Creating effective assessments
Using formal assessment to measure student knowledge can come at several different points during your unit plan. Assessments preformed before a unit, while you are teaching the unit and after you are finished teaching the unit are all valid and helpful to a teacher, yet each serve different purposes. Understanding each assessment type is important to helping teachers fine tune their teaching skills.
I do think it can be a useful tool if done before class also. At times, some students do not like reading assignments until after the lecture. If you ask questions before your lecture, it tends to motivate the reading. I find it's not because they are afraid to be choosen to answer but that they want to be the one to answer.
