Interest Surveys

I found this week’s reading to be of great use. As I looked over some of the suggestions and ideas I quickly began to think, “How can I use this with my future kindergarten class.” This was a great brainstorming secession for me! I liked all the surveys and found all of them to be beneficial, but there are a few that I feel wouldn’t apply to kindergarten or would need major adjusting. One of the ways I would do this “major adjusting” would be with the content specific survey. I think the content specific survey might be too difficult for the students to fill out questions. However, I feel that I can adapt this to work in a different format. I would do this by bringing to class something that is content specific (for example a spider for science). I would than ask the students to tell me all they could about this spider. As the students begin to give ideas I would make notes of what they know, the misconceptions, and what interest them most. I have done this before and usually they strike up conversations that are more detailed than I could give. While they are discussing this topic I can usually pick out the students who are more interested in what they eat, how they live, and so on. This can also bring many children to describing, drawing, or acting out their ideas and understanding. I feel that this is good indication or precursor to how this particular child learns. I think this type of pre assessment will work during my spring field because the students will have a better understanding of how to express their ideas, but it can also work in fall field, I can’t wait to see! The other pre-assessment I liked was the multiple intelligences. I have always been a fan of the multiple intelligence and find it not only interesting, but of great use to find different learning types. I would use this type of survey frequently because the pictures make it easy for the kindergarten students to respond.

In the Fulfilling a Promise book I like the survey of the student profile. I feel that this survey gives teachers a good look at the student’s interests, and how he or she views himself or herself. Again I think this would be hard for younger students, but I think I could adapt this. I don’t know if it would work but I could somehow create it with pictures they could cut out and place in the column that is like them or not like them. I don’t know if I could find pictures to describe all the statements but I’m sure I could come close. I find this week’s reading helpful and fun. I enjoy rethinking ways to pre- assess my students and find it very useful!