ASSESSMENT: THE HEART OF

DIFFERENTIATIONROME MIDDLE SCHOOL

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

AUGUST 20, 2014

Use the QR code to login in to my Padlet.

Enter your definition for Differentiation!

You can also go to: http://padlet.com/csmith5/differentiation

Did your teacher ever differentiate for

you?

Rephrase a question?

Extend a deadline?

Provide a few extra examples in order to help you understand something?

Stand next to you to keep your attention focused on the lesson?

Regroup the class according to student interest, readiness or the way

students best learned?

Give you a choice among assignments based on something she knew about

you?

Let you redo a test or project?

Let you move to a different seat in the classroom?

What Differentiation Is

and Is NotTake the Challenge Quiz!

Go to this address: https://kahoot.it/

Type in this Game Code:

Differentiation IS NOT :

Every student doing a different thing in your class

Designing an individual plan for every student you teach

Giving a different assignment to every student you teach

ONE way to distinguish students’ differences or learning

preferences

“Dumbing down” the curriculum for some students and

increasing the rigor for others—we do not make learning

easier for students but provide appropriate challenge that

enables students to thrive.

Giving longer assignments to some students and shorter

assignments to some students

Differentiation IS:

Doing what’s fair for students.

A collection of best practices strategically

employed to maximize students’ learning at

every turn, including giving them the tools

to handle anything that is undifferentiated

Doing whatever works to advance the

students.

Highly effective teaching!

Differentiation IS: Designing instruction for students in their zone of

proximal development

All about assessment

Tiering assessments, assignments, and instruction

Using appropriate scaffolding and reteaching for all

students

Making all students accountable for grade level

performance

The heart of RTI

Conferencing with students

Qualities of a

Differentiating TeacherTake the Survey in Google!

http://goo.gl/JNa57t

Why Differentiate?

ALL STUDENTS CAN REACH THE MOON!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNkRoVBya3I&index=1&list=PLe3_vXLiH8Q4VZi16poypn0mHvDdsXlH1

http://goo.gl/SwaLgc

Trailer for A Smile As Big as the Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtElcB8q8m8&list=PLe3_vXLiH8Q4VZi16poypn0mHvDdsXlH1&index=2

The REAL

teachers and

students!

Would you take away a handicapped person’s

crutches, wheelchair, prosthetic legs?

Certainly not!!

We give students the

appropriate tools to handle

whatever comes their way

Are you handicapping a student by making

allowances for differences in learning?

NO! If they learn the material, they will do

well in subsequent grades regardless of how

the next teacher teaches.

However, if you do not differentiate and the

student doesn’t learn, you are setting him/her

up for certain failure in the future.

Consider this…

When we provide appropriate

scaffolding, we actually make the task

more demanding.

“UNDIFFERENTIATED classes are the

easy ones because the ‘my approach

or nothing’ teacher conveys to

students that they can coast or drop

out if the lesson is not working for

them.” (p. 6)

TURN

AND

TALK!

“What if we never

differentiated instruction

for students who needed it,

K-12? What kind of students

would graduate from our

high schools?” (p.7)

“It’s a trick question.

In all likelihood, they wouldn’t

graduate. If differentiated

instruction advances a student’s

learning, lack of differentiated

instruction puts competence in

jeopardy and passing graduation

assessments in question.” (p. 7)

How Do You

Differentiate?

Principles of Differentiation:

A Teacher Must:

Create an environment that encourages and

supports learning.

Have a quality curriculum.

Use assessments that inform teaching and

learning

Provide instruction that responds to student

variance

Must lead students and manage routines

efficiently

Ways Teachers Can Differentiate:

1.CONTENT – the information and ideas

students grapple with to reach the learning

goals.

2.PROCESS – how students take in and make

sense of the content.

3.PRODUCT – how students show what they

know, understand, and can do.

4.AFFECT/ENVIRONMENT – the climate or

tone of the classroom.

Teacher Differentiate According To A

Student’s:

READINESS – a student’s proximity to

specified learning goals.

INTERESTS – passions, affinities,

kinships that motivate learning.

LEARNING PROFILE – preferred

approaches to learning.

Examples of Instructional Strategies

Used To Differentiate:

Thinking Maps

Scaffolded Reading/Writing Assignments (Based on Lexile levels)

Tiered Assignments (More on this!)

Learning Contracts

Small Group Instruction

Independent Projects

Tic-Tac-Toe Assignments

Complex Instruction

Smartboard Activities or Hands-on Activities (Manipulatives)

Visual Representations of Information (Pictures with vocabulary words)

Collaborative Activities (Flexible grouping)

Example of Tiering an Assignment

All students complete a graphic organizer on geographic regions in Georgia and write a paragraph about one or more of the regions..

Student A receives support from the teacher to transform the notes into a paragraph. (Could be one-on-one help of a framed paragraph.)

Student B completes the paragraph with feedback from a partner.

Student C completes the paragraph independently.

(HANDOUT ON DESIGNING TIERED ACTIVITIES ADDRESSING STUDENT NEEDS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF READINESS.)

Write To Learn Program

Summary Assignments are GREAT for

SCIENCE and SOCIAL STUDIES!

They can be tiered Some students can have the passage read to them.

There is a dictionary online for them to use for unknown words.

There are pictures online to help them figure out information they

might not understand.

There are articles with different Lexile levels on the same topic.

4 Types of Formative Assessments to

Differentiate:

1.Summaries and Reflections

2.Lists, Charts, and Thinking Maps

3.Visual Representations of Information

4.Collaborative Activities

(RESOURCE: 25 QUICK FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS FOR A DIFFERENTIATED

CLASSROOM – EXTRA COPIES ARE AVAILABLE – SEE CINDY SMITH!)

What About Mastery

of Content?

Mastery Is More Than Recall

Students have mastered content when they demonstrate a thorough understanding as evidenced by doing something substantive with the content beyond merely echoing it.

Anyone can repeat information; it’s the masterful student who can break content into its component pieces, explain it and alternative perspectives regarding it cogently to others, and use it purposefully in new situations.

Recall will not be what is mostly measured by the Georgia Milestones!

Writing is Essential to Prove Mastery!

“Written responses reveal misconceptions in ways oral retelling cannot. In oral retelling, students can use voice inflections and body language to smooth over rough areas of thinking, making it easier for us to ASSSUME they understand the concepts. You can’t get away with that in writing. Through writing we see levels of mastery, high and low, not otherwise detectable.” (p. 15)

Why the Georgia Milestones will have written responses in ELA and Math this year and Science and Social Studies possibly next year.

Be Substantive

With Assessments!

Can you recognize “fluff”?

Go to this address: https://kahoot.it/

Game Code:

Assessment

Really is the Heart

of

Differentiated

Instruction

Use Authentic Assessments Only through assessments that are authentic (i.e. really are measuring a

student’s demonstration of knowledge) can a teacher determine how to

differentiate instruction in a meaningful way.

Ongoing formative assessments are crucial in a differentiated classroom.

Teachers should constantly assess where students are along the way to

mastery of the content.

Summative assessments that require students to demonstrate and apply their

knowledge are crucial in a differentiated classroom.

Assessments that have to be solely a measure of skill or understanding – not

work ethic or behavior – before they can be used to differentiate instruction.

Teachers need to use a variety of assessment formats to get a clear picture of

how students are learning and what holes need to be filled. Your goal is for

EVERYONE TO ACHIEVE THE STANDARD, SO YOU MUST DO WHATEVER IT TAKES

TO GET ALL STUDENTS THERE!

Differentiation Fuels RTI

Teachers determine a student’s weakness through an authentic assessment.

A specific intervention or differentiated practice is used with the student.

The student is re-assessed to note proficiency.

That student moves on or you use the re-assessment to determine a new

intervention or differentiated practice to try.

Assess

Differentiate

Assess

Differentiate

Does differentiation

mean that students are

always in

small groups or pairs?

Important Note!

Whole class instruction can be

differentiation if ALL students in a

class have the same deficits.

However, teacher-led classes all

the time does not equal

differentiation.

Flexible Grouping and

Differentiation

Flexible Grouping is Differentiation!

You can have different groups based on:

Lexile scores (i.e. Reading Proficiency)

Prior Knowledge

Student Choice (if there

is an outside assignment)

Random Selection

Interest in a Subject

How Do I

Differentiate?I have too much to do already!

Watch these 2 short videos of a social studies

and a math class in which the teacher uses

differentiation.

*What do you notice about the work that

students are doing?

*How do the teachers manage the learning

environment?

*Why are these a good example of

differentiation?

*Could you do something like this in your

classroom?https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/differentiating-instruction-strategy

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/multiple-approaches-to-solving-problems

One Problem Many ApproachesQuestions to Consider

According to the teacher, what is the value of encouraging students to consider multiple approaches for problem solving?

What strategies does the teacher use to engage students in the lessons?

How does the teacher structure her lessons to give extra support to students that need it?

Questions to Consider

Why is student choice an important part of differentiation?

How does the structure of an assignment (graphic organizer, website, brochure) help students summarize content?

How does Ms. Vagenas assess student learning after each phase of the project?

Differentiating With Learning Menus

TURN

AND

TALK

Tap into Individual Learning Styles.

Learn by Doing!

“The one who is doing the talking is the one who is doing the learning!”

Vary the way you present your content! TECHNOLOGY REALLY HELPS!

Power Points/Prezis

Videos (historical, current, teacher and/or student produced)

Demonstrations (Teacher, student, or virtual)

Self-discovery through practice, research, trial/error

Thinking Maps

Annotating Text/Constructive Responses

Problematic Situations Requiring Detailed Solutions With Clear Evidence

Leveled Texts

Texts and Lessons for

Content Area TextsExamples of good assessments

Examples of model and exemplary texts

Examples of good differentiated practices

Examples of good instructional practices

Examples of the kind of thinking required

by CCGPS

ASSIGNMENT Go to the Google Doc on Differentiation.

Add what you and/or your grade level and

department are doing with differentiation.

This will be a “living” wall of posts, so continue

to add your ideas and share and collaborate with

one another.

http://goo.gl/GAAZa1

ALWAYS

TEACH TO THE TOP!

No research supports

SCAFFOLDING DOWN

the content!

Change the Verb to Tier an Assignment!

Analyze

Rank

Why did

Contrast

Plan

Define

Organize

Expand

Categorize

Imagine

Construct

Decide between

Argue for

Devise

Classify

Narrate

Interpret

Predict

Suppose

Recommend

Revise

Argue against

Defend

Identify

Critique

Compose

Interview

Develop

Invent

Generate

Notice the Difference a Verb Can Make!

1. Argue against socialism as a way of government.

2. Rank the following objects in order of importance to the protagonist of the novel…

3. Interview the mantissa of a logarithm about its role in a logarithm.

4. Generate a set of effective guidelines for reuniting North and South Korea. Base it on 1)lessons learned from other countries’ unification, 2) your knowledge of specific issues in N. and S. Korea, 3) your understanding of communism, democracy, and other forms of government.

1. Instead of “Explain socialism.”

2. Instead of “Describe the protagonist.

3. Instead of “What is a mantissa?

4. Instead of “How can North and South Korea reunite?”

To CloseGive ONE WORD that best describes

DIFFERENTIATION.

Briefly explain how and why your choice

best describes DIFFERENTIATION.

Login to Padlet and type your answer.

http://padlet.com/csmith5/ptjht63rvrcd

Scan this QR code to add

yourself to my remind 101

if you would like to get

future notifications of PL

times and assignments.

Enter the class code @teacherpl12

Join by texting 706-449-0292 with

the message @teacherpl2

Visit:

www.remind.com/join/teacherpl2

CHOOSE ONE OF THESE WAYS TO JOIN

CINDY’S REMIND 101