By Jessica Foland December 12, 2013 Creating a Connection between Formative Assessment and Differentiated Instruction

Abstract My paper explored five published articles that reported on results from connections between formative assessment and differentiation. The main points of my paper included purposing instructional strategies to create positive classroom environments, formative assessment background knowledge and ways to incorporate it to differentiate instruction, ways and examples to assess students with formative assessments based on their ability level, ability grouping, recording student data, and a sample study.

The purpose of my paper was to provide the reader with plentiful background knowledge on both formative assessments and differentiation, while showing ways of interlocking and weaving these two concepts together.

Keywords Keywords: ability grouping, differentiated instruction, formative assessment, instructional strategies, RtI (Response to Intervention), and student data.

Instructional Strategies and Positive Classroom Environments Instructional strategies, when used right, will actively engage all students while providing differentiated levels of concrete and abstract representation. You want to create among your students a sense of community acceptance while promoting their individuality to creatively apply themselves openly in your classroom. This will set a positive classroom environment that will promote active collaboration. As educators, we cannot forget that each student is an individual who needs tailored instruction according to their learning style preference. Differentiated instruction is best used within a classroom where teachers are capable to nurture a variety of learning experiences.

Our education system is progressively changing the learning environment so that teachers can easily see students’ readiness levels, learning profiles, needs, and interest more clearly. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, associate professor at the University of Virginia and author of the book The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners, “Modifying instruction to draw on student interest is likely to result in greater student engagement, higher levels of intrinsic motivation, higher student productivity, greater student autonomy, increased achievement, and an improved sense of self-competence (Cox, 2008).”

Formative Assessments Formative assessments can help teachers differentiate instruction and improve student achievement. Teachers that rely on formative assessment predominately need to realize that they do not need to take a lot of time. Many can be developed quickly and are easy to use on a daily basis. If you are a teacher who knows the value in providing a variety of learning techniques, then you can find a connection between formative assessment and differentiation.

William D. (2006), explained the use of formative evaluation in aiding teachers by providing feedback and correctives at each stage in the teaching-learning process. I believe this is best summarized by William Dylan’s ending quote, “What makes an assessment formative, therefore, is not the length of the feedback loop, nor where it takes place, nor who carries it out, nor even who responds. The crucial feature is that evidence is evoked, interpreted in terms of learning needs, and used to make adjustments to better meet those learning needs (2006).”

Formative Assessments to Differentiate Instruction There are many ways to use formative assessments to help you differentiate instruction and improve student achievement. Teachers can use a variety of formative assessments for individual and group work. Quick formative assessments can be in the form of summaries and reflections; lists, charts, and graphic organizers; visual representations of information, and collaborative activities.

Once you have familiarized yourself with formative assessment techniques, you can begin to develop differentiation within your classroom for specific student needs or individual student learning styles. You need to assess students early and often in order to meet your goal of finding out where your students are and finding strategies that will help them get to the next level.

Ability Grouping and Recording Student Data Another way to use formative assessment to help you differentiate instruction and improve student achievement is through ability grouping. Students can work collaboratively in ability groups either within in class grouping or between class groupings. Ability grouping allows teachers to tailor the pace and content of instruction based on the specific group’s ability level. When you use formative assessments, you must keep track of the data that you collect.

Sample Study A sample of 62 elementary schools from 17 states implemented a Response to Intervention (RtI) framework for reading. School informants answered surveys and interviewed about differentiated instruction based off of their formative assessments. Their main purposes included balancing the scales on school- driven versus researcher-driven implementations of RtI, to compare schools’ RtI implementation with guidelines on assisting students struggling with reading, to explore whether schools structured interventions according to students’ risk level, to explore more experienced RtI schools differed from those with shorter RtI histories, and to understand where students with reading individualized educational programs (IEPs) received reading instruction within the school’s tier structure (Jenkins, Schiller, Blackorby, Thayer & Tilly, 2013).

Surveys were compiled and generated number percentages. The resulted number of years the school had implemented RtI in reading ranged from 1 to 7 years with an overall mean of 3.1 years (Jenkins, Schiller, Blackorby, Thayer & Tilly, 2013). All schools reported implementing reading RtI in grades k-3. Some of the finalized percentages included: 84% of schools implemented reading k-5, 62% implemented in math, 47% implemented in behavior, and 30% implemented in all three areas.

Summary Through the use of differentiated instruction strategies, educators can meet the needs of all students and help them to meet and exceed the established standards (Levy, 2008). Teachers are tasked to meet a particular educational goal, but also to differentiate the instruction along the way. Once teachers themselves are educated on, and implementing, instructional strategies them you will begin to see a balanced and positive classroom environment. Seen through evidence of studies, and firsthand in classroom settings, you can clearly see a connection between formative assessment and differentiation. One could say that formative assessment and differentiation go hand in hand.

First, formative assessments can be used to determine individual needs of students. Then, you can use differentiation to best meet the students’ educational needs by varying their instructional levels. A systematic approach to planning curriculum and instruction for academically diverse learners needs to be in place through formative assessments and differentiated instruction. This is the only way to provide students of different abilities, interests, or learning needs equally appropriate ways to learn.

References Cox, S. G. (2008). Differentiated Instruction in the Elementary Classroom. Education Digest, 73(9), Jenkins, J. R., Schiller, E., Blackorby, J., Thayer, S., & Tilly, W. (2013). Responsiveness to Intervention in Reading: Architecture and Practices. Learning Disability Quarterly, 36(1), doi: / William, D. (2006). Formative Assessment: Getting the Focus Right. Educational Assessment, 11(3/4), doi: /s ea1103&4_7