assessment of/for learning through differentiation

Assessment of/for Learning Through Differentiation

First District RESA

July 2007

Our Legacy: Assessment for Student Motivation

• To get students to learn, you demand it

• Play on student anxiety

• Use assessments as intimidation

• Manipulate assessments as rewards and punishments

• Provide a rank order of students

• Promote competition

Winners

• Results

• Confidence

• Learn

• Responsibility

• Character

• Lifelong

• Success

• Grows

• How to succeed

• Internal

• Compliant

• Learner

Losers

• Result

• Confidence

• Learn

• Responsibility

• Character

• Lifelong

• Failure

• Wanes

• No hope

• External

• Rebellious

• Search for success

New Mission: Build Competency

• Honor reality that students learn at different rates

• Establish clear targets, worth achieving, and within reach

• Driving force of collaboration and success

• Number of students who can succeed is unlimited

Winners

• Results

• Confidence

• Learn

• Responsibility

• Character

• Lifelong

• Credible success

• Confidence grows

• I can succeed

• Within me

• I am responsible

• Confident learner

Assessment for Motivation

• Clear, student friendly targets

• Accurate assessments

• Effective communication

Three Types of Needed Assessments

• Preassessments – Design this after summative assessment

• Formative – Identify these last

• Summative – Design this first

What is Mastery?

Mastery is…

• more than knowing information, but manipulating and applying that information successfully in other situations.

• defined by the Center for Media Literacy in New Mexico, “If we are literate in our subject, we can access (understand and find meaning in), analyze, evaluate, and create the subject or medium.”

Grade 4 ELA:ELA4R1: For literary texts, the student identifies the

characteristics of various genres and produces evidence of reading that :a. Relates theme in works of fiction to personal experience; b. Identifies and analyzes the elements of plot, character, and setting in stories read; f. Makes judgments and inferences about setting, characters, and events and supports them with elaborating and convincing evidence from the text.

ELA4R3: understands and acquires new vocabulary and uses it correctly in reading and writing.

ELA4W2: The student produces a response to literature that: a. Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a speaker’s voice, and otherwise developing reader interest; b. Advances a judgment that is interpretive, evaluative, or reflective; c. Supports judgments through references to text, other works, authors, or non-print media, or references to personal knowledge; d. Demonstrates an understanding of the literary work; e. Excludes extraneous details and inappropriate information; f. Provides a sense of closure to the writing.

ELAW4: consistently uses a writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate the writing.

ELA4C1: demonstrates control of the rules of the English language, realizing that usage involves the appropriate application of conventions and grammar in both written and spoken formats.

Three Types of Needed Assessments

• Preassessments – Design this after summative assessment

• Formative – Identify these last

• Summative – Design this first

Culminating Project: I’m Your Biggest Fan!We all have our favorite authors, and now you have the opportunity to share your enthusiasm with the world! Your task is to create a mini-book that will detail the life and works of the author you have selected. It will be displayed in the media center, available for use as a resource for the fifth grade author research papers. Each section that you create should be titled as your chapters to the book. The book must have the following chapters:

Chapter 1 – Write a short biography of your chosen author to include a short summary of important dates and events in the author’s life.

Chapter 2 – Write at least three plot summaries (each one about a different work by your author). Be sure to identify each of the works that you are using by including the title in each of the plot summaries.

Chapter 3 – Discuss/analyze one text by your author. Your analysis must include character development and theme, supported by quotes and examples from the text, personal connections to the text, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the setting, and your opinion of the text with justification.

Chapter 4 – Explain what you would change about a work by this author and why (must be one of the three works used for plot summaries in Chapter 2)

Chapter 5 – Write a “found” poem—a poem created by selecting 8 words or phrases from any of the three chosen works that you find appealing and organizing the phrases into a “found” poem. You may share the poem with the class.

You may give each of the five chapters a title that somehow relates to what you are putting in that chapter.

Chapter 6 – In this chapter, you will explain the significance of each of your chapter titles, and how they relate to the author and his works.

Analyzing the Summative Assessment

• Does your assessment match the mastery expectations?

• Is the key vocabulary represented within the assessment or are other terms being utilized in place of the vocabulary of the standards?

• Are there different ways that the student can show knowledge and understandings or is there a dominant form of questioning (true/false, matching, etc.)

How do we know that an assessment assesses what we want it to?

• Do the task yourself• Circle the portions of your responses that elicit

the essential and enduring knowledge and skills listed at the top of the unit.

• Read each component of the essential and enduring knowledge and skills, and check off on the assessment where demonstration of that knowledge and skill is required.

• Ask someone else to compare the lesson’s essential and enduring knowledge and skills to the assessment to make sure they’re in sync.

Three Types of Needed Assessments

• Preassessments – Design this after summative assessment

• Formative – Identify these last

• Summative – Design this first

Examples of Pre-assessments for Readiness

Pre-assessment for 4th Grade ELA

• Choose a familiar story and pretend that I have never heard of it. Explain the plot of the story (including the problem/resolution, setting, main events, characters, and theme).

• What was your personal opinion of this story and why do you feel that way?

• Give one example of written dialogue, as it may appear in a story.

• What is the best way to figure out the meaning of a new word that you come across in a story that you are reading?

Your Turn…

• Examine your summative assessment

• Create a pre-assessment based on it

Analyzing the Pre-assessment

• Create a checklist of what students are to know• Add to the checklist what students are expected

to do• Compare to your description of mastery for this

set of standards• Are there mastery expectations that are not

covered in the pre-assessment?• Review pre-assessment for extraneous items

that do not reflect the standards set forth for demonstration of mastery.

Pre-Assessment Checklist

Look For’s Met Not Yet Met Notes

• Transition slide

Lyla 2/4 Punctuated dialogue, highly opinionated about story

Retelling of the story without identifying any plot elements, vocab. In

context Stewart 1/4 Plot Summarized story instead

of responding to it, dialogue basics, Vocab. in context

Melinda 0/4 Knows setting Plot, response to literature lacks connection to text, dialogue, vocab. in context

Demetrius 3/4 Plot, response to lit, punctuated dialogue

Vocab. In context

Sharonte 4/4 Plot, response to lit., dialogue, context

Knows def. of context, needs practice, could extend response to literature

Questions to guide in Assessment Analysis

• How well did the pre-assessment and any accompanying rubric or other scoring guide work? How would you revise them?

• What are the most common errors and misunderstandings shown on the student performance grid? Of these, which ones are the most important to focus on and why?

• Which students have not reached the proficiency level and why? What assistance will you (and the school) provide for these students?

What Differentiated Instruction Is.....

• Responsive, proactive teaching

• Qualitative rather than quantitative

• Rooted in assessment

• Fair

What is Fair?

Differentiating ProcessMaking sense of the content so it

becomes theirs.........

• in a range of modes at varied degrees of complexity in varying time spans

• with varied amounts of support

• using essential skills and essential information in order to understand essential principles or answer essential questions

“Only when students work at appropriate challenge levels do they

develop the essential habits of persistence, curiosity, and willingness

to take intellectual risks.”

“Come to the edge,” he said.“We are afraid,” they said.“Come to the edge,” he said.THEY DID.And he pushed them,And they flew.

-- Apollinaire

TEACHING WITH STUDENT VARIANCE IN MIND

FRUSTRATION

READINESS LEVEL

TA

SK

D

IFFIC

ULTY

Zone of P

roxim

al

Developm

ent

BOREDOM

THE CYCLE OF INSTRUCTION

Establishcurriculumpriorities

Plan and implementinstruction

and learning

experiences

Determine acceptable

evidence

Insert video sample

Create on-level task first then adjust up and down.

5 Steps to Tiering

Ensure that group membership is

flexible.

Why use flexible groups?

• Change as needed• Increases participation and engagement• Improves achievement• Ensures all students learn to work

independently, cooperatively and collaboratively in a variety of settings and with a variety of peers

• Provides for individual differences• Increases the probability of student success

by matching achievement levels and needs more of the time

Insert video example

Lyla 2/4 Punctuated dialogue, highly opinionated about story

Retelling of the story without identifying any plot elements, vocab. In

context Stewart 1/4 Plot Summarized story instead

of responding to it, dialogue basics, Vocab. in context

Melinda 0/4 Knows setting Plot, response to literature lacks connection to text, dialogue, vocab. in context

Demetrius 3/4 Plot, response to lit, punctuated dialogue

Vocab. In context

Sharonte 4/4 Plot, response to lit., dialogue, context

Knows def. of context, needs practice, could extend response to literature

Ensure that group membership is flexible.

Plan the number of levels most appropriate for instruction.

Lyla 2/4 Punctuated dialogue, highly opinionated about story

Retelling of the story without identifying any plot elements, vocab. In

context Stewart 1/4 Plot Summarized story instead

of responding to it, dialogue basics, Vocab. in context

Melinda 0/4 Knows setting Plot, response to literature lacks connection to text, dialogue, vocab. in context

Demetrius 3/4 Plot, response to lit, punctuated dialogue

Vocab. In context, could extend response

Sharonte 4/4 Plot, response to lit., dialogue, context

Knows def. of context, needs practice, could extend response to literature

Plan the number of levels most appropriate for instruction.

Recognize that complexity is relative.

ELA4W2: The student produces a response to literature that: b. Advances a judgment that is interpretive, evaluative, or reflective; c. Supports judgments through references to text, other works, authors, or non-print media, or references to personal knowledge; d. Demonstrates an understanding of the literary work; e. Excludes extraneous details and inappropriate information;

• Supports judgment through references to text

• Advances judgment (must choose a side)

• Interprets text, evaluates text, or reflects on text

• Excludes extraneous details

Stewart Summarized story instead of responding to it

Melinda response to lit. lacks connection to text

Demetrius Could extend response to lit.

Promote high level thinking in each tier

Promote high level thinking in each tier.

• Using a picture book, the teacher will walk through the book identifying how the author and illustrator used the pictures of the main character to develop the person. The teacher will model with a graphic organizer labeled “What the character looked like, said, did, etc.” After modeling, ask the students to define the term character and identify the main character of the story they are reading using the same graphic organizer.

• Identify the main character of the story. Use the graphic organizer to gather information about your character that will be helpful in the discussion. In the T-chart, the students are inferring whether or not the character will decide to tell the truth based on character actions and words within the story. In a discussion led by your teacher, explain your choice with quotes, and a sequence of the character’s actions leading up to his next move. If you were in the same situation, what would you have done?

• The characters’ time at the camp is left in your hands. You must determine their guilt or innocence, and argue your case for each character before a judge, your teacher, and the jury, a group of your peers, to determine how long each sentence should remain. Your group will be divided into two parts: witnesses for the defendant, or the acting jury who will decide the outcome based on your argument. Teacher will model the use of a T-Chart as a way to organize an effective argument. Students will use the T-Chart to organize their argument for the story before the judge and call to the stand witnesses to share your evidence that includes specific actions, reactions, and quotes supported by the text that you have prepared. You should give your witnesses the names of other characters in the story, and the evidence that they present should be quotes that were made in scenes where they would have heard them, or actions they would have seen. Be prepared to answer questions from the judge.

Provide teacher support at every tier.

Provide teacher support at every tier.• Using a picture book, the teacher will walk through the

book identifying how the author and illustrator used the pictures of the main character to develop the person. The teacher will model with a graphic organizer labeled “What the character looked like, said, did, etc.” After modeling, ask the students to define the term character and identify the main character of the story they are reading using the same graphic organizer.

• Identify the main character of the story. Use the graphic organizer to gather information about your character that will be helpful in the discussion. In the T-chart, the students are inferring whether or not the character will decide to tell the truth based on character actions and words within the story. In a discussion led by your teacher, explain your choice with quotes, and a sequence of the character’s actions leading up to his next move. If you were in the same situation, what would you have done?

• The characters’ time at the camp is left in your hands. You must determine their guilt or innocence, and argue your case for each character before a judge, your teacher, and the jury, a group of your peers, to determine how long each sentence should remain. Your group will be divided into two parts: witnesses for the defendant, or the acting jury who will decide the outcome based on your argument. Teacher will model the use of a T-Chart as a way to organize an effective argument. Students will use the T-Chart to organize their argument for the story before the judge and call to the stand witnesses to share your evidence that includes specific actions, reactions, and quotes supported by the text that you have prepared. You should give your witnesses the names of other characters in the story, and the evidence that they present should be quotes that were made in scenes where they would have heard them, or actions they would have seen. Be prepared to answer questions from the judge.

• Video of clock example here

Differentiating by Readiness – Video Questions

• What was the first thing the teacher considered in designing the lessons?

• How were groups established?

• How was the lesson differentiated according to readiness – what three-step process was used?

• What on-going assessment strategies were used?

• How did the teacher reactively adjust the lesson?

Quiz: What Are You Thinking?

A. Students work in trios to create a Venn Diagram comparing the traits of the main characters in the two novels they read. With the teacher, the trios then compare their diagrams and identify how those traits caused similar effects in the sequence of both stories.

B. With the teacher, students determine the five key events in the sequence in the story that affected the main character. They then discuss and record the cause of each on a chart.

C. The teacher discusses and lists five key events in the story that affected the main character. With the teacher, students determine the sequence of those events and then record the cause of each on a chart.

D. With teacher facilitation, students use a Venn Diagram to compare traits of the main character at the beginning and end of the book. Then they brainstorm, list together, and sequence the events that caused the character to change.

Maps: A Tiered Assignment

• Pre-assessment was a Level II task• Look at the map on page 377 and label all

of the geographical features that you know• Make an educated guess and mark the

places on the map accordingly: major trading center ($), great vacation spots (), place that probably gets invaded by its neighbors, the most populous city (dots), etc.

Maps: A Tiered Assignment• The Lay of the Land: These are students

whose pre-assessment shows that they really don’t know where key geographical features and national borders are in the field. The cognitive skills for this level are familiarity and recognition. Students need to learn by labeling, color coding, and reconstructing. Teacher is close by for reinforcement and correction, checking students off at each task and answering questions.

• Geography is Destiny: These students know their basic geography of the field. They are ready to do some inferential thinking about how particular geographical features determined key historical events. They need to consider why cities developed where they did, the economic value of certain geographical features and why that changed, military implications of geographical features, trade routes, etc. These students need to learn by tracing, categorizing, linking cause and effect, and comparing maps from various eras. The teacher offers support by leading discussion, modeling the use of certain graphic organizers, and pushes students’ thinking by asking probing questions as she circulates and observes individuals/groups at work.

• Telling the Story: These students are ready to narrate historical events based on map information, going from picture to word and from word to picture. They are also ready to process many kinds of map information simultaneously, and integrate that information into their story. These students need to learn by sequencing, linking cause to effect, generalizing, and finding supporting evidence for generalizations. The teacher acts as a resource, assisting students locate sources, asking probing questions to push students to consider the validity of sources, other possibilities, etc. The teacher also models the use of more advanced graphic organizers.

Steps for Differentiating by Readiness

1. Select UKDs2. Use pre-assessments3. Select grouping strategy4. Create an activity5. Vary, extend, and/or accommodate to match

students’ readiness6. Adjust management structures-whole group

introduction to the 3 levels

• Insert math example video have participants practice using the tiered assignment checklist

Criteria for Tiered Assignments____ 1. A pre-assessment was used to determine grouping.____ 2. The groups are based on readiness for this task____ 3. Each of the tasks is respectful, engaging, and challenging____ 4. The tasks can be identified for a learner with above-level skills, on-level skills, and below level skills____ 5. Each of the tasks has the same concept or skill____ 6. Support structures are evident in the tasks____ 7. Understandings, Knows, and Dos are evident in the tasks____ 8. Clear directions are provided for each of the tasks____ 9. The tiered tasks lend themselves to additional and varied grouping strategies such as whole group, small group,

and individual time to extend the learning or to provide the next step in instruction____ 10. Varied materials/texts were considered for the tasks

ANCHOR ACTIVITIES

RAPID ROBIN

The “Dreaded Early Finisher”

“I’m not finished” Freddie

“It takes him an hour-and–a half to watch ’60 Minutes’”

In a differentiated classroom......

“ In this class we are never finished---

Learning is a process that never ends.”

What is an Anchor Activity?

Anchor activities are ongoing assignments that students can work on independently throughout a unit, a grading period or longer.

An Anchor Activity is.......MFI

Meaningful and engaging to the student

Focused on the curriculum

Independent - students can do with minimum teacher support

Science Example: Temperature• Standard S4SC1:Students will be

aware of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works. a. Keep records of investigations and observations and do not alter the records later; b. Carefully distinguish observations from ideas and speculations about those observations, c. offer reasons for findings and consider reasons suggested by others.

Science Example: Temperature

• S4CS2: Students will have the computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data and following scientific explanations.

• S4CS8: Students will understand important features of the process of scientific inquiry

Science Example: Temperature

• S4E4: Students will analyze weather charts/maps and collect weather data to predict weather events and infer patterns and seasonal changes. a. Identify weather instruments and explain how each is used in gathering weather data and making forecasts (including thermometers); c. Use observations and records of weather conditions to predict weather patterns throughout the year.

Subset of skills:

insert video of Science class– How to create a data collection table– Knowledge of thermometers and how to read

them– Averaging– Drawing conclusion– Uses of data collections– Expository paragraph writing– How to formulate a hypothesis– How to test a hypothesis

Temperature: Level I

• What is the Level I task?

• What skills are used in this activity?

• What adjustments are made to help compensate for difficulties students may have that would impede the learning process?

Temperature: Level II

• What is the Level II task?

• What skills are demonstrated in this task?

• Are any adjustments made to help compensate for difficulties students may have that would impede the learning process?

Temperature: Level III

• What is the Level II task?

• What skills are demonstrated in this task?

• Are any adjustments made to help compensate for difficulties students may have that would impede the learning process?

Science Class Anchors

• Centered around unit of study

• Meet M.F.I. principles

• Planned in advance

• Materials available

• Management of anchor activities (learning centers, designated space, etc.)

• Grading/credit considered

Anchors Away!

Role of the Teacher

• Insert video

How will we know when our students are “getting it”?

Three Types of Needed Assessments

• Preassessments – Design this after summative assessment

• Formative – Identify these last

• Summative – Design this first

“Too often, educational tests, grades, and report cards are

treated by teachers as autopsies when they should be

viewed as physicals.”

Doug Reeves – Center for Performance Assessment

What is the difference in formative and summative assessment?

Formative assessment is:

• Assessment FOR Learning

Summative assessment is:

• Assessment OF Learning

Assessment For Learning Defined

• Typically is formative (before or during the learning)

• Includes descriptive feedback, peer assessment, self-assessment, etc.

• Is used for the purpose of helping the learner learn

• Makes learning more possible.» SOURCE: Leadership for Learning, 2005.

Assessment Of Learning Defined

• Typically is summative (after the learning)

• Looks at learning to decide how much has been learned and report out on it.

» SOURCE: Leadership for Learning, 2005.

Comparing Assessment FOR and Assessment OF Learning

Based upon the work of Anne Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work, 2000.

Assessment OF Learning (Summative)

• Checks what has been learned to date

• Is designed for those not directly involved in daily learning and teaching

• Is presented in a formal report

• Usually gathers information into easily digestible numbers, scores, and grades

• Frequently used to compare one student’s learning with other students or with the “standard” for a grade level

• Does not need to involve the student

Assessment FOR Learning (Formative)

• Checks learning to decide what to do next

• Is designed to assist teachers and students

• Is used in conversation about learning

• Is specific and uses descriptive feedback in words (instead of numbers, scores, and grades)

• Is usually focused on improvement, compared with the student’s “previous best,” and progress toward a standard

• Needs to involve the student—the person most able to improve the learning

Examples of Formative Assessment

• 3-2-1• Entrance cards/exit cards• Academic Prompts• Quiz• Reader response journals• Observation logs/Learning Logs• Stem-starters…• Essays• Reflection Cards/Muddiest Point Cards

Student’s Role Based on the work of Stiggins and Davies

Assessment FOR Learning

• Self-assess and monitor progress

• Act on classroom assessment results to be able to do better the next time

Assessment OF Learning

• Study to meet standards

• Take the test• Strive for the highest

possible score• Avoid failure

Winners

• Results

• Confidence

• Learn

• Responsibility

• Character

• Lifelong

• Credible success

• Confidence grows

• I can succeed

• Within me

• I am responsible

• Confident learner

• What’s one thing you changed in the last two weeks in your instruction because of something you observed while assessing students?

OR

• What did you learn about a student today and what did you do with that knowledge?

Questions to guide in Assessment Analysis• How well did the assessment and any

accompanying rubric or other scoring guide work? How would you revise them?

• What are the most common errors and misunderstandings shown on the student performance grid? Of these, which ones are the most important to focus on and why?

• Which students have not reached the proficiency level and why? What assistance will you (and the school) provide for these students?

• How did each individual student do on this task in comparison to the earlier assessment?

• How well did the whole class do on this task in comparison to the earlier assessment?

District Policy

Multiple Attempts at Mastery

• Avoid penalizing students’ multiple attempts at mastery

• Feedback on an assignment that can’t be revised isn’t useful

• Policies that give only partial credit for revisions are little better than no-revision policies

• All work is done at teacher discretion

Multiple Attempts at Mastery

• Ask students to staple or attach the original task or assessment to the redone version

• Do not allow any work to be redone during the last week of the grading period

• Redos and Grades

Multiple Attempts at Mastery• Involve and inform parents• Reserve the right to change the format for all

redone work and assessments• Ask students to create a calendar of completion

that will yield better results• The world does permit redos and “do-overs.”

– Examples (Pilots making second landing attempts, surgeons correcting something that went badly the first time, farmers grow and regrow crops until they know all the factors to make them produce abundantly and at the right time of the year, people check the wrong box on legal forms, scribble it out, correct it, and initial it to indicate approval of the change)

What are we willing to accept as evidence of mastery?• Multiple assignments, including written

responses• Tracking the progress of a few important works

over time• Substantive content and skill demonstration via

the tool or product chosen that can convey mastery (test, quiz, learning contracts, models, essays, videos, etc.)

• Clear evidence of mastery and not evidence of almost mastery mixed with a lot of hard work

Three Important Types of Assessments in the Differentiated Classroom

• Student Self-Assessments– Invaluable feedback– Students and teachers set individual goals– Examples include Likert scale, rubrics,

checklists, analyzing work against standards, responding to self-reflection prompts, reading notations or marginal notes

Three Important Types of Assessments in the Differentiated Classroom

• Portfolios – Collect and examine work over time– Longitudinal nature provides big picture of students’

development– Interpretations of students’ mastery are more valid

• Rubrics– Specific essential and enduring content and skills you

will expect students to demonstrate– What qualifies as acceptable evidence of mastery/

descriptor for the highest performance possible– Specific feedback

Grading Decisions

• Based on consistency of the evidence (grade patterns)

• Professional opinions via rubrics• Can convert 100 point scale to 4 point scale to

stay consistent in grade book• Decisions based on rubrics are more informed,

use more data, and are less subjective than mathematical calculations

• If students and parents focus on the point scale more than rubric descriptors, change gradations to 3.0, 5.0, and 6.0.

“It is not necessary to calculate every grade down to

the hundredths decimal place.”

-Marzano

What constitutes good assessment in a differentiated

classroom?___ The statement that is current practice

*Something that currently you are doing and need to consider changing

Something you need to maybe begin to consider

“A grade represents a clear and accurate indicator of what a student knows and is

able to do- mastery. With grades, we document the progress of students and

our teaching, we provide feedback to our students and their parents, and we make

instructional decisions regarding the students.”

-Rick Wormeli

Gradebook Formats for the Differentiated Classroom

• Grouping Assignment by Standard, Objective, or Benchmark

• Grouping Assignments by Weight or Category

• Listing Assignments by Weight

• Topics-Based Gradebooks

Taken from Results Now

• Glaring absence of the most basic elements of an effective lesson:– Clearly defined learning objective followed by

careful modeling or a clear sequence of steps– Efforts during the lesson to see how well

students are paying attention or learning the material

– No evidence exists by which a teacher could gauge or report on how well students are learning essential standards

Remember your purpose:

• Be a catalyst for serious reflection on current grading and assessment practices in differentiated classrooms

• Affirm effective grading and assessment practices you’re already employing

• Provide language and references for substantive conversations with colleagues and the public

• Feed a hunger growing larger every day for coherent and effective grading practices in a high-stakes, accountability-focused world