Administration and Scoring Directions

The Pre-test/post-test consists of twenty multiple choice (numbers 1-20) test items in which the student will choose the best answer from a choice of three or four.  These test items cover material from each lesson in the unit.  The material ranges from the characteristics of living things, photosynthesis, and questions about the life cycle of a plant.  The test questions challenge the student to recall the concept and tries not to delve into technical vocabulary that would be hard to remember, but does ask students to recall vocabulary that is important to the concepts.  The tests also consist of two short answer questions (numbers 21-22) in which the student will answer the questions to the best of their ability.  Finally, the tests consist of a diagram of a seed with a word bank (numbers 23-25) in which students must correct label the parts of the seed.   Each item will be valued equally at two points on a 100 scale. The same test will be used as a post-assessment.

Rubric throughout the unit will also be used to measure student performance.  The scale used is a three or four point scale.  Work samples are divided up into piles of each number point according to the performance criteria.  Points are them added up and then divided by the total number of performance criteria and a grade assigned accordingly. 

The purpose of the pre-test is to assess the prior knowledge of my students.  It also serves as the present level of performance of my students to help in shaping my goals as a teacher during the unit after and to also determine what content and how fast the unit should progress.  The pre-test also will serve as a baseline of achievement of what the students have learned.  The post-test will also serve as data which will help in measuring the effectiveness of the content that was taught during the unit.