Last week, I posted a little about our science unit on the solar system. Over the last year, I introduced "science tests" to my monthly science units. My kids take the same test once at the beginning of the month (as a pre-assessment) and again at the end of the month (as a post-assessment). I was shocked the first time we took the test as a group at how many of my kids were cheating (although secretly, I was kind of proud of how smart they were to think of cheating!). We had to have a conversation about cheating, put up some dividers while we take tests, and move our desks apart from one another to deter cheating! But then, we were good to go for test-taking behavior....until it came time to grading our tests. I seriously think I made half the kids cry because they were sad they didn't get 100% (again...kind of proud that getting a good score is important to them!). So needless to say, I am a little reluctant to give our science test on the solar system this week! What do our science tests look like? Well, see the picture below to find out!
This month's test has some basic questions as well as matching. Other tests have also included multiple choice, labeling, or fill in the blank type questions. It is surprising that even though my students can demonstrate that they know this information while talking with you, they still get the questions wrong on the test. So many of them see the word "name" in the first question ("Name 2 planets") and they instantly write their first name in one box and their last name in the other. Using these short, simple tests, are a great way to test generalization as well as demonstrate direction following!
Here are some of the worksheets my kids worked on over the month as well to help prepare them for the test. A following directions coloring sheet.
Some multiple choice questions about the solar system.
A sheet where the kids matched their vocabulary words to the correct definitions.
Great ideas... as always! Would you consider posting more of your science units on your TpT store? I love the Body Parts unit and would love to have this one as well! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes...I have been working on putting more units together, just haven't finished them up quite yet. Thanks so much for reading and glad you are enjoying the Body Part Science Unit :-).
DeleteSend me an email (hndeloya@gmail.com). I just found the document for a bunch of my solar system worksheets...someone in my school district forwarded it to me a long time ago. I won't sell it since it is not my work, but no harm in sharing!!
DeleteHi, I just recently found your blog and am so glad I did! I love your units. Do you follow any curriculum or common core standards? I teach a K-3cognitively impaired classroom and have no idea where to start in implementing science. As you are I am sure aware, any standard curriculum goes way too fast with not enough application. Did you design your units around standard texts? I would so love to get your ideas as I am clueless!
ReplyDeleteA lot of my science materials were created pre-common core in my district. I do not exactly follow the same curriculum as my school. I do meet weekly with the other teachers in my grade level and try and work on similar topics or skills as them. I have looked at some of the science texts to find some vocabulary as well as topics. But, for the most part, I started out just trying to teach my kids vocabulary about a bunch of science topics...once they began to get that, I added more materials to my units to make them a bit more about the actual content. With some of my students, we even got to reading/researching from the textbooks/internet.
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