Formative Assessments

The probe provided our group the feedback we wanted. The probe indicated 48 percent of the students hold common misconceptions about what the definition of a dessert is. Forty-seven percent of the students anwers correctly, stating that the major defining attribute of a desert is that there is a lack of rainfall.

To make this a truly useful probe, we would want to ask more than one question. Although almost half of the students stated that deserts have very little rain, do they understand that all of Antarctica is a desert?

I would use the data to make sure we covered the misconceptions and the students fully understand what deserts are.  There is not enough information to allow students that got the answer right to skip the unit.

I liked using the probe but I think I need more practice writing questions. Often students are smart enough to guess the right answer but do not fully understand  the concept.