What kind of tests do you give to assess your students' prior knowledge? How does that information affect your instruction?
We give a pretest before each unit that evaluates their knowledge on literacy skills (compare contrast, supporting details...). We use that information to group the students according to their ability of the skills
In theory mine are supposed to dictate what I spend more time on. But so far all the results have been what I predicted so it hasn't actually driven my instruction, just supported it. However, I just started giving pretests in the past three years and my pacing was driven by previous experience. It is just that history hasn't changed in those years. Students still come to class competent in some areas and deficient in others. But I'll keep doing it, especially now that standards have changed, and keep analyzing the results. If it doesn't change anything it will at least be a great way to show growth at the end of the year.
