https://voicethread.com/new/share/6339213/
Summary of Usage
This VoiceThread will help a second grade class meet the standard CCSS.SC.2.1 that states students must “identify states of matter as solids, liquids, and gases. I will use this activity as a pre-assessment to see what they remember from first grade. I will also use it at the end of the unit as a post-assessment. It allows them to start thinking about the states and gets them to pull out known knowledge.
In the activity, I have included instructions as a comment on the first slide to let them know what we will be doing. They will work alone at their desks and number 1 through 5. I will operate the slideshow and give them 30 seconds to decide what state the water is in for each picture selected. Once they have completed the five slides, I have a slide at the end that I have commented on to give the answers.
Once we have gone over the answers, I’ll ask them to collaborate as a table group and they can determine how many they got right together. We can then have a representative from each group come to the board and write how many questions they got right out of 20 because there are 5 questions and 4 people per group. I will then take an average of the group to account for absences. I can then determine which areas need the most focus. The average scores for the groups will be written down, and after the unit, the groups will do this again, and whichever group has the highest total average score gets one bonus point each on the test.
The activity will help me know not only where the class as a whole needs work, but it also shows me which groups need more attention. Doing this at the beginning and end of the unit will give me data to determine if students have mastered the standard that I have focused on. For students that already understood this subject, I can determine if I need to add material to create a more rigorous way of teaching the subject. By the end of this lesson, the students should be able to not only determine states of water, but also states of all matter. For the end test, I might change the slideshow to include pictures of other matter in different states to see if they truly understand and can apply their knowledge.
If they have already mastered this standard, I will consider moving to the third grade standard so that they can experience growth as they move to the next stage of learning. For the students that mastered this standard, they may also brainstorm suggestions for other pictures that could be included in the post-assessment.