Assessment Next-Step Strategies in FOSS (Grades 3-5)
In the FOSS Teacher Investigation Guide located behind the overview tab, you’ll find a section which focuses on Scheduling the Module. This schedule provides suggestions of when to assess students. The FOSS includes embedded assessment opportunities through the use of notebook entries, answers to focus questions, response sheets, and performance assessments.
These embedded assessments provide daily monitoring of student learning and practices to help you make decisions about instructional next steps. I-Checks opportunities occur every 1-3 weeks. These assessments provide summative information about students’ achievement but can be used as a formative assessment. The Posttest is given as the end of a module. It provides summative information about students’ three-dimensional learning. For more information about the assessments, look behind the last tab in your Teachers Investigation Guide.
At a time when the pandemic highlights the importance of science, student scores in that subject are either flat or declining on NAEP.
“My expectations for science notebooks has changed since initially implementing them into my classroom. My students honestly blew me away and exceeded my expectations throughout this process. It made me realize how much I would have been limiting their ability to show me their depth of knowledge about science if I had just given them worksheets for assessment. I was amazed at how they used their notebooks to record, share, and discuss their findings with classmates.”
Ms. Sara Delrosa, 1st Grade Teacher at Grafenwoehr Elementary (2020)