Assessing Prior Knowledge

If I were teaching this lesson with third grade students, their prior experiences would have been assessed informally by having students write brief notes about what a survey is, what a graph is, what a graph may look like, and which computer programs they have used in the past and how they used those programs. Then, I will have a class discussion about the ideas the students wrote down so that I can get a general idea of where my students are academically. If the students do not know any of these questions, I know that I need to begin the lesson on a very basic level. However, if the students are familiar with these concepts, I know that I will just need a quick review before beginning the lesson. This assessment will also help me determine how much time I need to spend demonstrating how to use Kidspiration, Microsoft Word, or any other computer program the students may be interested in using during this lesson.