Toolbox 2
What is your approach to differentiated assessment?
My approach to differentiating assessments is impartial. I generally only differentiate assessments for the students who are already previously Title-1 students or in Special Education. My students are evaluated on the same assessment in the beginning of the year ( First Grade Pre- Assessment) to determine if they have mastered their prerequisite skills for First Grade. I continue to re-test all students on their prerequisite skills until the end of the quarter. This type of assessment is used by Kindergarten and First grade. This assessment is modified for Kindergarten. If I do not assess all students the same, I can not begin my process of Title and SPED testing.
As a class we set goals throughout the year. “In order to be successful, students need to understand and know the learning target/goal and the criteria for reaching it.” Garrison, C., & Ehringhaus, M. (2007) The goals are posted clearly and at the children’s level. I use my formative assessments and base their goals from that. One example is our sight word list. I set our goals so that they are reachable, but challenging. I clearly write out; Quarter One Goals: 15 out of 20 students will read all Pre-Primer Sight Words by the End of Q1. Once the student has reached that goal they sign the goal sheet. If we do not meet our goal I re-assess the goal and the students. I believe setting goals that are posted not only helps the students work harder, but is a wonderful reminder for the teacher to continue to re-assess their students. I differentiate the assessment for the goals as well. I do this by testing and re-test the students who are struggling with the concept. I send home extra practice sheets and pull a small group to help those who are finding it difficult to reach their goals.
What are ethical grading practices, in your estimation?
My estimation in ethical grading practices is that I grade each student based on their formal/informal assessments and in-class work. I do keep a grade for their homework, however I do not base their entire grade on homework completion. The reason is because 43 % of parents (nationwide) do their homework for their child. (McClure, 2010) This is a regular occurrence in the younger grades and is frowned upon by many educators. When I see my students who struggle with in-class work and have a difficult time understanding concepts that were taught the day before, or earlier in the week, but did well on their homework, I review ( Homework Review) the concepts with them in a small group. I generally will contact the parents and ask ” what are your child’s strengths and weaknesses this week?” Hopefully with contacting the parents we can we close the gap from school to home on their homework issues. This also generally will get the parents to open up and hint they were helping/doing the work themselves. I often have to remind parents it may seem like they are helping, but it can also teach them the easy way out.
One way my co-teacher and I grade our Writing assignments is to set up a selection of writing prompts to adhere to student needs and use a blank ( ). Since not all students are graded on the exact number of sentences we adjust our scoring as needed. When I begin grading for a writing assignment I give each student a ( writing prompt ) . The students are required to brainstorm and use a writing web (web) to get ideas down on paper. They use this web to create ideas to begin their story. It is very difficult for this age group to just grab a piece of paper and start writing.
They also need to use a sequence of events ( storymap) to help organize their thoughts. Without this they tend to write their story out of sequential order. When I assess each final draft I take into consideration who is Special Needs and receives Title-1 services. I would assess Special Ed and Title-1 students based on their ability and reading levels. I would do that by using their oral response and their pictures to tell me their writing piece. I do hold the other students accountable for giving me more structured sentences.
Teaching Resources
The story map is designed to help students keep their ideas in a sequential order. The students can use this in making their final copy to help guide their thoughts on to the paper.
The web is a great tool to get ideas down when beginning to write on a specific topic. The main topic goes in the middled of the web and each idea is branched off from the main idea. This helps students to remember ideas when going back later to write sentences about the topic.
The writing prompt is a great story starter and when given options to select more than one you are differentiating for the students without anyone recognizing. The students who struggle can choose a topic that is easier for them to write or draw a picture.
This a great tool to use as a study guide as well. This is works for your struggling students and for those who struggle with recalling information.
This assessment works well in the K-3 grades for the teachers with struggling learners. It covers your basics from Kindergarten to First grade.
Designed for the K-2 teachers with struggling and beginning writers. This can be adjusted for any writing assessment.
Heather’s Bibliography