Differentiated Assessment

“If we are finally to connect assessment to school improvement in meaningful ways, we must come to see assessment through new eyes.”

-Richard J. Stiggens

For example, differentiated assessment is like juggling because it seems like having many balls in the air at once.

Synectics

Differentiated assessment is

like _____________________________

because

_____________________________.

• Essential Question 1: Why a differentiated classroom?

• Essential Question 2: How is differentiated assessment different from other assessments?

• Essential Question 3:

What does differentiated assessment look like?

Essential Questions

Why a differentiated classroom?

“Differentiated instruction is doing what’s fair for students.”

-Rick Wormeli

Essential Question 1

100% Engagement

A Perfect Learning Environment

• Student directed.

• No fear of failure.

• Success is attainable.

• Success is rewarded with more sophistication.

“Differentiation places particular emphasis on pre-assessment and formative assessment.

Essential Question 2

How is differentiated assessment different from other assessments?

-Carol Ann Thomlinson & Tonya R. Moon

Differentiated assessment cannot be separated from these

three vital components.

They are each part of the puzzle.

Purpose: “…to quickly optimize the match between learner need and teacher instruction”

-Carol Tomlinson & Tonya Moon

Learning Profile:

• Readiness.

• Learning style.

• Interest.

Differentiated Content and Pre-Assessment

What are some specific ways you use pre-assessment?

Terms:

1. Accommodations ___

2. Adaptation ___

3. Parallel Curriculum ___

4. Overlapping

Curriculum ___

Definitions:

a) The content remains the same, but different product outcomes are expected from each student.

b) The content remains the same, but the process by which the students engage with the content changes.

c) The content remains the same, but it is adjusted to fit the students’ various levels of cognitive development.

d) The content and goals (alternative standards) may be different for different students in the class, but there is still some overlap.

Match the term to the definition

1. The power of becoming skilled in self-assessment.

2. The importance of metacognition when monitoring their progress.

3. The motivation that can result from setting their own goals to progress in learning.“At the heart of our assessment dilemma are missed

opportunities to harness the energy of students as collaborators in the assessment process.” -John B. Bond

Differentiated Process and Self-Assessment

Assessment as arehearsal for learning?

Differentiated Product andPerformance and Choice

Assessment

• Performance Assessment

• Choice

• More than one opportunity for success

Thinking about the three aspects of a differentiated product; which aspect do you feel could optimize your

own assessment practice and why?

Differentiated Assessment as Part of

Content, Process and Product Assessment for Learning

Assessment as Learning

Assessment of Learning

• Enables teachers to use information about students’ knowledge, understanding and skills to inform their teaching.

• Involves students in the learning process where they monitor their own progress, ask questions and practice skills.

• Teachers use evidence of student learning to assess student achievement against learning goals and standards.

Differentiated assessment changes the

traditional model of student learning.Figure 3.1

Traditional Assessment Pyramid

Figure 3.2 Reconfigured Assessment Pyramid

AS

FOR

OF

OF

FOR

AS

by Sandra Crane, July 31, 2014

but to impact student learning we need to be deliberate about it and apply it in systematic and purposeful ways.

The Bottom Line

Differentiated assessment is just best practice that many of us are doing…

What does differentiated assessment look like?

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

Essential Question 3

-Maya Angelou

“If I were teaching you how to play golf, I would not determinewhether you had met my standards by giving you a multiple-choice test. I would put you out on the golf course to "construct your own responses" in the face of real-world challenges. Similarly, in school we are ultimately less interested in how much information students can acquire than how well they can use it.”

-Jon Mueller

Differentiated Assessments Across the Curriculum

Differentiated AssessmentsAcross the Curriculum: Math

Homework Menu

Note: Your partner must be an adult or a student your age or older. ©2009 by Abbie Fox, lovewhatyouteach.com

“Do we want to evaluate student problem-posing and problem-solving in mathematics? Experimental research in science? Speaking, listening, and facilitating a discussion? Doing document-based historical inquiry? Thoroughly revising a piece of imaginative writing until it "works" for the reader? Then let our assessment be built out of such exemplary intellectual challenges.”

©2009 Paul Forman http://www.mindmapinspiration.com

-Grant Wiggins

Mind-MapsEnglish, Science, History,

etc.

Health

Fine Arts: Music

Quantum Physics

Deeper Thinking

50+Tools for DifferentiatingInstruction Through Social

Media

Exit Slips and Socratic Seminars

©2011 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved. ReadWriteThink.org materials may be reproduced for educational purposes.

For more information go tomyUEA.org/AssessmentLiteracy

© 2015 Utah Education Association