The Connection between Benchmark Assessments and Assessment Prompts

Carol Brewer
Apr 12, 2010

Assessment Prompts, as recommended by LEARNING-FOCUSED, really make Distributed Practice and Distributed Summarizing applicable and effective in every Acquistion Lesson. Assessment Prompts are used throughout the lesson to check for understanding. With the use of these prompts, you are able to adjust instruction as needed through their use as formative assessment. This saves you from the chagrin felt at the end of a lesson when no one can answer the Lesson Essential Question or worse when you grade the unit test and see students just did not "get it."

The connection from Benchmark Assessments to Assessment Prompts is huge. Benchmarks are analyzed to identify the most missed questions. The question stems from the Benchmark Assessments are usually closely aligned to state tests, and therefore should be used regularly, especially during science and social studies lessons. Using these stems provides students with the language and structure of different types of questions and helps prepare them to respond to a variety of prompts. Too many times students understand the content of what they are reading only to get confused by the questions being asked. The question stems from the Benchmark Assessments also make perfect Assessment Prompts. Think about using the stems as questions to check for understanding during your Acquistion Lessons. As students answer these questions they become accustomed to using higher level thinking in their responses.