Use the following suggestions to assess student understanding and learning at the beginning, middle, and end of the Level C lessons.
Pre-Assessment
Use sample photos from the sorting activity in Engage: Tree Sort as a baseline pre-assessment of a student’s classification skills.
Formative Assessment
- Periodically analyze students’ tree journals, noting:
- Detail in students’ observations and how appropriately they identify observed patterns over time.
- How accurately students record daylight data and observations.
- For 2: Get in Touch with Trees, Part C: Looking at Leaves, assess observation skills and accuracy of responses to questions.
Final Performance Assessment
Give students a sheet of paper to fold in half, labeling one side “Alike” and the other side “Not Alike.” Have students choose a familiar habitat from 5: Habitat Pen Pals (such as Lake) and provide them with another habitat that was not given (such as Tundra), using the Habitats Around the World teacher page as a resource. Be sure to include a picture of the unfamiliar habitat, its location, and example animals found in that habitat. Ask students to make observations of how these two habitats are alike and how they are different, challenging them to identify as many ways for each category as possible.
Use the suggested Performance Assessment Sample Rubric teacher page to score student responses.
