Share what you know, a good place to start

Before moving ahead in our inquiry into shapes, angles, and lines, my grade three students took time to share their current understandings.

Armed with cameras, small groups walked about the school to take pictures representing any 2D shape, 3D shape, angle, or line they were familiar with. They then added their photos to a Voicethread to record their thinking.

They also used different materials to share and tweet their prior knowledge on the properties of 2D shapes.

By having the students do this I was able to gain a lot of information to inform and differentiate my planning.
This included:

-strengths and needs of individual students
-student readiness levels
-vocabulary needs
-possible flexible groups

The voicethreads will be revisited throughout the unit to adjust, modify, or to add information as the students continue to construct meaning, transfer meaning, and apply their further understanding.

Have you used Voicethread for pre-assessing?