Tweaking the Probe

Having a tool to determine what students already know helps teachers adjust instruction from the very beginning of a unit. A Page Keeley assessment probe is just the tool. Each probe cove... See More

Having a tool to determine what students already know helps teachers adjust instruction from the very beginning of a unit. A Page Keeley assessment probe is just the tool. Each probe covers a different science content area. Many probes are packaged by science categories and published as NSTA Press books. Most of the probes are designed to be used with all age groups and learner types. This article suggests ways to tweak the probes for specific cultures or special needs learner groups. For example, if one has a large student population of Native American children, in the “Is It Food?” probe, the teacher could choose to switch out the majority of food items with foods more familiar to this student population. One teacher created an animated version of a probe to engage her visual learners. She used the Puppy Pals iPad app to tweak the “Chrysalis” probe. The article provides several great ideas for improving the ability of this tool. It allows teachers to see their students’ thinking. As a result, many common misconceptions are uncovered at the beginning of a new unit of instruction.

Adapting Probes

The author of this article suggests ways to change a probe to fit cultures such as changing the names in the probe or changing the objects in the probe. To accommodate students with English... See More

The author of this article suggests ways to change a probe to fit cultures such as changing the names in the probe or changing the objects in the probe. To accommodate students with English language limitations pictures can be added to the probes or the wording can be changed. There is an excellent web resource given in the article to help with this. The article goes on to discuss how to adapt the probes to different learning styles. Having read most of Page Keeley’s articles and probes, I would say this is one of the most informative articles I have read!!