Building Assessments with Differentiation in Mind Fonda Vadnais

Assessment vs Evaluation  When we assess we gather information about student learning that informs our teaching and helps our students learn more.  When we evaluate, we decide whether or not students have learned what they need to learn and how well they have learned it.

Parachute Packing Michael Burger Three students are taking a course in how to pack a parachute. They are evaluated often and their evaluation results are tracked and recorded.

Parachute Packing Michael Burger Student #1 initially scored very high, but his scores have dropped as the end of the course approaches.

Parachute Packing Michael Burger Student #2’s evaluations are erratic.

Parachute Packing Michael Burger Student #3 did very poorly in relation to the class for the first two thirds of the course, but has lately figured out how to successfully pack a parachute.

Parachute Packing Michael Burger

When students are acquiring new skills, knowledge and understanding, they need a chance to practice, a chance to find out what they know and what they still need to learn. They need feedback that informs them what the next step in this learning is. This is Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment “Formative assessment is a valuable tool because learning involves taking risks and making mistakes” (Davies, 2000, p. 11). Mistakes become learning moments, providing valuable opportunities for students to receive feedback about what is working in their learning, and what they need to do differently.

Formative Assessment Formative assessment should be frequent and ongoing for all outcomes throughout the learning period. “Feedback from classroom assessment should give students a clear picture of their progress on learning goals and how they might improve…[it] should encourage students to improve…[it] should be formative in nature… [and] should be frequent” (Marzano, 2006, p. 3)

Even Alice Needed to Know.... Alice in Wonderland is reminded of the fact that she needs to know where she wants to go before directions of any sort will be of any help. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Alice asked Cheshire Cat. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat (Carroll, 1966, p.75).

Assessment The function of classroom assessment is twofold: to inform instruction and to communicate information about achievement. “Assessment should improve performance, not just audit it (Stiggins, 2001, p. 5).

Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloom’s taxonomy divides the way people learn into three domains. One of these domains is the cognitive domain. This domain is further divided into categories which are arranged progressively from the lowest level of thinking, simple knowledge and recall, to the highest, evaluating information.

Bloom’s Taxonomy know

Bloom’s Taxonomy Bloom’s Taxonomy According to Seinfeld

Formative Assessments We can chunk Bloom’s levels of understanding to make them more manageable and use assessment tools targeted at three different levels of understanding: Level I - Know and Understand Level II – Apply and Analyze Level III – Evaluate and Create

Level I Questions Knowledge and Understanding address basic details and processes that are relatively easy vocabulary terms (surface level understanding) time sequences facts (address details/characteristics about people, places, things, events, etc.) algorithms (that do not vary much once they are learned) single rules tactics

What are we Asking Students to do in Level I Questions? ChooseDefineFind NameLabelList MatchOmitRecall SelectShowTell Demonstrate NameWhat WhichIdentify

Level II Questions Application and Analysis address more complex ideas and processes generalizations and principles (demonstrate cause and effect relationships) generate examples generate predictions typically open-ended in format involve embedded procedures problem solving (process of overcoming constraints) decision making (generating and applying criteria to make a selection) experimental inquiry (generating and testing explanations) investigation (identifying and resolving issues) invention (developing unique products or processes)

What are we Asking Students to do in Level II Questions? ApplyBuildChoose ConstructDevelop Organize Make use ofModelSimplify SelectSolveAnalyse CategorizeCompare Classify ContrastDistinguishPlan Find the Relationship

Level III Questions Evaluation and Creation require students to make inferences or applications that go beyond what was taught in class comparing and contrasting (identifying similarities and differences) classifying (grouping things into categories based on similar characteristics) creating metaphors (identifying patterns that connect information) creating analogies (identifying relationships between two sets of information) identifying and analyzing errors task is NEW to students

What are we Asking Students to do in Level III Questions? AdaptChangeCombine ComposeCreateDesign ElaborateFormulateInvent ImproveModifyPredict MaximizeMinimizeConclude SolveTheorizeDefend AppraiseAssess Plan CriticizeDisputeProve EvaluateJudge

Pre/Post Formative Assessment A type of formative assessment that can be very useful for that teacher as a planning tool and to the student as a piece of reflective assessment.

Outcome Specific Formative Assessment A one page assessment used to give student immediate feedback, the same day or the next day. Students will get at least one more chance to write a very similar one page assessment after going over this one, reviewing the outcome and having a chance to use the knowledge either in following lessons or on a performance task.

Multi-Outcome Performance Task We can take performance tasks that are already made and alter them into a similar three leveled approach.

Assessment vs Evaluation  When we formatively assess during the learning and evaluate at the end of the learning, we give student time to practice and improve before we judge the evidence…  Evaluation is Summative Assessment

Summative Assessment Any summative assessment, assessment of learning, should only be used at the end of the year with the formative assessments for learning used to reinforce that final assessment.

Summative Assessments If we are going to continue with the idea that a student who can answer level I questions is at grade level, be it with only the most basic level of understanding, then we need to ensure that 50% of our summative assessments are level I questions.

Questions? Fonda Vadnais