Creating Pre- and Post-Tests

Before teaching the 5th graders the lesson that we made for them, it was important that we created pre-tests and post-tests. The main purpose for these tests are to check for understanding of the students.

The pre-tests and post-tests used were for the 5th grade classroom for social studies on Unit 2: Connections Across Continents.

Pre-tests are designed before the lesson is taught. Teachers use pre-tests to check the students prior-knowledge of what the teacher is about to teach to the students or relating to the topic. It is a great transition for students to be introduced into the lesson. Here is an example of a pre-test that was used for the 5th graders: Unit 2 Pre-test.

Post-tests are designed after the lesson is taught. Teachers use post-tests to check if the students have understood what they have learned from the lesson. If not many students have a clear understanding of what was taught based on the test, the teacher will know that the topic may need to be reviewed more or even retaught. Here is an example of a post-test that was used for the 5th graders: Unit 2 Post-test.

Creating these tests was a great experience for me. It was the first time that I have ever created these type of tests. I contributed to the section 3 "The Struggle to Found Colonies." For the pre-test, I created the question "Why do People go to War?" I felt that this was a great question for the pre-test because we would be discussing wars in our section of the lesson so it was important for me to know if the students knew why wars even occur. For the post-test, I created the question "What document was an important step towards self-government?" I felt that this was a great question for the post-test because it was a main topic that was discussed throughout the lesson and I needed to know if the students fully grasped what they were taught. I definitely recommend creating pre-tests and post-tests because it is a great tool to check what the students already knows and to check if the students understand what they were taught.