Pre-assessment

Being fortunate enough to have a SMARTboard in my classroom I am able to actively engage students in a number of interactive ways. When I begin a new topic in my class, I use small wipe off boards (which I call our mini smart boards) for students to write their answer on and hide their answers until I say reveal. Using this simple but quick technique I can ask any question and the students can show me their level of readiness with skill I am about to embark on. For example, I call out a number 309 and ask the students to write it on their smart boards in many different representations. I then look to see who has it written correctly using a place holder in the 10s spot, who wrote 390, or 39, who has used base ten blocks or money. This tells me immediately who has a good grasp of the concept and who I will have to give extra support to. I love using pre-assessment techniques because if all children have a good understanding of the topic then I can move on to better and more challenging activities. Why waste time teaching what the students already know when you can challenge them in so many different ways?