Using Data to Differentiate Instruction(Module 3)

Formative Assessment &

Respectful/Challenging Tasks

Readiness LearningStyle Interest

How? According to Students’

FlexibleGrouping

On-GoingAssessment

RespectfulTasks

Using Tenets of Differentiation

Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (Tomlinson, 1999).

Content Process Product

What Teachers Can Differentiate

Based on the Carol Ann Tomlinson model

How…What…

Using…

aka “Formative Assessment”

Module 3 Objectives

• Gain a deeper understanding of formative and summative assessment

• Consider how formative assessment relates to classroom instruction and respectful/challenging tasks

Focus Questions Formative Assessment

What is assessment for learning?

What is assessment of learning?

What does formative assessment look like in a classroom?

Summative and Formative in the Learning Garden

Garden Analogy√ Summative – Assessment OF growth

√Measures the plants√Information might be interesting to compare and

analyze√In themselves, the assessments don’t affect

growth.

√ Formative – Assessment FOR growth√Looks at the plants√Information is used to form the basis to feed and

water them appropriate to their needs √Used to affect growth

Formative Assessment?

Formative assessment is a p_______used by t______ and s_______ during i__________ that provides f________to adjust o________ t________ and learning to improve students’ a_________ of intended i__________ outcomes.

eachers

rocess

tudents

nstruction eedback

ngoing eaching

chievement nstructional

Formative Assessment…The Simple Four

√ The teacher does something – teaches, directs, organizes, facilitates

√ The students do something to show what they know

√ The teacher looks at the results

√ The teacher and students do something with the results

Summative

It Becomes Formative When…

Formative AssessmentFormative assessment can provide information prior to the beginning of the unit on:• How much of the content students remember from the previous year

or a previous class.

• What the students already know about the content of a unit.

• What the students might be interested in learning.

• Connections that students make between the content of a new unit and information from past units or from their own lives.

• How students feel about themselves as learners relative to certain content areas.

• Ideas that students might have as to how they can best learn the content.

Formative AssessmentFormative assessment can provide information once the unit begins on:

• How well students are understanding and mastering the learning outcomes.

• What additional instructional activities are needed to help students reach mastery.

• Which student might need re-teaching, which students are ready to move on, and which students could benefit from enrichment.

• How the students are feeling about their progress in the unit.

• How best to group students.

• Whether mini-lessons might be needed to address specific skills for clarify misconceptions.

Why do we need formative assessment?

Why do we need formative assessment?

Summative is…√The teacher did something

√The students did something to show what they knew

√The results are published (can be looked at by various audiences)

√The teacher and students can’t change those specific results

Formative Assessment is…

√ Using Information or Datareceived during the learning process (before,

during, or after instruction)to adjust or differentiate ongoing instruction

√ The information must be used by the teacher “early enough in the decision-making process to influence student learning” (Stiggins & J. Chappuis, 2008)

Formative or Summative?

Video Clip

“Charting Progress”From the Managing the

Classroom section of At Work in the

Differentiated Classroom

Some Examples ofPossible Formative Assessments

• Observation• Mini-Whiteboards• Pop Quiz• Journals• Diagnostic tests• Entrance and exit slips• Class discussion, Philosophical Chair, Socratic Seminar• Homework• Checklists• Rubrics• Worksheets HO-1

“Wheel o’ Assessment” Taking turns, spin the spinner on the “Wheel o’ Assessment”

card. Read the description of the strategy you land on and discuss the following questions with your table group.

1. Would this strategy be best used before, during, or after instruction?

2. Would this strategy be best used orally, written, as a performance task, or in some other matter?

3. Would this strategy be best used with individual students, small groups, whole class?

HO-2

More Formative Assessment Strategies

• Pre-Instruction– Focus Listing– Misconception/Preconception Check

• During Instruction– Memory Matrix– Pro/Con Grid

• Post-Instruction– Whip– Minute Paper

HO-3

How might this type of tracking form be used as formative assessment as opposed to summative assessment?

Jane

Sm

ith

How might this help the teacher adjust instruction?

SAMPLES OF DATAReading Streets

SELECTION TEST

What would the teacher need to do next for this report to be used as a formative assessment?

How might this help the teacher know what to teach? Does it help the teacher plan flexible groups?

The Students’ Role in Formative Assessement…

√ Then, how can we use assessment to help our students want to learn?

– Here’s where we’re going (Set Clear learning targets)– Here’s what it looks like (Show examples)– Here’s where you are (Share assessment results)– Here’s how to get better (Provide effective feedback)

– Set your own learning goal

– Celebrate what you’ve learned!

How might this help the student know what to do to improve his/her learning? Does it help the teacher plan?

Video Clip

“Continuously Assess”From the Planning Curriculum Instruction section

of At Work in the Differentiated Classroom

Case Study Analysis

• To what extent is the teacher using formative assessment?

• To what extent does the teacher use the data to inform instruction?

• How could the teacher alter instruction to strengthen the use of formative assessment?

HO-4

The research shows…..

“The research shows conclusively that formative assessment does improve learning with the gains among the largest ever reported for educational interventions.

As an illustration of just how big these gains are, an effect size of 0.7, if it could be achieved on a nationwide scale, would raise the average US math score 26 points into the top five in the world.”

From 1998 Black and William study and confirmed many times since 1998.

However, it is key to keep in mind…

You don’t make the pig fatter by continually weighing it.

Continuously assessing students without doing anything with the results will not improve learning.

How Does Differentiated Instruction and Standards Fit Together?

Teachers must hold the standards steady for all students, but can differentiate by…

• Varying the materials used by students to get information. (Content)

• Varying the activities used by students to make sense of the ideas, concepts, and information. (Process)

• Varying the means by which students demonstrate what they have learned. (Product)

Respectful/Challenging Tasks

What is the concept of Respectful/Challenging Tasks?

Respectful/challenging tasks ensure that although students may not always have identical tasks, every student’s work:

– Is equally interesting

– Is equally important (based on DoDEA standards)

– Requires the student to think at high levels to make meaning of ideas and apply skills from DoDEA standards

Respectful/Challenging Tasks

• How do you know if a task is Respectful/Challenging for students?

• Consider the handouts in relation to the concept of Respectful/Challenging tasks.

HO-5

Differentiate by ContentWhat we want students to know, understand, and be able to do.

The content of instruction should address the same concepts/standards with all students but be adjusted by degree of complexity for the diversity of learners in the classroom.

Key concepts need to be clearly identified to ensure that all learners gain powerful understandings that serve as the foundation for future learning.

Differentiate by Product• Students are active and responsible explorers. Teacher’s

respect that each task put before the learner will be interesting, engaging, and accessible to essential understanding and skills.

Each child should feel challenged most of the time.

• Vary expectations and requirements for student responses. Items to which students respond may be differentiated for students to demonstrate or express their knowledge and understanding.

A well-designed student product allows varied means of expression, alternative procedures, and provides varying degrees of difficulty, types of evaluation, and scoring.

Fairness is getting what you need to succeed rather than what everybody else gets.

In the interest of fairness, you will all get the same new home…

Peter D. Rosenstein -Executive Director of the National Association for Gifted Children

“Teachers often do not receive training in how to differentiate instruction, thus the majority of teachers do not know how to differentiate in a mixed-ability setting. As a result, many teachers misunderstand what it means to differentiate instruction. 

Teachers often believe they are merely supposed to create different activities related to a topic. 

They frequently do not have a clear conception of what the students should gain from the different activities. 

Often, advanced learners are simply made to do more of the same work, rather than more complex work.”

Guidelines for Lesson Plans

Conclusion There is a Peanuts comic in which Charlie Brown is talking

with Lucy. In it, he says, “My teacher thinks that teaching is just like bowling; you aim down the middle and try to hit as many as you can.” Lucy replies, “She must not be a very good bowler.”

In conclusion, although teachers can see the benefits of

meeting students where they are and teaching them in ways that best enable them to learn, the actuality is that a great many of teachers still teach in much the same way that Charlie Brown’s teacher did - by aiming down the middle.

QuickTime™ and aDV/DVCPRO - NTSC decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Re-Cap

• We discussed a Common Understanding of Formative Assessment

• We reviewed scenarios/examples of Formative Assessment

• We examined Respectful/Challenging Tasks to motivate students

Tomlinson, 2000

Reflections – This is your ticket out!Common Understandings of

Formative Assessment and Respectful/Challenging TasksReflection Question Self-reflection Response

What spoke to me today that I will consider for my classroom?

How will my classroom “look and sound different?”

What will be my first step?

What will I do tomorrow?

Other thoughts?

HO-6