Organizational Tools for First Days of School

Effective Pre-Assessments Determine Students' Academic Needs

Jul 26, 2009

The first days of school should include effective pre-assessments which determine how to plan successful lessons around students' academic needs.

Already into the first week of the school year, teachers will want to determine the specific needs of their students. This can be accomplished by conducting an informal needs analysis or pre-assessment. A pre-assessment is an organizational tool to help the teacher identify differences between current performance and desired performance. It allows the teacher to determine what the students already know and what they are capable of doing. Teachers can then determine what concepts and/or skills students still need to know, or learn, in order to complete necessary tasks.

Effective Pre-Assessments

An effective pre-assessment can explore alternate solutions, for example, to a reading problem. It may focus on the gap between the reading level students currently are at and where they need to be. The teacher will define or identify the problem, and identify the students and their background, skills, knowledge, and motivation level. Typically, these reading assessments are short and include the following: oral reading assessment, reading ability of vocabulary, and reading words in context using sentences and read-alouds.

How to Use Information From Pre-Assessment for Lesson Planning in Reading

Once teachers know areas of student weakness, they can complete charts for fluency, accuracy, rate and retelling abilities. Using the fluency and accuracy chart, they can then decide which group their struggling readers is best suited for.

Using the information from the pre-assessment practices, teachers map or strategically identify various categories of student difficulty. They can use benchmarks and standards of their respective curriculums to determine the reading skills students need to know. They also decide which critical areas are common to their groups of struggling readers and plan accordingly. Additionally, teachers build a class profile. A class profile is made up of individual student profiles. When combined, these documents create a more comprehensive profile.

A pre-assessment or needs analysis also considers the environment, defines performance gaps and prioritizes needs. Teachers use the information gathered to identify possible solutions (Raney, 8). Finally, the teacher needs to consider how the instruction will affect the students and determine the desired results.

Procedure for Gathering Information

Teachers can use information observation, student documentation, and various assessment practices to learn what they need to know to successfully teach their students. Teachers can start by observing their students from the very beginning of the school year to determine students' academic needs. They can also talk with prior teachers or read students' files to learn about previous performance.

The critical need to successfully teach at all levels of instruction makes pre-assessments not only beneficial, but necessary organizational tools for the first days of school. Before teachers can create successful lesson plans, they need to understand the areas in which their students struggle. The information teachers receive from pre-assessments gives them the ability to better support their lower performing readers.

Raney, L. "Workshop One Lecture." CUR524 Instructional Design. University of Phoenix Online, August, 2003.

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