Then, because you want to be a good educator and you want your students to learn, you have to adjust your lesson plans and reteach what you just spent 1+ weeks teaching. AAGGHH!
Sometimes that can't be helped, but usually there's an easy fix called Formative Assessments. It's important to check your students' learning and understanding along the way so you don't end up on test day with so many students failing to know the concepts or have the skills. It's worth the work along the way so there isn't so much work after you've "taught it all." When you are able to gauge students' understanding while you are still in the midst of the unit, you can adjust your instruction along the way rather than wasting time continuing on without knowing you have lost students. In addition to making your instruction more valuable and inline with students' understanding, this also allows students to not deal with those big, ugly "F's" or "D's" (or for some even C's) on their tests...when students are successful and feel successful, they are more likely to engage in their learning and in the class.
22 Easy Formative Assessments <-- an article with links to formative assessments
There is also a book in Jenn's office on Formative Assessments (4 copies available)
Ideas for Formative Assessments (creds at the bottom of the image)
