Assessment

Tools:


During this unit on bonding, assessment was used daily. There were several different
forms of assessment used: summative, formative, pre and post test, formal and informal. When
gauging to see if students were understanding the material presented to them formative
assessment was used more often than not, as well as, informal assessment. The main
summative assessment used in this unit was the unit exam. This was a major grade in the
gradebook for students as this was the last grade they were given before they moved on to the
next core extension class. The unit exam was also used as the students post test.

For their pre and post test students were tested over identifying different types of

bonds and balancing an equation. As an eighth grader learning how to bond different atoms
and balance equations can be intimidating since they have never seen anything like that before
and it is an abstract concept. Since students rarely have any prior knowledge on bonding and
balancing equations, it is a good place to see the students growth over the entire unit.

During this unit, there were a variety of assessment tools that were used. Some of the

types of assessments used were self-assessment, peer assessment, formative and summative
assessment. One way that understanding was checked for on a daily basis was at the end of the
class period, a few different students would come to the board and answer questions from that
days lesson. This allowed the students to be gauged on their understanding of the particular
topic just taught. However, assessing the students this way didnt allow to see how the other
students were progressing in the class. To solve this problem, through out the class students
would ask their table partners for help and based on their conversations it was easy to gauge
whether or not they were understanding. After every lesson that was taught the students

completed a worksheet that was either corrected by themselves or they swapped with the
person next to them to have it graded. By having the students complete a worksheet after
every lesson it allowed for the students to receive one on one help with some of the more
abstract concepts. This allowed the students to receive assistance when they were struggling or
challenge the students that were already finished. There were always a few challenge problems
prepared for the students to try out and push them past the basic understanding of the
concept. Before the students completed the summative assessment they were given a self
assessment. On the self assessment, students were asked to rate how comfortable they were
on ionic bonding, covalent bonding and balancing equations on a scale of 1-5. A five meant
students felt very comfortable with the topics and were ready to take the unit exam. The final
assessment given to students was the unit exam, it was 9 questions long and covered all of the
different types of questions we covered in class, as well as, the questions from the pre test.
More specifically, the the summative assessment asked students to identify whether a
compound was ionically or covalently bonded, to balance equations, to bond compounds using
either ionic or covalent bonds and to determine the number of valence electrons a particular
element had.

The first assessment given to students was a worksheet that asked students to bond

atoms together using ionic bonds. The second assessment was given to students after a lesson
on covalent bonds and it asked students to covalently bond different atoms. The third
assessment was a review packet of both ionic and covalent bonds. The review packet was given
graded using peer assessment. The fourth assessment was a Venn diagram which had students
compare and contrast ionic and covalent bonds. The fifth assessment asked students to build

different compounds using Styrofoam balls and tooth picks. This allowed the students to
physically be able to hold and see the different compounds they were bonding. The sixth
assessment was an inquiry activity where students needed to figure out how to balance
equations. This assessment was graded by the students themselves and different student
volunteers came to the board to demonstrate how they thought balancing equations should be
done. This assessment was used to see where the lesson for the next day needed to go,
whether it needed to start at the basics of balancing equations or if the lesson could be more
challenging for the students. The seventh assessment was given after students were taught
how to balance equations and that consisted of a worksheet focusing on balancing equations.
The eighth assessment, which was a review of balancing equations was graded by peer
assessment and put into the gradebook as a grade. The ninth assessment was a lab students
completed, where they needed to build various compounds using ions. This assessment was
graded solely on participation on the activity and how much of it they had finished before
turning it in. The tenth assessment was a self assessment where students rated themselves on
how confident they were about the topics that were taught in this unit. This helped the
students see what concepts they needed to study for the unit assessment. The final assessment
was the summative assessment and it asked students questions that pertained to every one of
the previous assessments that had completed during this unit.

The assessments were given to students in this order because ionic bonds tend to be

easier for students to understand since the atoms are just transferring electrons, they are able
to more easily see that happen. Covalent bonds were assessed next because it is a more
abstract concept for students to grasp since the electrons are shared between the two atoms

and not just transferred. The review sheet on bonding, the Venn diagram and building the
compounds were used to show students that bonding was finished with and that it was ready
to be wrapped up and move to the next concept in the unit. Balancing equations was taught as
an inquiry lesson to see how much students could figure out on their own and how much they
could be challenged when it came to balancing equations. Most of the students were frustrated
by the inquiry lesson which showed that they needed to have step by step instructions on how
to balance equations. The worksheets and review packet on balancing equations allowed the
students to have many opportunities to prove that they understood the concept. Building
compounds using ions was the last thing taught to students because it was a great way to wrap
up everything they had learned throughout the course of this unit.