POWELL MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 1

Learning Statement

Standard: A teacher facilitates, monitors and assesses student learning.

Assessments are necessary for many reasons. As teachers, assessments help us

know if our students are learning the information we are teaching. They also help us

develop future lessons or make changes in order to fully meet the goals we have for our

students. Using assessment data to drive instruction and track student learning outcomes,

I created this Teacher Work Sample.

Hockett and Doubet (2013), state that “pre-assessment is a way to gather evidence

of students’ readiness, interests, or learning profiles before beginning a lesson or unit and

then using that evidence to plan instruction that will meet learners’ needs.” In the Teacher

Work Sample that I created I used pre-assessment as a tool to help drive instruction for

my solar system unit during my student teaching semester. From the results of the pre-

assessment I was able to determine the prior knowledge of the students as well as what

areas they were weak in. I was then able to construct learning activities based off of this

knowledge. In addition to using pre and post assessments, I used formative assessments

such as how they did on the moon, sun and earth rotation activity as well as a compare

and contrast activity. From these assessments, I was able to determine that the students

seemed to understand how the rotation of the earth, moon and sun worked, but seemed to

be struggling with understanding how to compare and contrast two items. This was not

directly related to the science concept, but it did show me an area that they needed some

improvement in and highlighted the importance of formative assessments throughout a

unit. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) suggest that teachers should gather multiple sources

of assessments in order to differentiate instruction with a more accurate picture of the

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students’ needs. These assessments can come in various forms such as what I used in my

unit or other effective formative assessments could be used such as exit tickets, graphic

organizers, or reflection summaries. After reviewing the data that I collected from the pre

and post-test scores the class had an average learning gain of 50%. This showed me that

the unit did produce learning gains in the students so I feel that the unit was successful

overall. Being able to go through this process and know that the unit was successful is a

very valuable tool.

The idea of authentic assessments has come up in recent years. In science an

authentic assessment would mean asking students to perform a task in which a problem

needs to be solved, a task a real scientist would do (Accongio & Dorian, 1992) My pre-

test and post-test were both traditional multiple choice tests. I chose to use these for the

sake of gathering numerical data when looking at student learning outcomes. I did,

however include some authentic assessment tasks within my unit such as comparing two

planets and completing the Oreo moon phases activity. By doing this I feel I have a

balanced perspective of how my students did in the unit.

Reflecting upon the work I did in my Teacher Work Sample I feel that

assessments should be used in planning instruction, tracking how students are doing and

the overall effectiveness of the lesson or unit. Authentic assessment methods such as

problem based projects, writing, or presentations should be included as well as standard

testing practices in order to give them most genuine understanding of student learning

possible.

My work on the Teacher Work Sample not only gave me valuable information

about the importance of using assessments to drive instruction, but it also gave me insight
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into how carefully planned instruction can result in greater student learning outcomes. It

also showed me the importance of reviewing data during and after a unit in order to make

changes that may be needed. Developing a Teacher Work Sample within the science

content area gave me experience developing an engaging science unit.

References

Accongio, J. L., & Doran, R. L. (1992, November 30). Classroom Assessment: Key to Reform in

Secondary Science Education. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED370774

Hockett, J.A. & Doubet, K.J. (2013). Turning on the Lights What Pre-Assessments Can Do.

Educational Leadership, 71(4), 50. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=92606749&site=eds-

live

Tomlinson, C. A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction & understanding

by design: Connecting content and kids. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision

and Curriculum Development.