3 Reasons Why Pre-assessment Is Important

Practical knowledge about our students’ capabilities, knowledge, and commitment helps us establish a plan for their academic success throughout the year. Thus, the need of a pre-assessment.

A pre-assessment is not a widespread practice among teachers. However, the benefits it allows to the students, as well as teachers, are phenomenal. Let us consider a few reasons why pre-assessment is important.

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Pre-assessment Builds Rapport

First week of school is an adjustment period. The long gap during summer break changes the students’ attitude towards learning. Plus, admissions and transfers of new students mean that you may not see the same faces you saw in your class in the last year.Plus, admissions and transfers of new students mean that you may not see the same faces you saw in your class in the last year.

You may find yourself in a further complicated situation if administration has assigned you a totally new class in place of one you were previously teaching. In such a case, last years’ progress report cannot help you much as they wouldn’t express how the student will respond to your individual teaching personality and approach.

In cases where you want a comprehensive knowledge about your students’ approach towards teaching and their response towards your teaching style, a start-of-year assessment becomes a necessity.

This exercise also lets them know your approach and lets them blend their attitude accordingly.

This evaluation exercise has the power to set the classroom environment so that you can thrive in the coming year. By using positive, and tolerant, attitude towards the assessment exercise, teachers can instill a feeling of confidence and trust among students. This confidence will set the tone for open and result-oriented communication in the future.

At the same time, the teachers will be able to define the communication style that attends to the emotional and behavioral needs of their students. They will know the moral support that will work best for their student during stressful times like assessments and exams.

Teachers will also benefit from the communication opportunity these assessments provide. They will reap rewards of providing positive applicable feedback on students’ accomplishment during this evaluation.

It Evaluates Students’ Strengths and Weaknesses

We can only get our students to advance in their skills if we know their current standing point. An analysis of their strengths and weaknesses tell us the areas in which they need most help and the areas where they have mastered the skills.

This academic analysis also gives us an insight into the behavioral approach these students show towards different subjects. We can amend our topic introduction and presentation style to meet the learning needs of different students.

It shows us how we can plan lessons so that every student within the class can grasp the concept irrespective of their previous knowledge about the topic or their approach towards it.

Knowledge about their current skill-level translates into effective lesson plans and expectations from students.

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Pre-assessment Helps Us Personalize the Lesson Plans

In addition to giving information about the whole class, pre-assessments are useful because they give us insight into individual child’s academic struggles and achievements.

There arise certain situations where the teachers have to deal with unforeseen problems in delivering a topic to a certain student. Such problems can arise either because of student’s inability to recall prerequisite topic or because of misunderstandings during the delivery of the current topic.

A previous assessment will let the teacher highlight the culprit which is creating the problem and deal with it accordingly.

These assessments also help the teacher in highlighting those students who are advanced in their academics. This knowledge can help us utilize their intelligence effectively by either assigning theses students to advanced classes. We can also help them unleash their potential and thrive for more knowledge and skills.

Wrap Up

Pre-assessments may come across as a relatively unknown concept. Yet, it becomes a necessity in some conditions and offers invaluable benefits to both teachers and students in others.

These assessments allow both parties to understand each other’s approaches toward education. Teachers can know students’ skill level. And students can use teachers’ attitude towards these assessments to build trust and understanding.

Evaluation of students’ achievements and failures is the primary purpose of these exams. We can use these insights to plan our teaching methodology and set a target for students’ progress. Plus, individualized results harnessed from this evaluation allow us to set practical learning expectations from each child.

In short, we enhance the overall learning experience for our students by using analyses from this assessment.