Whatever It Takes

Whatever It Takes Differentiated Assessment Session One

Word Splash • Choose 5 words to write in the circles. • Reflect on your choices

Boxing What else do I know about this topic? (How does it fit) Summarize Draw a model or picture to explain your thinking

Why do we assess? • Inform instruction • Communicate information

Assessment Toolkit List all of the assessment strategies, tasks and tools you have used in the last few weeks during Language Arts.

Differentiated Assessment An ongoing process through which teachers gather data before, during and after instruction from multiple sources to identify learners’ needs, and strengths Carolyn Chapman and Rita King “Differentiated Assessment Strategies” (2005)

Why do we differentiate assessment? “Students are differentiated in their knowledge and skills. They differ in the ways and speeds at which they process new learning and connect it to prior knowledge and understanding. They also differ in the ways they most effectively demonstrate their progress.” - Chapman and King (pg xix)

Three Key Principles of Assessment • Consider Photo Albums Versus Snapshots • Match the Measure with the goals • Form follows function “Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design” by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

Photo Albums Versus Snapshots • To what extent do the results of any one assessment permit valid and reliableinferences about student understanding? • What evidence is needed to show that students have reached the intended learning objective?

Gathering evidence of learning: • Selected Response format • Written or oral responses to prompts • Performance Assessment Tasks • Portfolios • Reflective journals • Ongoing observations • Formal observations • Self Assessments • Peer reviews

Match the Measure with the Goals Three types of educational goals • Declarative knowledge: what students should know and understand • Procedural knowledge: what students should be able to do • Dispositions: what attitudes or habits of mind students should display

Form follows function • What are we assessing? • Why are we assessing? • For whom are the results intended? (diagnostic, formative, evaluative) • How will the results be used?

Is your Assessment Toolkit balanced? • Look over the assessment tasks you listed earlier • Are the three key principles of assessment addressed?

An Assessment Photo Album Evidence Source 1 Evidence Source 2 Content Standard Evidence Source 4 Evidence Source 3 • “Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design” • by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

Purposes of Pre-Assessment… • What the student already knows about the unit being planned • What standards, objectives, concepts and skills the individual student understands • What further instruction for mastery are needed

Use Pre-Assessment Data to • Decide on timelines • Plan flexible groupings • Find out the number of students at different levels of mastery and design learning activities accordingly.

Pre-Assessment ideas Squaring Off Boxing Yes/No Cards Graffiti Fact Ponder and Pass Response Cards Take a Stand Knowledge Corners

How to talk about assessment with your students? After school a student uses assessment when… At school, a student experiences assessment when… In the workplace, assessment is used when….

Make connections • How has assessment guided you to improve a skill?

Three cautions • Aim of assessment • “The juice must be worth the squeeze.” 3. Feasibility “Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design” by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

Next Session A closer look at a few of the six big strategies of formative assessment: Learning intentions Success Criteria Feedback Questioning Learners as resources for each other Learners as Owners of their learning

Whatever It Takes