightest student will provide knowledge and learning needs to the other students on the concepts and data necessary for the social studies lesson.

Pre-assessment will focus on formative assessment, which will involve daily assessment of the team, and ensure that the students can understand and master what they will learn through the social studies lessons (Maine-DOE, 2020). Some tools to use in the pre-assessment process are to provide pre-assessment tests like providing some questions. My student team will write down the answers in their own words, such as a question on the physical features present around their homes, and highlight them on the geographical maps presented to them. The other idea is to enable group discussion by asking them random questions to discuss and come up with answers. After the discussion, I will select them randomly to answer the questions rather than letting one student answer all through. It will provide a way to ensure that every one of them fully participates and avoid letting just the bright students participate in answering alone. There is also a need to assess the student's capabilities and what they know; each student can develop their topic and write a summary of what they know about the chosen topic. After that, we can cover the topics, find out where the student did right or wrong as a team, and find solutions. It is part of the self-check process that highlights their capabilities. The use of multiple-choice questions is also appropriate as it will tell each student's level on the social studies knowledge.

The use of such pre-assessment tools will provide a clear and precise indication of how well the students know social studies concepts. It also provides data to help me solve the gaps that the students need to learn before embarking on the social studies lessons. All these will help me develop an appropriate lesson that will enable me to develop learning needs strategies. Mixing the students will provide a team that enables sharing knowledge between the students.

Reflection

There was a need to select five students who had mixed capabilities and different knowledge levels. The steps to select the students were quite simple, and it depended on observing how they participated in class and the answers they gave during the lesson. I identified the brightest student who answered the questions well and precisely; then, I selected the average on participation and answering. Finally, I selected the ones who were dormant or those who seemed to be below the standards. Also, the use of an assessment test was part of my criteria for selecting the team. The ones who performed the best, average, and poorest made part of the team. Using pre-assessment, a tutor can know the level of knowledge that the students have on the particular lesson to be covered. For example, the idea of using group discussion and selecting random students to answer the questions ensures a collaborative effort towards helping the students acquire knowledge as a team (Shaw, 2020). It provides a rough idea for the teacher to start and what to solve before starting the lessons.

Some of the challenges included and were not limited to the impact of physical distance and social distancing due to the World Health Organization guidelines on the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no close contact with the students, and the online learning process was hard. There was a need for the students to adapt to technology for communication, which is always a challenge (Kearns, 2012). Also, workload and time management was a challenge due to the need to collect various assessment data from the students, provide feedback to them and my mentor, and the social studies teacher concerning my pre-assessment task findings. It will be crucial for me to use the gained knowledge from the pre-assessment activity in my future professional studies. The pre-assessment activity will help me develop the relevant course outline, create assignments and exams, assess group work, use concept tests and concept maps, among others. All these will shape how I will handle my students in the future, and it has helped me have a rough idea of what to do before starting social studies lesson in the future.

Conclusively, there is always a need to assess students' pre-existing knowledge and skills using the pre-assessment tool. These activities include tests, auditions, teamwork, portfolios, and indirect aspects like an inventory of prior courses and experiences, self-reports, and field trips. Acquiring the student's information on the course subject's basic knowledge through pre-assessment and formative assessment will help the teacher solve gaps present before starting on the social studies course work.

References

Becker, K. (2019). Past and present 1-transportation- Grade 1 social studies lesson. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fymspE5NVzA (42:31 minutes)

Becker, K. (2019). Past and present 2 Grade 1 social studies lesson. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fymspE5NVzA (51:02 minutes)

Maine-DOE, C. (2020). Best practices in social studies part two. Assessment & curriculum planning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NHK3DJCw84 (1:13:09)

Shaw, H. (2020). Observation 2. Social Studies. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxJ12isRZHA (30:02 minutes).