Pre-assessment

Pre-assessment is a test students can take before a new unit to find out what the students need more instruction on and what they may already know. Pre-assessment is a way to save teachers time within the classroom while teaching new material. It is a great way to find out more about the students, what they are interested in and how they learn best.

There are many types of best teaching practices. One of them is pre-assessment, which helps teachers better understand their students when preparing lessons, and activities to better fit the students in the class. Pre-assessment is a test that can be administered at the beginning of the school year and before new units. The same test may also be used for the post-assessment. Pre-assessment also helps the teacher learn student's interests and individual learning styles of each student. There are many ways to differentiate instruction for students that will help students take in information in multiple ways. All this information can be organized in a way to help the students and teachers have an easier school year. It can take place at the beginning of the school year and also before each unit.

Some teachers assume best practices in their classroom, include such things as students sitting on the floor, listening to music, drawing, being loud or being quiet but doing so as a class. Because these students are doing these things as a class it is not differentiated Instruction. Amy Benjamin writes differentiated instruction is a "variety of classroom practices that allow for differences in students' learning styles, interests, prior knowledge, socialization needs and comfort zones". To learn students individual needs we as teachers need to assess those students and pre-assessment can to be done at the beginning of the school year and to identify students learning modalities, interests and readiness for content.

There are two types of modality theories; one is learning styles theory, the other is multiple intelligence. Learning style theory suggests that learning styles differ from student to student. A few examples of learning styles are active learners, verbal learners, and reflective learners. Learning styles theory is highly criticized and lacks empirical evidence to support it. Another type of modality is multiple intelligence, which was created by Howard Gardner. He takes a physiological approach to multiple intelligence by breaking it into eight categories. These categories help teachers understand the different types of diverse learning abilities. First is logical/mathematical which means the student learns better with logic, reasoning and numbers. Verbal/ Linguistic is another way that the students' strengths are with words and language. Another type is visual/spatial in which a student would rather use graphs, charts and drawings. Students who enjoy sound, rhymes, and music are musical/rhythmical learners. Bodily/kinesthetic learners are better with their hands and have better control over their bodily motions. Another type is Naturalist/Environmental, these students are sensitive, nurturing and like to use all five sense. The seventh is interpersonal, a type of student who communicates well and can be an extrovert. Last, students who can self-reflect and are introverts they are intrapersonal learners. Multiple intelligence is a great way to separate students out and learn their best learning modality.

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