We’ve all been told that students learn at different rates and enter class with diverse levels of knowledge. Rebecca Alber wrote an article saying that, when she coaches teachers, many ask What does differentiation look like?
Differentiation begins with the analysis of student work.
Math
Differentiation begins with a pre-test. It doesn’t have to be long. Put together two questions from each lesson in a unit.
Here is a partial example of a unit pretest:
Created by colleague Mary Ellen Ryan
After the pre-test, tick off the objectives each student has already mastered. Notice that no child has a full grasp of all objectives. Hence, the “extension” group must be flexible by lesson. (Note: Student names are fabricated).
Reading and Writing
The first piece you need is paper that looks something like this:
When you notice patterns in student work, write down topics for mini-lessons. List names of students who need the mini-lesson. Pull the students for a small group session during workshop time. You can create the same “boxes” with on-screen Stickies.
Each year I get a file of student work from the previous teacher. I wish I had time to read carefully through each piece. I choose to spend the most time looking at the Diagnostic Reading Inventory (DRA 2) sheets.
The bad news about DRA 2 sheets is that the assessment may be an indication of writing skills as much as (if not more than) reading skills. The good news about DRA 2 sheets is that the assessment may be assessing writing skills. So I use it for both. Here is an example of the summary page:
What can I learn about this student as a reader?
- The child sees the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
- He/she can concisely list the main details of a story.
- He/she identifies character feelings and actions.
- He/she includes more details from the beginning of the story than the end.
- More or less, the writing suggests literal comprehension is at grade level.
I would use other pages to check the student’s reading habits and his/her ability to use specific reading skills. The first couple weeks of school, I would need to have an individual conference with the reader to confirm my DRA-based impressions.
What can I learn about this student as a writer?
- He/she organizes writing in a sequential fashion.
- He/she is able to communicate ideas.
- He/she uses vocabulary acceptable for a fifth grader.
- He/she uses a consistent tense.
- Paragraphing is present, but not indented.
- The student needs lessons on plurals and possessives
- Spelling patterns deserve further investigation.
The folder also has a narrative writing sample. A quick glance confirms or refutes my initial impressions.
Poetry begins this week. We assessed students’ poetry writing by simply saying “Write a poem.” My teaching partner and I will review those to see which students use imagery, which students take the poem through the entire writing process, and more. To assess students’ poetry reading, we had them analyze an Emily Dickenson poem. Again, we will compare to see which students discussed important lines or words, which students examined meanings beyond the literal…
How does pre-assessment lead to differentiated instruction?
Great question – to be answered in a future post.
I wish I could tell you a super-quick way of pre-assessing students. The analysis time is worth it, though. If we want to differentiate instruction, we first need to know which students need which lesson(s).
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This is so close to what I preach. It’s a time honored idea that keeps getting refined, more useful and quicker. Agreed, this does take time and that time is worth it, but a small amount of information, if the best information, can go a long way.
Now, I’d like to make a critical distinction between what I have written about and what I get particular post. In this post, I see a teacher centered approach to data and pretests. “What can I learn about…” I’d like to propose that the most powerful consumer of this information is the student themselves.
What does this pretest tell the student about where they are? What does the post tell me about if and what I learned during this unit? What are my strengths and weaknesses? How do I compare to my peers using anonymous, empirical data?
The spreadsheet is fantastic showing which student has mastered which skill. I’ve grouped my entire year into 12 mastery categories and created a huge “Star Skill Mastery Board” where I celebrate mastery publicly with my students. They can earn a star for demonstrating mastery on my assessments or a special assessment if they didn’t earn it on the original test assessment. It’s been a huge success and I’ve blogged about it and other components to this program.
Hi Jim – Great to hear from you again!
You are correct – this post is teacher-centered because it involves grouping students for further instruction. These help me plan for the upcoming unit. At the end of the unit, I give the pretests back to the students – they are excited to see that they can now complete the items.
These pieces are starting points. I expect students will learn much more during the unit – and I continue to formatively assess all work, assign projects when possible, and follow up with each student on an individual basis. Students also give feedback to one another. That will be my next post
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The other piece is this: Even if a student has mastered a pre-test objective, that doesn’t mean the student knows that objective on higher levels. For example, one of my students tested out of graphing ordered pairs. I took him a step further – asking him to take equations such as y – 3x + 2, and find values for x and y. Then, I connected the idea to ordered pairs and graphing. His project was to describe what happens to a line when the multiple changes and what happens to the line when other numbers are added. Other students were challenged to describe what happens when the value of x is doubled and when the x is negated (then they did the same for y). Same lesson – varying levels of sophistication.
You are also correct – the most powerful formative assessments are student-centered. Those formative assessments come throughout the unit. When I group students for independent projects, students make goals for their products. They reflect on their learning and make goals for future projects.
The “Skills Mastery Board” sounds interesting. I wonder about the students who feel insecure in a subject. I have some students who are very insecure about their writing. Some of my best writers are self-conscious during math class. I think students naturally compare themselves to one another – and parents often ask their child’s “rank” in class. I guess I’m afraid that a chart would make parents feel their child needs additional tutoring to “catch” the other students. Perhaps that is a cultural phenomenon in Hong Kong.
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Hi Janet!
I must agree with you too. When a student masters a skill, it’s in a vacuum. It doesn’t tell us if students can apply the skill beyond what the assessment directly shows and it doesn’t tell us that they can go even an inch (2.54cm) beyond where the assessment tests them. I do like to have a challenge question to be paired up with all three questions that I use to assess a particular lesson. I also write the test in rows. So the first row is four questions long and from left to right the questions get harder with the final question being a challenge question that is optional but beyond the lesson. It’s just one small trick I use to try to get more from the assessment.
I love your attention to the implications of a skill mastery board, especially with self-conscious students. It was my main concern when building this program for sure and for everything to have gone so well, I’ve insured the following: A healthy and safe learning environment, special attention to those who do struggle to learn skills, an open door to earn any and all previously assessed skills through the final day of the year, dedication to finding those missing skills and get them what they need.
Beyond that, I have had the habit of identifying behaviors that exist and to find a way that I can channel that energy to be productive for me in my teaching. As you mentioned, it’s a habit to self rank the members of a class that you might also be a student in. I’ve used this energy a few ways. One is to reveal were these ideas are misconceptions. Every assessment I use two anonymous graphs; First being the number of students who get one particular question correct and the second being total scores tallied. (If that doesn’t make sense, I think I have posts about this on http://www.analogsrevolt.com) Anyhow, there are always surprises. Students who think that they are under performing consistently find that they are not. Students who have no idea that they are under performing get a wake-up call that they might need to change what they are doing. There are so many more common reactions, but it has been a positive experience all the way around. With that, self-conscious students and all students get some empirical information about their progress. It’s out in the open, fair and useful, then we move on and get focused on the learning that matters!