DI/UbD Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

Chapter five discusses how to accurately develop assessments that will be effective in a diverse classroom atmosphere. Educators must provide appropriate assessments throughout each unit in order to test students’ true understanding of subject knowledge. Teachers are faced with the difficult task of presenting material to a diverse classroom in a way that can be comprehended by all. The backward design model has proven to help teachers create appropriate assessments, but it is important that teachers have the ability to recognize student needs through their performances, and are able to adjust teaching styles for the better of the class. The GRASPS model has proven to be an effective tool when developing classroom assessment techniques. Teachers use the GRASPS technique as a guide to construct performance tasks that accurately test the information taught in class. When developing an assessment, teachers must focus on identifying the goal, role, audience, situation, purpose, and standards for success. This chapter describes three principles to follow when assessing students in the classroom. The first principle to consider is “the big picture,” teachers must assess students’ in a variety of ways over the course of a unit in order to receive accurate results of student understanding. It is far more accurate for educators to grade students on each of their assessment performances rather than on a single test (i.e. standardized tests). The second assessment principle is “matching measures with the goals.” This is saying that teachers must test students in ways to get the desired results originally stated when designing stage one. Differentiated assessments must clearly test each students; declarative knowledge: what students should be able to perform, procedural knowledge: things students should display, and student dispositions: what attitudes or habits students exhibit. Form must always follow function is the third principle. When educators begin to design assessments they must consider; “What are we assessing?” “Why are we assessing?” “For whom are the results intended for?” “How will the results be used?” Teachers must use each form of assessment to gain accurate results of student learning. The three main types of assessment are; diagnostic: a form of pre-assessment to gather information on the knowledge students possess coming into a class, formative: in class assessments testing specific understandings during instruction, and lastly summative: comprehensive assessments that display a students true understanding in all six facets describe by the author. These six facets of understanding state that students’ will be able to; explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, display empathy, and have self-knowledge. This chapter ends by discussing the importance of being a responsive teacher that provides feedback to all students. When teachers continually provide feed back on a student’s progress in class it keeps them on tract and motivated. Feedback should be provided early, often and in various ways to keep students engaged. When teachers provide students with feedback it promotes the idea of self-reflection. Students who are able to reflect on their performances usually are able to get over areas they struggle with. One of the most important abilities teachers must have is being able to learn from the results their students display on assessments. Teachers must always strive to provide differentiation to their students, and adjust teaching procedures as needed.

This chapter echo’s the others by saying that assessments must be differentiated for maximum student learning. Assessment techniques are just as, if not more important then all other aspects of the backward design model. If a teacher creates a great unit full of extremely intriguing lessons but assesses students on information they were never taught, then it doesn’t matter how good the unit was designed. Results gained from well planned assessments provide teachers with more than a grade for students’, it also lets the teacher know how well they are presenting information and ideas to the class. Effective teacher must develop the ability to learn from all students performances. The topic of assessment has become controversial in over the past ten years. The governments, “No Child Left Behind Act” is forcing teachers to gage their curriculum toward the knowledge required for standardized tests. With the continuing demand of standardized testing, teachers must develop methods to stimulate self-reflection by students. Although teachers are always there to guide, students themselves can be their best teachers.

FIAE Chapter 2: Mastery

What is mastery? It’s the ability to truly understand the substance of a subject, lesson or concept. The problem with this definition is that each individual’s interpretation of what the word understanding implies will be different. Chapter two discussed how it is the teacher’s responsibility to design appropriate, compound assessments in order show evidence of the student acquiring content understanding rather than memorization. Some ways to assure that appropriate assessments are developed are to include the 6 facets of understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy and self-knowledge. Application is especially important in the connection of knowledge to understanding; students who are able to explain how and why the information they are being given is useful are more likely to retain the skills and information. Nolen and Taylor stated that the two major ways to gain evidence of mastery are to continually track progress on important assignments, and to use multiple assignments, rather than one large assignment for summative assessments. Now the problem arises of narrowing down what part of every subject is important enough to teach to that high level of understanding expected. Although most states have developed standard requirements for what meets curriculum understanding, there is still a challenge of choosing the right material – not to mention, ways in which to present it – to adequately cover all standards. Thankfully, endless resources are available to both new and veteran teachers in the form of colleagues/ mentors, curriculum guides, programs of study, pacing guides and former teachers’ assessments, not to mention the standards of learning themselves. Keep in mind that what is important is continually shifting and that the standards by which you develop your lessons will also continue to change. Educators need to be mindful of such changes and always work with ‘now’ in mind but the end in sight to ensure clarity in the classroom.

How will I know that my students have mastered the information? How will I know that I’m doing my job well? These questions were at the foundation of this chapter and reflected many of our personal worries. It’s important, as teachers, for us to know when a subject is mastered because only then can we move on to further concepts. Like many students around the country, most of us have had the personal experience of memorizing knowledge for a short time period – usually in order to pass a test – and then forgetting it as soon as we pass. I think this is probably why so many of us liked the idea that education has turned its focus on understanding rather than knowledge; it’ll mean that knowledge will become applicable as well assessable. A few people mentioned how much sense the math examples made; memorizing multiplication cards is nowhere near the same as taking the skill of actually multiplying and applying it to an area model, and answering one math equation correctly does not mean you have a mastery of the skills. However, should you be able to explain why you did each individual step of a particular problem and where else you would use such an application, mastery is achieved. It’s all about how you’re applying the knowledge and skills. Another idea that was well-liked was how even mastery needs to cater to multiple intelligences, such as allowing students to be evaluated in different ways. Almost everyone noted the connections of this chapter to the section in UbD/DI about the 6 facets of understanding and how mastery will be achieved by using the backwards design model.

FIAE Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

This chapter was about the principles of successful assessment in a differentiated classroom. Remember, it is not how a student learns that is important, but what they learn that is important. Assessment should be a coaching, nurturing tool, not one to point out a student’s shortcomings. An assessment should measure what the student has understood and the progress they have made. There are three kinds of assessments: pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments. Pre-assessment checks a student’s prior knowledge of the subject. Formative assessments are a check-up to see how the learning is going. Summative assessments sum up the unit and gauge the students’ knowledge after all the teaching has taken place. The chapter says to “Begin with the end in mind”. Give the students the end-of-unit test at the beginning of the unit so they will know what to learn and be aware of. The chapter says that, “great assessments in a differentiated classroom focus on essential and enduring knowledge, concepts, and skills”. To make these assessments, a teacher must use essential questions like in the Backward Design Model and form them that way. EEK is focused on in this chapter. EEK (Essential and Enduring Knowledge) is also known as KUD (Know, Understand, able to Do). These acronyms focus on an understanding the content being taught in the classroom. These acronyms also are a reference when constructing the essential understandings in a unit. To help a teacher teach a unit for the first time, some ways to find out what is essential are: curriculum guides, tests from other teachers, colleagues, and textbook tests. The best way to find out if the students are ready for the end-of-unit test is by pre-assessment, usually by giving them a project to seek their understanding of the subject. Assessing students before the final test is important because the students will receive feedback on how they are doing and will therefore do better on the unit test as they understood what they needed to work on. As good as this is, if the teacher does not take action upon what they see and change the lesson plans accordingly, these assessments are useless. During the teaching of the lesson, the teacher is also warned to be aware of “fluff” assignments and to try not to use these in the classroom. These kinds of assignments do not further the students’ learning at all.


This class had mixed reactions on this chapter and it was interesting to see the different viewpoints. Overall, this chapter seems to be well-liked. Everyone had at least one good comment to give to the chapter. Marie for one, felt this chapter made everything easier, “It is like doing a puzzle and putting together the edge of the puzzle first, the essential questions and assignments, to use as a guide for the rest of the puzzle, the lesson plans”. Pre-assessment was the focus of many classmates. Almost everybody was FOR pre-assessment, finding it to be very useful. However, Joel was AGAINST pre-assessment. While the class liked the chapter, many found it to be a lot of review. Clearly, they are right in believing that as the same things were in DI/UbD. One caveat of pre-assessment that should be known was brought up by Megan, “Make sure the students understand the material and aren’t just memorizing it”. This is very true to be aware of.

(FIAE Ch1) The Differentiated Instruction Mind-Set: Rationale and Definition

Abstract:
In the first chapter we learn that differentiation happens all the time and not necessarily by design. Also it reflects on classroom resources, structure and differentiation. The chapter explains how people sometimes think that differentiation could make students too dependent. This chapter explains how that does not happen because you just need to know your students and know when to push them. The chapter tries to get you to think about when you were a student and about how teachers used differentiated instruction. Teaching in a differentiated classroom means that you are doing multiple things and teaching in multiple ways in order to meet the needs of every student. Differentiated instruction is what is fair for all students. It gives them everything they need to succeed including multiple ways of learning. Being fair as a teacher is not always equal; one group of students may need extra materials in order to learn the information when others do not, but the teacher must remember it is more important that students understand the material rather than how they did. Differentiation can be thought of as a tool or guide for teachers to use when thinking of the best way to get all students to learn and apply the content in a comfortable environment; differentiation provides focus. It’s a tool that causes students to work harder because there is a higher level of expectation. Successful teachers are ones who are able to adjust their instruction to maximize student learning but teachers must also find a medium between a structured lesson and individualized instruction. The author makes a good point when he discusses the thought of differentiated instruction and assessment as being a “crutch” for students. Those who believe this statement are correct, but not in the negative way that is anticipated. Students need to be supported through their learning experiences and to grow as learners. One example of this is giving out graphic organizers to those who need them. In this situation, only the students who are struggling with the material actually need the organizer, but the teacher can also offer them to the rest of the class. Another way of differentiating would be to change lessons for struggling students, so rather than a lecture you might take that student on a field trip, do a lab with them, or provide them with a DVD. Teachers need to hold themselves accountable for what their students learn but should hold the students accountable as well, it should be balanced. In the examples of differentiated instruction the book shows that it applies to more than the classroom, the concept applies to many things in the real world such as doctors, mechanics, and the military differentiation their instructions in everyday situations. We have learned a lot about the brain and cognitive theory in the last century; however, we need to be careful to remember that this knowledge is still being tested and what is true to us today may be proven wrong tomorrow. We still have to use phrases like “seems to be” and “as of our understanding today”. We cannot always be experimenting with new ways of teaching and learning. This is very unstable considering the rapid rate of change in the world of science. This would be very unfair to our students; we need to make the best out of what we know.

Reflection:
Most people felt a lot better about differentiation after reading this chapter. There was general sense that everyone had a better understanding. The story about the glasses helped a lot of people understand the concept that fair is not always equal and that a tool used to help one student does not need to be used by all students. A lot of people were surprised by the comparison between differentiation in the classroom and how a mechanic, doctor, or the military works. I also noticed that when people reflected on their education they remembered times when their teachers used differentiation in the class room with them. Another thing that people made a point to mention was the concept of teachers and students sharing responsibility for the students education.