Diagnostic Assessments: An Overview

In partnership with Model Teaching, an industry leader in supporting educators, this quick course will help you understand the common diagnostic assessments you can provide to your students. Model Teaching's Mission is to improve student performance by directly supporting teachers with quality content and resources. You will learn about the components that make up a strong diagnostic assessment and then receive guidance on what you can do with the results. The course will help you purposefully plan for how you will utilize diagnostic assessments in your classroom.

3 Months / 1 Course Hrs

Open Enrollment

Offered in partnership with your preferred school

South Louisiana Community College

Change School

Learning method

Self-Guided

$44

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

Enroll Now

Details + Objectives

Course code: T14709

This teacher professional development course will teach you how to generate diagnostic assessments and utilize them to support our classroom instruction. Diagnostic assessments are an important part of lesson planning because they help you understand what your students know and do not know in an upcoming lesson. The course will help you understand the important components of a diagnostic assessment and allow you to analyze diverse types of assessments you can use in your classroom. You will plan for implementation for an upcoming lesson based on what you have learned.

The course comes with a downloadable PDF of the content and a graphic organizer that supports you in planning for and then tracking the results of diagnostic assessments that you will use in your classroom.

What you will learn

Define diagnostic assessments and their purpose
Analyze the three common types of diagnostic assessments (running record, performance task, and writing prompt)
Evaluate the four main components of a diagnostic assessment (focused, specific, quick, and comprehensive)
Plan for the use of diagnostic assessments in an upcoming lesson

How you will benefit

You will be able to identify what topics you must teach to students for an upcoming unit
You will be able to track student progress over time, using your diagnostic assessment data as a comparison for student growth
Your lessons will become more efficient and targeted, and your classroom dynamic will improve

How the course is taught

Self-Guided, online course
3 Months access
1 course hours

Outline

Diagnostic Assessments Course Content
1. The video and article will provide you with an understanding of diagnostic assessments and how they can be used in your classroom, it will help you analyze four types of diagnostic assessments, evaluate their main components, and then plan for using diagnostic assessments in your classroom. The course also includes some "Reflect or Discuss" prompts to help you connect with the course content and ends with a "Try This Task" to guide you explicitly on how you might implement the ideas into the classroom.
Quiz
1. You will answer questions related to assessments. Quizzes are automatically scored and provide feedback on answer choice rationale.
Implementation Reflection
1. The reflection prompt requires you to plan for use of the "try this task" by either reflecting on the content yourself or discussing them with the colleague. You will then discuss a new concept you can attempt to implement in the future based on something you learned in the course.
Considerations for Implementation
1. This short statement helps you reflect on your ideas and assess whether you might be successful in your implementation.
Videos and Further Reading
1. Additional content suggestions are provided to enhance and expand your understanding of diagnostic assessments.

Instructors & Support

Self-Study

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 10 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Microsoft Word Online
Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Diagnostic Assessments: An Overview

South Louisiana Community College