Differentiation

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Differentiation Assessment

• November 6, 2007 COOR ISD PD Series
• Fair Isnt Always Equal Assessing and Grading
  in the Differentiated Classroom
• by Rick Wormeli

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Differentiation Mastery

• DI is doing whats fair for students. Its a
  collection of best practices strategically
  employed to maximize students learning at every
  turn, including giving them the tools to handle
  anything that is undifferentiated.
• Its highly effective teaching.
• DI is done as needed
• DI does not mean we make learning easier for
  students.

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DI Mastery Continued

• When we differentiate, we give students the tools
  to handle whatever comes their way
  differentiated or not. This is why
  differentiated instruction and standardized
  testing are not oxymoronic. Students will do
  well on standardized, undifferentiated tests only
  if they have learned the material in their class,
  and differentiated practices are the ways we
  maximize students learning at every turn.

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DI Mastery Continued

• Undifferentiated classes are the easy ones
  because the my approach or nothing teacher
  conveys to students that they can coast or drop
  out if the lesson is not working for them. In
  differentiated classes, teachers know them so
  well that they know how to get students engaged
  with their learning, and they use it. These
  classes are challenging. Students are held
  accountable and they achieve more.

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DI Mastery Continue

• I am the teacher, and so it is up to me to teach
• the kids I have, be they unprepared,
  irresponsible,
• etc. Im not saying thats easy, but if what
  were
• doing isnt getting us the desired results, doing
  the
• same thing over and over and expecting
• something different is not only nonproductive, it
• creates stress and unhappiness in our lives.
• -Ellen Berg, Secondary School Educator

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DI Mastery Cont. Dr. Haim Ginnot

• I have come to the frightening conclusion that I
  am the
• decisive element in the classroom. It is my
  personal
• approach that creates the climate. It is my
  daily mood that
• makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess
  tremendous
• power to make a childs life miserable or joyous.
  I can be
• a tool of torture or an instrument of
  inspiration. I can
• humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all
  situations it is my
• response that decides whether or not a crisis
  will be
• escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized
  or
• dehumanized. I am part of a team of educators
  creating
• a safe, caring and positive learning environment
  for
• students and teaching them in a manner that
  ensures
• success because all individuals are capable of
  learning.

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Mastery

• Objectives Essential and enduring knowledge and
  skills of the lesson, the prime foundations for
  differentiated lesson design.
• We have to be clear in our objectives before we
  can differentiate instruction and properly assess
  our students attainment of those objectives.
• Obtuse objectives make for deadly
  differentiation.
• Unpack your standards!

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Principles of Successful Assessment in the
Differentiated Classroom

• We cannot teach blind to our students. All
  differentiated instruction is based on
  information and formal, 24-7, assessment.
• Instructional decisions are based not only on
  what we know about curriculum, but also on what
  we know about the specific students we serve.
• It only becomes true differentiated instruction
  when we assign students to different groups based
  on something we know about those students.

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Begin with the End in Mind

• Give the students the end-of-unit test on the
  first day of the teaching the unit. Clarify each
  question with students. Now when you teach the
  unit and mention an answer to one of the test
  questions, students will perk up and listen,
  elevating the information to importance. You are
  not making it easier for students. You are
  teaching so that they learn the material, which
  is your goal.
• Students achieve more when they have a clear
  picture of the expectations.

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Clear Expectations

• Students are likely to do the homework assignment
  if they have a clear picture of the finished
  product.
• Nothing in the post-school world is kept a
  secret, so we shouldnt play games with students,
  coyly declaring that we maintain the right to
  choose anything we want from the chapter text
  when they ask whats on the test. This isnt
  teaching.

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EEK and KUD

• Great assessments in a DI classroom focus on
• Essential and Enduring Knowledge concepts and
  skills
• or
• Know Understand and able to Do

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Prioritize standards and objectives

• Lay them out in front of you and categorize them
  as
• Essential those you consider vital to current
  growth and future success
• Highly Desirable items that are very important
  to students, but not absolutely necessary
• Desirable great to know but arent as important
  or necessary as the others

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Determining Readiness

• Pre-assessments do not plan the first learning
  experience or activity of a unit until the
  pre-assessments are completed and analyzed.
• These are the things students must learn and
  heres where they are already. (accountability)
• What experiences do I need to provide in order
  for them to master this material? (mastery)

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Pre-Assessments

• Come from the summative assessment
• Pull specific skills and concepts from your
  summative assessments and use them as the
  pre-assessment
• Avoid anything too large and complex for a
  pre-assessment keep it as short and to the point
  as possible

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Pre-Assessments

• As you create the pre-assessment, consider
• What are the essential and enduring skills and
  content youre trying to assess?
• How does this assessment allow students to
  demonstrate mastery?
• Is every component of that objective accounted
  for in the assessment?
• Can students respond another way and still
  satisfy the requirements of the assessment task?
  Would this alternative way reveal a students
  mastery more truthfully?
• Is this assessment more a test of process or
  content? Is that what youre after?

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Designing the Assessments

• Pre, formative and summative
• Starts with summative design this first and
  make sure everything in the objectives is
  accounted for and doesnt assess beyond the
  goals.
• Determine pre-assessment
• Formative plentiful and frequent to guide your
  instruction.

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Formative Assessment

• The most powerful single innovation that enhances
  achievement is feedback. Marzano 2001
• Assessment informs practice, and we take action.

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Assessment Over Time

• Your supervisor comes to your classroom to
  observe your success with a new teaching
  technique. Your salary and final evaluation are
  tied to the evaluation. Up to this day,
  everything has been going well the students
  were learning and you were succeeding with the
  technique. Youre quite good at it, in fact. On
  this one day, however, the students are a mess,
  everything goes down the tubes, and youre
  rushing through things because you have something
  for which the students must be prepared the next
  day. The lesson bombs and your evaluation rating
  is much less than desirable.

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Assessment Over Time Cont.

• As an adult professional, you would resent the
  rating given you for that observation. It
  represents one snapshot out of multiple days of
  success. Youd appeal the evaluation as not
  indicative of your true expertise, and youd
  request another chance to prove your expertise,
  or at least another means by which to demonstrate
  it. Its a frustrating situation for mature,
  stable adults to your students, its the end of
  the world.

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Redo?

• We can allow students to redo work for full
  credit. Students arent on 100 of the time.
  No one is.
• We are teaching adults-in-the-making, not adults.
• Clear and consistent evidence grade on a
  pattern of achievement.

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Summary of Good Assessment

• Advances learning, not just documents it
• Determines whats worth being assessed.
• Provides enough information to the teacher to
  inform instructional practice.
• Never saved for the end of a unit.
• Never kept a secret.
• Focuses on developmentally appropriate, enduring
  and essential content and skills
• Authentic to the learning experience.
• Highly valid indicator of what students know and
  are able to do, not something diluted by
  inappropriate testing formats, inclusion of
  effort/behavior/attendance

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Summary of Good Assessment, Cont.

• Reliable (would yield the same results time after
  time).
• Does not happen on the same day every week
  happens at the appropriate point in learning.
• Calls for the use of different tools and products
• Uses tasks that reveal common misunderstandings
  so teachers can see whether students have truly
  learned the material.
• Includes those being assessed in determining its
  form and criteria.
• Conducted with multiple experiences over time.

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Creating Good Tests

• Use a Variety of Questions/Prompts
• Mix traditional (multiple choice, t/f, fill in
  the blank, matching, definition, essay, short
  answer) and not-so traditional (analogies,
  drawings, diagrams, analyzing real-life
  applications, critiquing others performances)
  prompts
• Mix forced choice with constructed response

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Creating Good Tests

• Make it Efficient for Students
• Provide a T or an F to circle
• Matching write definitions on the left and list
  words to choose from on the right
• Keep matching items on same page
• Keep blanks in fill-in-the blanks close to the
  end of a sentence
• Highlight or italicize words such as most, least,
  not

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Creating Good Tests

• Keep it short if 3 questions will tell you
  whether or not a student understands a concept,
  dont ask 10 questions.
• Timed tests are great underminers
• Including common errors as choices increases the
  validity of the grade (discerns whether or not
  students really know the material)
• Including student names in unusual situations can
  be a motivator to students.
• Keep it simple, keep the goal in mind.
• Test the way you have taught and the students
  have practiced.

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Differentiating Tests

• Give students choices in a section.
• Include standards or content expectations right
  on the test.
• Ask them, What did you think would be asked on
  this test but was not? and How would you answer
  that question?
• Give feedback quickly especially on formative
  assessments

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Nature of Grades

• Grade the sample writing.
• Read about the students and grade again.
• What adjustments did you make/not make?

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Beliefs Revealed

• No changes in grade curriculum supersedes the
  student
• Adjusted grade serve students before, or at
  least while also, serving the curriculum
• Does adjusting grades based on student
  information weaken the curriculum and students
  mastery of the content? (Maybe, but is something
  better than nothing?)

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Observations on the Range of Grades

• Effective assessment can only occur against
  commonly accepted and clearly understood criteria
  consisting of frequent and extended communication
  among like-subject teachers.
• Teachers have to be knowledgeable in their
  subject area in order to assess students
  properly.
• Grades are more often than not subjective and
  thereby likely to be more distorted in their
  accuracy than teachers realize.
• Grades are not always accurate indicators of
  mastery.

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Final Task Subjective Grades

• What would a great teacher write to a student
  about his grade on the preceding essay. Choose
  any of the student backgrounds described to
  respond.
• Miguel, the grade you earned on this essay is a
  _____. This grades indicates.

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Basis for Grades

• To document student and teacher progress
• To provide feedback to the student, family and
  the teacher
• To inform instructional decisions
• To motivate students
• To punish students
• To sort students

• To promote attendance
• To promote good behavior
• To represent effort
• Which of these factors inform us of student
  mastery?

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10 Approaches to Avoid when Differentiating
Assessment and Grading

• Avoid incorporating nonacademic factors, such as
  behavior, attendance and effort into the final
  grade.
• Avoid penalizing students multiple attempts at
  mastery.
• Avoid grading practice (homework).
• Avoid withholding assistance with the learning
  when it is needed.
• Avoid assessing students in ways that do not
  accurately indicate their mastery.

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• Avoid allowing extra credit and bonus points.
• Avoid group grades.
• Avoid grading on a curve.
• Avoid recording zeros for work not done.
• Avoid using norm-referenced terms to describe
  criterion-referenced attributes. (What is
  proficient?)

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Six Burning Grading Issues

• Scoring Missed Assignments
• Zero or Sixty
• Grading Gifted Students
• A for the regular education material or an A only
  if they surpass?
• Weighting Grades
• AP vs. Regular courses

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Six Burning Grading Issues

• Automaticity verses Concept Attainment
• Page 146 Examples
• Grading Special Needs Students in Inclusion
  Classes
• Same Criteria or Different Criteria
• Grading Late Work
• Accept it, lower grade or not at all