Micro Lesson 2 Assesing Prior Knowlege

Assessing Prior Knowledge:

• How would prior experience have been assessed? 
• Prior knowledge would be assessed through asking the children a series of questions and having a discussion.  Also, as the children are being read a story, guided reading questions can be asked as a way to tell what they already know about writing a letter and the various parts it takes to compose one. Dependent upon student responses, the teacher can gauge what the children know and do not know about writing a friendly letter and adapt the lesson accordingly.
• What would you expect to learn from assessing your students' prior knowledge?
• I would expect children to already have some exposure to the concept of letters. They probably at a 2nd grade level do not know the various parts and format of a letter, but they would know their purpose and how we use them in the real world.  I am looking for their personal experiences and observations of what they have seen.
• How would this information be useful in the planning process?
• This information could be used to help format the lesson and what content will be taught. You do not want to be reteaching something that the children have already mastered or make false assumptions that they already know what you are talking about and the children are lost.